Nundle
Nundle is a former gold mining town located some 400 km north of Sydney via the New England Highway. Situated between the Great Dividing Range and the Peel River, Nundle offers striking scenic vistas.
Nundle has a rich and colourful past as a gold-mining town from the 1850’s which is echoed in its charm and character. The streetscape is reminiscent of a bygone era. There is a solid imposing former bank building, an 1880’s Court House now housing Nundle’s museum, the historic Peel Inn, the goldfields era Odgers and McClelland Exchange Stores, the stone section of Mount Misery Mine, the Primitive Methodist Church, and a former butchery that now has furniture and handmade items for sale rather than chops and sausages.
Discovery of gold in 1851 at Hanging Rock led to a flood of prospectors from California, Jamaica, Europe and China to set up camp on the mountain slopes and along the Peel River. Villages including Bowling Alley Point, Woolomin, and Hanging Rock eventually developed to cater for the prospectors and their families.
Between 1852- 1856, it was estimated that alluvial gold to the value of $1.67 million was extracted with finds in almost every river and creek in the area. The Department of Primary Industry reports that 8 tons of alluvial gold and 2 tons of reef gold have extracted from the Nundle Goldfields. At today’s prices that would amount to some $400 million! There were high hopes for the Peel River diggings, but they never rivalled the Victorian gold fields and by the early 1860's alluvial gold had run out and reef mining took over.
By 1865 the population was about 500 with around 50 businesses in operation. The site for the village of Nundle was approved in 1854 but had to wait 30 years before its boundaries were officially defined and gazetted.
The ruins of old mine workings and equipment still lie scattered about the valley floor and up the mountainsides and traces of gold are still found in creeks and rivers. Gold was not the only fortune found in the hills; other semi precious stones and minerals including quartz, crystal, sapphires, zircons, prase, rhodonite and green crystal have all been found and visitors are welcomed to pan on the Peel River or fossick in the Hanging Rock area.
Nundle became world news in 1948 when a passenger plane crashed into mountains near the village. A propeller monument near the Nundle Pool commemorates the crash of the Lutana, an Australian National Airways DC-3 which crashed into Square Peak near Nundle on September 2, 1948. The captain, first officer, flight attendant and 10 passengers all died. The Lions Club of Nundle erected the monument. Some pieces of the Lutana are in the Nundle Museum.
Agriculture is now the main industry of the area, boasting some of the country's finest beef, fat lamb and wool production while tourists to the Nundle village form the lifeblood for a number of businesses that have opened to service this growing trade. The Nundle Woollen Mill and the Patchwork Shop are significant parts of the local economy as well as many good quality eating establishements.
