Home Rule, New South Wales

{{Infobox Australian place

| type = town

| name = Home Rule

| state = NSW

| city =

| image = Home Rule Hotel, New South Wales, c.1872.jpg

| caption = Home Rule Hotel, c.1872. From the Holtermann Collection

|local_map=yes| pop =

| established =

| postcode = 2850{{cite web |title = Home Rule in Google Map |url = https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/Home+Rule+NSW+2850/@-32.4244875,149.6285649,13z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x6b0e972a78f236a9:0x40609b4904363f0 |publisher = Google Map |accessdate = 6 June 2014}}

| elevation =

| lga =

| stategov =

| fedgov =

| maxtemp =

| mintemp =

| rainfall =

| dist1 = 299

| dir1 = NW

| location1= Sydney

| dist2 = 12

| dir2 = SE

| location2= Gulgong

| dist3 = 174

| dir3 = N

| location3= Orange

| dist4 = 30

| dir4 = N

| location4= Mudgee

| coordinates = {{Coord|-32.4344867|149.614146}}

}}

Home Rule is a locality in the Central West region of New South Wales. Little remains of the 19th-century gold rush era village of the same name, which lies within the locality.

File:Shops at Home Rule, New South Wales c.1872.jpg.]]

History

The area now known as Home Rule lies on the traditional lands of Wiradjuri people.{{Cite web |last=Studies |first=Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander |date=2023-07-28 |title=Map of Indigenous Australia |url=https://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/map-indigenous-australia |access-date=2023-09-05 |website=aiatsis.gov.au |language=en}}

Prospectors worked progressively from Gulgong (gold discovered in 1870), through Canadian Lead (gold discovered in 1871), and found gold at Home Rule, in May 1872, in deep lead deposits.{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2015-09-10 |title=Home Rule! (Not a call to arms) |url=https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/blogs/home-rule-not-call-arms |access-date=2023-09-05 |website=State Library of NSW}}{{Cite news |date=1872-07-06 |title=The Mining Record. |pages=19 |work=Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article162667887 |access-date=2023-09-05}}

On 9 July 1872 The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser reported that:

"The scene at Home Rule is a busy one, and very few people can form an idea of it unless they go and see for themselves. A township is in rapid formation, and streets are being made close to the golden holes. One digger refused £500 for a share in a claim on the right spot. Everyone appears sanguine. The storekeepers and publicans look remarkably pleasant, as if they anticipated rich harvests, and even John Chinaman smiles graciously on meeting you. It would almost be an impossibility to give an account of the different claims, as they extend for miles; and until the dispute as to the frontage and block system is settled, many men will prefer to be idle."{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18764989 |title=THE MUDGEE GOLD FIELDS. |newspaper=The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser |volume=XXIX |issue=3768 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=9 July 1872 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}}

The mining village at Home Rule came into existence immediately after the discovery of gold there. Home Rule had about 3,000 inhabitants when, on 15 July 1872, Charles Bayliss took a series of photographs of businesses in the village, together with those owners, staff and customers who happened to be there at the time. These glass plate negative photographs form a part of the Holtermann Collection.

Around 1904, there was a revival of deep lead mining in the area.{{Cite news |date=1900-07-06 |title=The Home Rule Gold Field. |pages=12 |work=Mudgee Guardian and North-Western Representative |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article156268863 |access-date=2023-09-05}}{{Cite news |date=1904-06-29 |title=Gold Near Home Rule. |pages=24 |work=Australian Town and Country Journal |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71511298 |access-date=2023-09-05}}

There was a public school there, from November 1874 until December 1957. It was first called Home Rule, until December 1874, Mobellah until May 1913, then Wyaldra, before reverting to its original name of Home Rule in December 1913.{{Cite web |title=Home Rule |url=https://nswgovschoolhistory.cese.nsw.gov.au/schoolHistory?schoolId=3948 |access-date=2023-09-05 |website=nswgovschoolhistory.cese.nsw.gov.au}}

Remnants of the village

The names of three streets of the old mining village, Commercial Street, Stanley Street, and Britannia Road are still applied to modern-day roads. The portion of Commercial Street that runs east-to-west corresponds to the old main street of the mining village. Britannia Road running north-to-south corresponds to the original street, where the old school building survives.{{Cite web |title=Village of Home Rule and adjoining lands [cartographic material] : Parish - Wyaldra, County - Phillip, Land District - Mudgee, Shire - Cudgegong |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1532665314 |access-date=2023-09-05 |website=Trove |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Satellite View - Old village site at Home Rule · New South Wales 2850, Australia |url=https://www.google.com/maps/place/Home+Rule+NSW+2850/@-32.4147804,149.6166286,717m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x6b0e972a78f236a9:0x40609b4904363f0!8m2!3d-32.418027!4d149.6205993!16s/g/1tfk4l2q?entry=ttu |access-date=2023-09-05 |website=Google Maps |language=en}}

There is a water-filled mining pit lying to the east of the eastern end of Commercial Street.

References

External links

[http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/discover_collections/society_art/photography/holtermann/03_homerule/index.html State Library of New South Wales.] Photographs of Canadian Lead and Home Rule. Retrieved 6 June 2014.
[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13327377 The Sydney Morning Herald 28 November 1873, page 3.] Article regarding Gulgong and Home Rule. Retrieved 6 June 2014.

Category:Towns in New South Wales

Category:Mining towns in New South Wales

Category:Ghost towns in New South Wales