Early Chinatown in Sydney – From Mak Sai Ying and The Rocks to the Haymarket and Dixon Street – 1818 to 1980

Walk down Dixon Street on a Saturday night and you'd think Chinatown had always been right there, under the red gates, with the roast duck hanging in the windows. It hasn't. Sydney's Chinatown has moved twice. Historian Shirley Fitzgerald repeats a lovely old saying about it in the Dictionary of Sydney: Chinatown is like a dragon, "with its feet in The Rocks, its belly in the Haymarket and its head in Dixon Street." She also points out that nobody probably called any of it "Chinatown" in the early days at all.

This is the story of how that dragon got here. It starts with one carpenter at Parramatta in 1818 and runs through the gold rushes, a riot in Lower George Street, the slums of Wexford Street and a law in 1901 that tried to shut the door for good. It ends with the gates going up in Dixon Street in 1980.

Mei Quong Tart, around 1900. By the 1880s he was the best-known Chinese man in Sydney. Tesla Studios, Sydney, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The First Arrivals

Mak Sai Ying, alias John Shying

The first Chinese settler we have papers for is Mak Sai Ying. The Dictionary of Sydney says he arrived in 1818 and bought land at Parramatta. Wikipedia's account says he came in on the Laurel in February 1818 and worked as a carpenter, first for John Blaxland at Newington and then at Elizabeth Farm for Elizabeth Macarthur. The City of Sydney's Chinatown history adds that the Macarthurs had three Chinese workers in the early 1820s: a carpenter, a cook and a servant.

In 1823 he married an Englishwoman, Sarah Thompson, at St John's in Parramatta, and took the name John Shying. By 1829 he held a pub licence in Parramatta. The Dictionary of Sydney calls it the Golden Lion, and the City of Sydney history calls it the Lion Inn. He went back to China for a few years and then came home to Sydney. Some of his children became furniture makers, and his descendants are still here.

The City of Sydney history counts only 18 Chinese settlers coming to Australia before 1848, so for thirty years he was very nearly on his own.

Three examples of Mak Sai Ying's signature, in Chinese and English. Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The register entry for the 1823 marriage of John Shying and Sarah Thompson at St John's, Parramatta. Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

St John's, Parramatta, photographed in 1913. Mak Sai Ying was married here 90 years earlier. Anglican Church, Australia,1913, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The indentured labourers of the 1840s

Once convict transportation to New South Wales stopped in 1840, the squatters were short of cheap labour, and some looked to China. The first big group came from Amoy (Xiamen) on the Nimrod, which docked at Henry Moore's wharf at Millers Point in October 1848 with 121 Chinese passengers. The Dictionary of Sydney says about half of them got off there. They were meant to work out five-year contracts on country runs, and the City of Sydney history says they were paid £2.5 a month with rations.

Plenty didn't stay put. Some stayed in Sydney, and others walked off the lonely bush stations and came back to town. Then gold was found in 1851, and as the Dictionary of Sydney puts it, a five-year indenture "meant very little" after that.

Gold, and the Backlash

By early 1852 news of the gold had reached southern China. Men came out from Hong Kong, Shantou and Xiamen on the credit-ticket system, which meant borrowing the fare and paying it back out of whatever they found. Most of that story belongs to the bush rather than the city. The City of Sydney history says that by 1861 there were 13,000 Chinese people in New South Wales.

The diggings turned nasty. The worst trouble was on the Burrangong goldfield near today's Young, and it went on from late 1860 into 1861. On the night of 30 June 1861, a mob of between 2,000 and 3,000 European miners drove about 2,000 Chinese off Lambing Flat. They then went on to Back Creek, where they tore down tents and looted. Many Chinese men were badly beaten, though nobody was killed. About 1,000 Chinese fled to camp near Roberts' homestead at Currowang station. Troops and police were sent from Sydney and stayed for a year.

Sydney answered the riots with a law. The Dictionary of Sydney says the first Act designed to keep the Chinese out was in place by 1861. It was repealed in 1867 because fewer Chinese were arriving, then brought back in a tougher form in 1881 and again in 1888.

The “Roll Up – No Chinese” banner, painted on a tent flap and used to call the miners together at Burrangong in 1861. It's now in the Lambing Flat museum at Young. Unknown artist (derivative by SchirmerPower)rk: SchirmerPower, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Lambing Flat Chinese Tribute Gardens at Young today. Quincepaste, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The First Chinatown: Lower George Street, The Rocks

The diggers had to land somewhere, and that was the wharves around Circular Quay. The first cluster of Chinese shops and boarding houses grew up in Lower George Street in The Rocks. Men headed for the goldfields bought their supplies there. Before long the rough stores were also writing letters home, sending money back to the villages and serving as meeting rooms for men from the same clan.

The City of Sydney history says Fitzgerald found the first Chinese businesses in the 1855–1873 directories listed only as "Chinamen", at addresses in Cambridge Street behind Lower George Street. By 1870 there were at least five Chinese furniture makers in the area. The biggest belonged to Ah Toy, who made cheap furniture and also filled orders for David Jones.

Some of the Rocks firms lasted a very long time. King Nam Jang, importers and ship providores at 85 George Street North, was still trading a century after it opened in the 1860s. On Chong & Co was in George Street too. Even after the trade moved south, the Dictionary of Sydney notes, many of the wealthiest merchants chose to stay on in The Rocks.

Sydney Cove and The Rocks from Fort Macquarie in 1859, with Lower George Street in the middle. This is about when the first Chinese stores appeared there. State Library of New South Wales collection, no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

George Street in The Rocks today, the dragon's “feet”. Dietmar Rabich, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The 1878 riot at Ah Toy's

In 1878 the seamen's union struck against the Australian Steam Navigation Company for using cheap Chinese crews, and anti-Chinese meetings sprang up all over town. After a big torchlight meeting in Hyde Park, a crowd the police put at about 2,000 marched off to Ah Toy's furniture shop and tried to set it on fire, probably knowing that his workers were asleep upstairs. The sources don't agree on the details, which I've set out further down. John Moy Mow, a merchant in The Rocks, wrote to the Sydney Morning Herald asking for "fair play and protection from ruffianism".

The Second Chinatown: The Haymarket and Surry Hills

By the 1870s, the Dictionary of Sydney says, the centre of Chinese trade had moved south to Campbell and Goulburn Streets, near the Belmore fruit and vegetable markets. The reason was vegetables. The market gardeners came in from Alexandria, Botany and the other outer suburbs with their carts, sold at the Belmore Markets and stayed the night in boarding houses close by. Cook-shops and stores followed them.

A lot of those boarding houses were dreadful. Durand's Alley, renamed Robertson Lane in the 1880s, had a building run by Kow You Man that held 100 men. Kwong Chong took over Robertson's old coach factory as a boarding house and charged sixpence a night for a man and sixpence for his horse. The City of Sydney history makes the point that every one of these condemned buildings was owned by Europeans, yet it was the Chinese tenants who got the blame.

Just to the east, Wexford Street in Surry Hills was almost entirely Chinese by 1900. It ran roughly where Wentworth Avenue runs now. People called it a slum, but James Ung Quoy, a community spokesman, lived there. When the 1891 Royal Commission visited Chinese families in the area, it was surprised to find their homes "neat and homely".

The Belmore Markets around 1900. The Chinese gardeners brought their produce here, and the second Chinatown grew up around the markets. Powerhouse Museum Collection, no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

Campbell Street, Haymarket, in 2023. This was the heart of the second Chinatown. -wuppertaler, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Market Gardeners, Hawkers and Cabinet-Makers

The Museum of Sydney's Celestial City exhibition says that by 1888 Sydney relied on more than 100 Chinese market gardens for its fresh vegetables. The 1885 Sands Directory lists 54 of them, half in Alexandria. Hawkers carried the produce door to door in baskets hung from a pole across the shoulders. For most Sydney families, the exhibition says, the hawker was the "human face" of China. Women swapped cakes and flowers for ginger and tea over the back fence, and the friendships could be real.

It wasn't always friendly, though. In December 1892 Ah Bun, a hawker from Robertson Lane, was attacked and wounded by youths near Regent Street. In 1881, Chinese stallholders at the Belmore Markets walked away from their stalls for fear of being attacked.

Cabinet-making was the other big trade. Chinese workshops clustered in The Rocks and around the Belmore Markets and turned out cheap furniture for stores like Anthony Hordern & Sons. In 1889 the Furniture Trades Union claimed that nine-tenths of the furniture sold in Sydney was Chinese-made. The museum reckons two-thirds was nearer the mark. Chinese workshops outnumbered European ones until 1915.

Merchants, Newspapers and Politics

Above the gardeners and hawkers sat a small merchant class. Some were also mandarins, officials of the Chinese Empire. Quong Tart and Dr George On Lee were the best known of them, and they spoke for the community at awkward moments such as the 1888 crisis. Quong Tart was a Royal Commissioner in 1891. The Dictionary of Sydney thinks his presence may have kept the other commissioners "from straying into hyperbole". I've written about him in full in his own post (linked below).

The newspapers came in the 1890s. The Chinese Australian Herald, the first major Chinese-language paper in Australia, ran from 1894 to 1923, and its editor Sun Johnson lived in Mary Street, Surry Hills. The Tung Wah Times backed the Emperor and the monarchist reformers, and the City of Sydney history puts its office at 52 Dixon Street. The republican side had papers too. James Chuey founded the Min Guo Bao. When the republic was declared in 1911, most of Sydney's Chinese put up the new flag. The next January they held the first of many picnics at Cabarita, with plenty of firecrackers.

A bust of Quong Tart. Original uploader was Marc Pasquin at en.wikipedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Temples, Tongs and the Chinese Masonic Society

Clan societies

Outsiders saw "the Chinese" as one group. Inside the community, what mattered most was your clan and the county you came from. The big stores doubled as headquarters for clan tongs (societies). The tongs wrote letters, sent money home through people they trusted, settled disputes, helped with legal trouble and arranged for the bones of the dead to go back to China. The Lin Yik Tong was formed in 1892 for the merchants. It went through a few names and in 1913 became the Chinese Chamber of Commerce. The Goon Yee Tong bought its rooms at 50 Dixon Street in 1917, and the Dictionary of Sydney thinks that may be the longest continuous Chinese presence in the street.

The Chinese Masonic Society

The Chinese Masonic Society grew out of the Yee Hing, or Hung League, a secret society sworn to overthrow China's Manchu rulers. Respectable Sydney had long looked down on it. The movement went public in 1908 with offices in Surry Hills. In 1912, the Dictionary of Sydney says, it moved into new premises in Mary Street and took the English name Chinese Masonic Society. That building became the national headquarters of all the Yee Hings, and the society is still there. Its early leaders, Moy Sing and J. A. Chuey, backed the republican cause.

The Sze Yup Temple at Glebe

People from Sze Yup, the "four counties" of Guangdong, were said to be especially devout, and they wanted a temple of their own. According to the NSW Heritage Register listing, they prayed for a sign showing where to build it. They then bought a market garden block in Glebe, close to a "Chinamens garden" running down to Blackwattle Bay. The land covenant even made a specific exception for a "Chinese joss house". A local builder, a Mr Stewart (or Stuart), put up the central red-brick hall in 1898, with the side halls following in 1903–04. The temple is dedicated to Kwan Ti, a Three Kingdoms warrior the community honoured as a judge and protector. Bones of the dead were kept here in urns until they could be sent home to China.

The Go Yui gardeners built their own temple, the Yiu Ming, at Alexandria. The City of Sydney history dates it to 1909, and in that decade there was also a joss house at 86 Goulburn Street. Both Glebe and Alexandria are still in use, and the Heritage Register says they are among only four pre-First World War Chinese temples still active in Australia.

The Sze Yup Temple in Glebe. Its central hall dates from 1898. Sardaka, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The entrance to the Sze Yup Temple. Sardaka, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Inside the Sze Yup Temple. Sardaka, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Yiu Ming Temple at Alexandria, built by gardeners from Go Yui. Sardaka, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Opium, the Bulletin and the 1891 Royal Commission

By the 1880s, opium smoking and games like fan-tan and pak-a-pu had spread well beyond the Chinese community. The press, the Bulletin above all, blamed the Chinese for low wages, smallpox, gambling and vice. In 1886 the Bulletin printed Phil May's cartoon "The Mongolian Octopus", with a Chinese octopus wrapping its arms around the colony. One politician, Ninian Melville, even claimed in 1889 that leprosy could be spread by Chinese-made furniture.

The Royal Commission into Alleged Chinese Gambling and Immorality of 1891 took evidence from more than 60 people. What it found must have disappointed the agitators. The gambling dens couldn't survive on Chinese customers and depended on Europeans. A union man told the commission that fan-tan was popular with Sydney's wharfies. Overall, Chinese gambling was found to be a "trifling" part of the city's gambling. Pak-a-pu tickets became so common that the Dictionary of Sydney calls the game the forerunner of Lotto.

The Chinese community fought opium too. The City of Sydney history says that by 1905 a Chinese Anti-Opium League, chaired by Yee Hing of On Chong & Co and including Quong Tart, claimed 61,000 signatures. In January 1906 it reported that the Commonwealth had banned opium imports except for medical use.

“The Mongolian Octopus: his grip on Australia”, by Phil May in the Bulletin, 21 August 1886. It's a nasty piece of work, and it's a fair picture of how the press saw Sydney's Chinese. May, Phillip, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

1888: The Afghan Crisis

In 1888, Sydney's centenary year, it all boiled over. The steamer Afghan had already been turned away from Melbourne, and in May it sailed into Port Jackson with Chinese passengers. The Menmuir and the Guthrie came in behind it. A 1988 retrospective by Robert Willson in the Canberra Times describes what happened next. About 2,000 people crammed into Sydney Town Hall, while another 3,000 packed the steps outside and held a meeting of their own. Afterwards a crowd of about 5,000 marched on Parliament House, and for a while it looked as if the chamber might be invaded. Premier Henry Parkes calmed them by promising legislation. Parkes rushed new laws through Parliament, and the passengers were held and sent away. The Museum of Sydney's exhibition calls it a turning point that paved the way for White Australia.

Things were turning violent in the streets as well. In August 1888, 17-year-old Charles Ratcliffe attacked and injured a hawker, Sun Je, in Goulburn Street.

1901: White Australia

When the colonies federated, one of the first laws the new Commonwealth Parliament passed was the Immigration Restriction Act, which became law on 23 December 1901. It gave officers the power to make any non-European sit a 50-word dictation test in whatever language they chose. The National Museum of Australia says the test was given 1,359 times before 1909, and only 52 people passed. After 1909, nobody passed at all.

For the Chinese already in Sydney, the Museum of Sydney says, the Act meant no citizenship, no vote and no freedom to go back and forth to China. If they left, they might not be let back in. So many stayed, and a community of "sojourners" became a settled one, almost by force. The Dictionary of Sydney says that by 1901 there were 3,276 men and 56 women "born in China" living in Sydney. The men who never got home are remembered as the "left-overs", old men living out their days in lodgings in Chinatown.

The Immigration Restriction Act 1901, the legal foundation of the White Australia policy. Parliament of Australia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Third Chinatown: Dixon Street

The Haymarket Chinatown was pushed out by slum clearance. In 1906 the council resumed Wexford Street and its surrounds to widen the road and build a new approach to Central Station, which became Wentworth Avenue. The City of Sydney history says an estimated 724 people were evicted. Between 1909 and 1915 the council built the new City Markets near the head of Darling Harbour, on the site that is now Paddy's Markets, and the Chinese traders followed the markets.

The move started early. By 1910, the City of Sydney history says, Chinese firms were buying in the Dixon Street area instead of renting. In 1909 the council approved plans for a pair of three-storey stores at 82–84 Dixon Street for Lee Chun, and the tea merchants Kwong War Chong moved in during 1910. The Goon Yee Tong came in 1917. By the 1930s, in the City of Sydney history's words, the third Chinatown had "clearly emerged".

Some of the plain-looking shops were in fact the head offices of trading empires. Wing On and Wing Sang started out trading fruit in the Haymarket, Wing Sang with Fijian bananas in the 1890s. They went on to open department stores in Hong Kong and Shanghai. The Dictionary of Sydney says Wing Sang's Hong Kong store was supposedly modelled on Anthony Hordern's.

Paddy's Markets in the Haymarket. The City Markets built here between 1909 and 1915 drew Chinatown west to Dixon Street. User:Paulscf, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Gates Go Up: Dixon Street in the 1980s

The markets moved out to Flemington in 1968, and the Chinese community in the city was getting smaller, so Dixon Street ran down. The council set up the Dixon Street Chinese Committee in 1971, chaired by Henry Ming Lai, but nothing much happened at first. In 1979 the council closed Dixon Street to traffic to make a mall, timed for the Moon Festival. Local Chinese businesses paid for the arches, the damen. The Dictionary of Sydney credits the architects Tsang and Lee, who worked for free, and the City of Sydney history names Henry Tsang as the designer. Lord Mayor Nelson Meers opened the new Chinatown in 1980.

The City of Sydney history translates the characters on the gates. One line reads "Virtue is to be found in the celebration of cultural differences." On the posts are "The antiquity of China is celebrated worldwide" and "The maintenance of freedom and trust preserve the virtues of the past." Some academics sniffed at it as a commercial romance of "Chineseness". It worked anyway. Property values rose, the restaurants filled up, and in 1988 Guangzhou, Sydney's sister city, gave the Chinese Garden of Friendship next door.

Dixon Street in the 1980s, scanned from a Kodachrome slide, not long after the mall opened. Sardaka, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Dixon Street in 2009. Contributor168, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

One of the Dixon Street gates. Returned dude12345, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Dixon Street at night in 2019. Chen Hualin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The bilingual street sign: Dixon Street, 德信街. Jordanopia, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Market City on Hay Street, built on the old City Markets site. Chinatown has spread well beyond Dixon Street now. Ingridinsydney, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Chinese Garden of Friendship, a gift from Guangzhou in 1988. Maksym Kozlenko, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Timeline

• 1818 – Mak Sai Ying (John Shying) arrives and settles at Parramatta.
• 1823 – He marries Sarah Thompson at St John's, Parramatta.
• 1829 – He holds a pub licence in Parramatta (Golden Lion, or Lion Inn).
• October 1848 – The Nimrod lands 121 indentured Chinese labourers at Millers Point.
• 1851–52 – Gold is found and Chinese diggers start arriving.
• 1855–1873 – Chinese businesses appear in the directories around Lower George Street and Cambridge Street, The Rocks.
• 30 June 1861 – The Lambing Flat riot on the Burrangong goldfield.
• 1861 – The first NSW Act to restrict Chinese entry. It is repealed in 1867.
• 1870s – The trade centre shifts to Campbell and Goulburn Streets near the Belmore Markets.
• 1878 – A mob of about 2,000 tries to burn Ah Toy's furniture shop.
• 1881 – A tougher restriction Act passes and smallpox breaks out.
• 1886 – The Bulletin prints "The Mongolian Octopus".
• 1888 – The Afghan crisis, the Town Hall rally and march on Parliament, and the Chinese Restriction and Regulation Act.
• 1891 – The Royal Commission into Alleged Chinese Gambling and Immorality, with Quong Tart as a commissioner.
• 1894 – The Chinese Australian Herald begins.
• 1898 – The central hall of the Sze Yup Temple, Glebe, is built.
• 23 December 1901 – The Immigration Restriction Act becomes law.
• 1906 – Wexford Street is resumed and demolished, and about 724 people are evicted.
• 1908 – The Yee Hing goes public. In 1912 it becomes the Chinese Masonic Society in Mary Street.
• 1909 – The Yiu Ming Temple at Alexandria opens, and plans are approved for Chinese stores at 82–84 Dixon Street.
• 1909–1915 – The new City Markets are built near Darling Harbour.
• 1917 – The Goon Yee Tong buys 50 Dixon Street.
• 1930s – Dixon Street is clearly Sydney's third Chinatown.
• 1968 – The markets move to Flemington.
• 1971 – The Dixon Street Chinese Committee is formed.
• 1979–1980 – Dixon Street becomes a mall, and the gates open in 1980.
• 1988 – The Chinese Garden of Friendship opens.

Where the Sources Disagree

• Mak Sai Ying's trip back to China. The Dictionary of Sydney says he went back in 1832 and was in Sydney again five years later. Wikipedia's account has him away from 1831 to 1836, coming home after his first wife died. Wikipedia also says the long-assumed date of his death (1880, as "John Sheen") is wrong, because DNA from the descendants shows John Sheen was a different man.
• The name of his pub. The Dictionary of Sydney calls it the Golden Lion, and the City of Sydney history calls it the Lion Inn.
• How many indentured labourers came. The Dictionary of Sydney says more than 1,500 had arrived by 1852. The City of Sydney history says 981 arrived between 1848 and 1851, with 1,000 more before April 1852. The Museum of Sydney's Celestial City says 3,000 in the 1840s.
• Where the Nimrod's other passengers went. The Dictionary of Sydney says about half got off at Millers Point. The City of Sydney history says half stayed in Sydney "and the rest were sent to the farms in Queensland's north".
• The Ah Toy riot. The Dictionary of Sydney places it at Ah Toy's shop in Queen's Place (now Dalley Street) and links it to a November 1878 strike. The City of Sydney history says December 1878 at his Lower George Street workshop, and the Museum of Sydney says George Street. Both of those say about 2,000 people, and the museum describes them as "youths carrying flaming torches".
• The Tung Wah Times. The Dictionary of Sydney dates it 1902–1936. The City of Sydney history says it was founded in 1898.
• The Chinese Masonic Society building. The Dictionary of Sydney says the society moved to Mary Street in 1912. A photo caption in the City of Sydney history says the hall at 18 Mary Street was built in 1911.
• The Sze Yup Temple's date. The Dictionary of Sydney, the NSW Heritage Register listing and the City of Sydney history all say the central hall was built in 1898, with side halls in 1903–04. The 1909 date sometimes given belongs to the Yiu Ming Temple at Alexandria.
• The temple fires. The Heritage Register listing says the roof fire was in 1952 in one place and 1953 in another, with repairs in 1953–55. The Dictionary of Sydney mentions a reopening after a fire in 1955.
• Who designed the Dixon Street gates. The Dictionary of Sydney credits the firm Tsang and Lee, working for free. The City of Sydney history says architect Henry Tsang was commissioned.

My Earlier Posts

• Hay Street – Haymarket – Chinatown – Sydney – New South Wales
• Paddy's Markets – Campbell Street – Haymarket – Sydney
• Quong Tart – The Scottish Mandarin of Sydney – Braidwood, the Tea Rooms and the QVB – 1850 to 1903
• Wexford Street – Before the Creation of Wentworth Avenue
• The Story of Old George Street – Sydney Mail, 1918
• Elizabeth Farm – Alice Street – Parramatta
• Federation – 1 January 1901 – From Parkes at Tenterfield to the First Parliament
• Forbes – The 1861 Gold Rush and the Lachlan
• The Sydney Green Plaques – The 101 Round Green Historical Markers of Old Sydney

Sources

• Shirley Fitzgerald, "Chinatown", Dictionary of Sydney, 2008 – https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/chinatown
• Shirley Fitzgerald, "Chinese", Dictionary of Sydney, 2008 – https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/chinese
• Shirley Fitzgerald, "Royal Commission into Alleged Chinese Gambling and Immorality 1891", Dictionary of Sydney, 2010 – https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/royal_commission_into_alleged_chinese_gambling_and_immorality_1891
• "Chinese Masonic Society", Dictionary of Sydney – https://dictionaryofsydney.org/organisation/chinese_masonic_society
• GML Heritage for the City of Sydney, Chinatown Thematic History, February 2023 – https://meetings.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/documents/s74978/Attachment%20E%20-%20Chinatown%20Thematic%20History.pdf
• Museums of History NSW, "Celestial City: Sydney's Chinese Story" (Museum of Sydney, 2014 exhibition) – https://mhnsw.au/stories/general/celestial-city-sydneys-chinese-story/
• National Museum of Australia, "White Australia policy" (Defining Moments) – https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/white-australia-policy
• "Sze Yup Temple", Wikipedia, drawing on the NSW State Heritage Register listing H00267 (CC BY 4.0) – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sze_Yup_Temple
• "Lambing Flat riots", Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambing_Flat_riots
• "Mak Sai Ying" (John Shying), Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mak_Sai_Ying
• Robert Willson, "The immigration debate in 1888", Canberra Times (Midweek Magazine), 9 November 1988, via Trove – https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/110612365
• Images: Wikimedia Commons, with individual credits under each picture.

Forbes – Wiradjuri Country, the 1861 Gold Rush, Ben Hall, Kate Kelly and the Lachlan Floods – Central West NSW

A note for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers: this page names Aboriginal people who have died, including the police trackers Billy Dargin and Charley (Goolagong).

Forbes sits out on the Lachlan in the Central West, about 380 kilometres west of Sydney, on the Newell Highway between Parkes and West Wyalong. It's one of those country towns where the history is right there on the main street. You've got the old gold rush buildings, the post office clock tower, and Ben Hall in bronze outside the railway station. Down the road at the cemetery, Ben Hall and Kate Kelly, Ned Kelly's sister, are buried in the same ground. And every few years the river comes up and has its say. I've pulled together as much as I could find on the place, from Wiradjuri country and John Oxley's grumpy first visit through to the floods of the last few years.

Lachlan Street, the main street of Forbes. Mattinbgn, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Wiradjuri Country and the Kalari

Long before anyone dug for gold here, this was Wiradjuri country. Wikipedia's Forbes article says plainly that the area was home to the Wiradjuri people before non-Indigenous settlement. Its Wiradjuri article calls them the largest Aboriginal group in New South Wales, and says their country was known as "the land of the three rivers": the Wambuul (Macquarie), the Kalare, later called the Lachlan, and the Murrumbidgee. It puts the Murray River as their southern boundary.

The river itself has more than one Wiradjuri name depending on the source. The Lachlan River article gives Kalari, Galari and Galiyarr, while the Wiradjuri article spells it Kalare. The same Wiradjuri article lists Forbes among the towns that still have Wiradjuri communities today, alongside Condobolin, Peak Hill, Parkes, Cowra and others. The 2021 census figures quoted in the Forbes article put Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people at 13.3 per cent of the town's population.

Lake Forbes, a billabong formed by the Lachlan River, right in the middle of town. Peterdownunder, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

John Oxley Comes Through – 1817

The first Europeans to see the river were Acting Surveyor George William Evans in 1815, who named it after Governor Lachlan Macquarie, and then John Oxley, who explored it properly in 1817. That's according to the Lachlan River article. Oxley passed the spot where Forbes now stands on that 1817 trip, one of the first inland expeditions, and named it Camp Hill.

He wasn't impressed. He didn't like the clay soil, the poor timber or the swamps, and he summed it up with a line the Forbes article still quotes: "it is impossible to imagine a worse country." Not exactly a tourism slogan. The first settlers moved into the district anyway, in 1834.

John Oxley, the Surveyor-General who passed through the Forbes area in 1817 and called it Camp Hill. Unknown author, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Arrowsmith's 1825 chart of the interior of New South Wales, showing the exploring routes of Evans, Oxley and others. A. Arrowsmith, Soho Square, Hydrographer to His Majesty, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Gold Rush of 1861

German Harry and the Black Ridge diggings

Everything changed in June 1861, when Harry Stephan, better known as "German Harry", found gold. The Forbes article says the first gold was found at a spot called Halpin's Flat and the field was first known as Black Ridge. People poured in. That article puts the first rush at about 30,000 people, falling to around 3,500 by 1863 because the mining was so hard going.

The heritage history of the Forbes Post Office gives a slightly different picture. It says there were about 1,500 miners on the diggings when a mail service started at Black Ridge in 1861, run out of rented premises belonging to a J. H. Burchart, and that the population swelled to upwards of 28,000 miners by 1862.

How Forbes got its name

The usual answer is that the town was named after Sir Francis Forbes, the first Chief Justice of New South Wales. The Forbes article says "probably", and the old railway station names list I've posted before says the same. But there's a better yarn. The Forbes article also says the name may have come out of a government mix-up in Sydney, and that the name was supposedly meant for the goldfield now called Hill End, between Orange and Mudgee, where gold turned up around the same time. Whether that's true or just a good pub story, I couldn't pin down.

Post, telegraph and the Albion Hotel

The diggers needed mail. The Forbes article says a post office opened on 1 December 1861 under the name Black Ridge, though that name was changed before it opened. Hayward Atkyns was appointed the first official postmaster on 17 April 1862, on £200 a year, according to the Post Office history. The telegraph line came through from Orange and the Forbes Telegraph Office opened on 27 October 1862. On that very first day, the results of three days of racing on the Lachlan Gold Fields were wired through to Bathurst.

Then there's the Albion Hotel, once a Cobb and Co. coach stop. The Forbes article says it had tunnels underneath that were used during the rush to move gold and money to and from the banks, to cut the chance of a hold-up. The Albion burnt down on 10 February 2009, and a lot of history and memorabilia went with it.

The Forbes Post and Telegraph Office in an undated old photograph from State Records NSW. State Records NSW (Photographic Collection from Australia), CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Ben Hall and the Bushrangers

From Sandy Creek to the roads

Ben Hall is the name everyone connects with Forbes. Wikipedia's Ben Hall article says he was born on 9 May 1837 at Maitland, the son of two former convicts, and came down to the Lachlan as a boy around 1850. He married Bridget Walsh at Bathurst in 1856, and he and John Maguire leased the 10,000-acre Sandy Creek run about 50 kilometres south of Forbes. Over the summer of 1861–62 his wife left him for a young policeman, James Taylor, and took their son Henry with her. Around then Hall fell in with Frank Gardiner.

In April 1862 Inspector Sir Frederick Pottinger arrested Hall over the armed robbery of Bill Bacon's drays near Forbes. The charge was dropped when a Crown witness changed his story.

The Eugowra gold escort robbery – 15 June 1862

A couple of months later came the big one. On 15 June 1862 Gardiner led a gang of eight, Hall among them, in holding up the gold escort coach near Eugowra, at the place now called Escort Rock. The Ben Hall article says they got 2,700 ounces of gold and banknotes worth more than £14,000 all up. The Commons description of the Escort Rock photo calls it the only big gold-escort robbery ever carried out in New South Wales.

An 1862 engraving of bushrangers robbing the gold escort from the Lachlan, published in The Illustrated Australian News. Frederick Grosse, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Stage coach hold-up, Eugowra Rocks, by Patrick William Marony, around 1894. Patrick William (1858-1939), public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Escort Rock near Eugowra, where the gold escort was held up on 15 June 1862. Matilda, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Hall was arrested again in July but let go for want of evidence. With the legal bills piling up, the Sandy Creek lease went to John Wilson, a Forbes publican. After Pottinger burnt down Hall's hut, Hall slid fully into bushranging with men like John O'Meally, Johnny Gilbert and John Vane. The gang famously took over Robinson's Hotel at Canowindra, locked the local copper in his own cell, fed and entertained the townspeople, and then paid the publican on the way out. The Ben Hall article says they were trying to show they could do as they pleased and make the police look silly, and it worked.

Ben Hall, photographed by the Freeman Brothers studio in 1863. Freeman Brothers Studio, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Colonial Secretary's reward notice of 26 October 1863, offering £4,000 for Gilbert, O'Meally, Hall and Vane. National Museum of Australia collection, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

It didn't last. Micky Burke was killed at Dunns Plains, Vane gave himself up, and O'Meally was shot dead attacking Goimbla station near Eugowra. In November 1864 Gilbert shot Sergeant Parry during a mail coach robbery near Jugiong. In January 1865 John Dunn shot Constable Samuel Nelson at Collector. Parliament rushed through the Felons Apprehension Act, which let a named outlaw be shot by anyone, at any time, without warning. The Ben Hall article says more than 100 robberies between 1863 and 1865 were put down to Hall and his mates, and also notes that Hall himself wasn't directly responsible for anyone's death. My earlier post on the hangings at Darlinghurst Gaol mentions the man hanged in 1863 for his part in the Eugowra robbery, and John Dunn's shooting of Constable Nelson at Collector.

Samuel Calvert's 1865 engraving of Ben Hall, John Gilbert and John Dunn attacking the police guarding the Gundagai mail. Samuel Calvert, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The ambush at Billabong Creek – 5 May 1865

The end came just out of Forbes. The State Heritage Register story, as given in the Ben Hall's Death Site article, goes like this. In late April 1865 Hall, Gilbert and Dunn were stealing horses around Forbes. Mick Coneley, once a friend, had turned informer for the £1,000 reward. On 29 April Sub-Inspector James Davidson left the Forbes barracks with five police and two Aboriginal trackers, and they camped in thick scrub near where the gang was meant to meet. The party was Davidson, Sergeant James Condell, troopers Thomas Hipkiss, John Boyan, John Caban and Edward Buckley, and the trackers William (Billy) Dargin and Charley (Goolagong).

Gilbert and Dunn got spooked by some stockmen and cleared out. Hall turned up on the afternoon of 4 May. At six the next morning he walked out towards his two hobbled horses and was shot many times. The heritage listing doesn't soften it: he was shot "numerous times and then many more times after he was dead". The Felons Apprehension Act wasn't legally in force until a few days later, which is why the legality of the killing has been argued about ever since.

His body was strapped over one of his horses and brought into the Forbes police station. Davidson had hoped to keep the death quiet to trap Gilbert and Dunn, but there was too much excitement, and somewhere between 400 and 500 people came to see the body.

The plain at Billabong Creek, about 20 kilometres north-west of Forbes. Ben Hall was shot in the stand of trees. Peterdownunder, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The plaque at Ben Hall's death site, put up by the Forbes Historical Society in 1957. Peterdownunder, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

An old print of Ben Hall's death, from the State Library of Victoria's collection. Unknown author, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The grave in Forbes Cemetery

Hall was buried in Forbes Cemetery on Sunday 7 May 1865. About 50 people and three buggies followed the hearse, some family and some just curious locals. The Grave of Ben Hall article says the grave was probably unmarked at first and had a picket fence around it sometime before 1900. Around 1957 the author Edgar Penzig and a local put up the headstone you see today. It reads "IN Memory Of BEN HALL SHOT 5th MAY 1865 AGED 27 YEARS".

The same cemetery has the unmarked graves of gang members John O'Meally and Warrigal Walsh, and of Billy Dargin, the tracker who was there at Hall's death. Both the grave and the death site were added to the State Heritage Register on 8 October 2010, as part of the Ben Hall Sites.

Ben Hall's grave in Forbes Cemetery, inside its white picket fence. Peterdownunder, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The headstone, put up around 1957. Louise Thom, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Ben Hall statue in Forbes. Sheba_Also 43,000 photos, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Kate Kelly – Ned's Sister in Forbes

The other famous name in Forbes Cemetery is Kate Kelly. She was born Catherine Ada Kelly at Beveridge in Victoria on 12 July 1863, the younger sister of Ned Kelly, according to Wikipedia's Kate Kelly article. After Ned was hanged in November 1880, she and her brother Jim toured with what the papers called an exhibition of relics until the police stopped them. She later performed in Sydney and Adelaide under other names, then went into domestic service.

On 25 November 1888 she married William Henry Foster, a horse-tailer, and they settled at Forbes. They had six children, but three died as babies. The marriage doesn't sound like a happy one. On 20 May 1898 Foster was fined for using indecent language at his wife in public, and they seem to have lived apart for the next few months. Her sixth child, Catherine, was born on 7 September 1898.

Kate Kelly, photographed by E. G. Tims between 1873 and 1878. E. G. Tims, Australian Photographic Co., Adelaide, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Her death in October 1898

Here the stories split. The Kate Kelly article says that on 5 October 1898 she visited a neighbour, asked her to write a message for her and to look after the children, and was reported missing the next day. Her body was found eight days later in a lagoon on Condobolin Road near Forbes. The doctor couldn't tell the cause of death or find marks of violence after so long in the water, and the magistrate found she had drowned. The article says there's some evidence she had postnatal depression and had started drinking during the day.

The Forbes article tells it more kindly. It says she drowned in Lake Forbes while saving an Aboriginal child during a flood in 1898, and was found in a lagoon of the Lachlan just outside town. I've put both versions in the section on where the sources disagree further down.

Either way, she was buried in Forbes Cemetery as Kate Foster. Her baby daughter died a few weeks later, and her mother Ellen and brother Jim brought up the other children. A former employer paid for her headstone around 1910. There's also a revolver that was found in a wall cavity of her old Forbes house and sold at auction on 13 November 2007 for $72,870. It was said to be the one taken off Constable Fitzpatrick at the Kelly house in 1878, though firearms collectors have since questioned that.

Kate Foster's grave and headstone at Forbes Cemetery, photographed by Howes Studios of Forbes. Howes Studios, photographer., public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Kate Kelly's grave in Forbes Cemetery as it looked in 2009. Peterdownunder, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Lachlan River and Its Floods

The Lachlan is a strange river. It rises east of Gunning, near Goulburn, and wanders about 1,440 kilometres north-west, west and south-west through Cowra, Forbes, Condobolin and Hillston before petering out in the Great Cumbung swamp. The Lachlan River article says it's the only river in New South Wales with big wetlands all along its length. Its flow is wildly up and down: it stopped altogether from April 1944 to April 1945, something the Murray and Murrumbidgee have never done since European settlement.

Fitzgerald Bridge over the Lachlan River at Forbes. Mattinbgn, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Forbes sits right on it, 245 metres above sea level, and the town floods. The Forbes article says that since 1887 there's been a major flood about once every seven years. Its list of the big ones, by peak height, runs like this:

• June 1952: 10.8 metres
• September 2016: 10.67 metres
• August 1990: 10.65 metres
• October 1955: 10.62 metres
• March 2012: 10.55 metres
• August 1998: 10.35 metres

In 2016 the upper Lachlan had a very wet autumn and winter, and Wyangala Dam went from 38 per cent to 90 per cent full. Water NSW started releasing up to 10,000 megalitres a day in late August. The river peaked at Forbes at 10.67 metres in late September, about 1,000 people were evacuated, and the Newell Highway was cut north and south of town. Forbes was declared a natural disaster zone, and the SES and the Defence Force were called in.

Then November 2021. The European Space Agency's write-up attached to a Copernicus satellite photo, taken on 18 November 2021, says the water reached 10.52 metres, more than 1,500 people had to be evacuated, businesses shut, and farmers likely lost what was shaping up as a very strong harvest. The Forbes article also lists 2022 as a flood year.

Flooded country around Forbes, seen from a Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite on 18 November 2021. European Union, Copernicus Sentinel-2 imagery, attribution licence, via Wikimedia Commons

Lake Forbes, a billabong of the Lachlan. Mattinbgn, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Bates Bridge over Lake Forbes. Mattinbgn, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Railway

The railway came up from Parkes and opened at Forbes on 18 December 1893. The line was pushed on south to Stockinbingal in 1918, making what's now the Stockinbingal–Parkes line, sometimes just called the Forbes line. These days it's an important freight route, because goods trains to and from the west can use it and skip the steep Blue Mountains grades.

Passenger trains are long gone, though the sources don't agree on exactly when they finished. I've sorted that out under where the sources disagree. The station building was the Forbes Railway Visitor Information Centre from about 1990 to 2023. It's a Type 4 brick roadside station from 1893, with a brick and concrete-faced platform, and it went on the State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999. The listing calls it one of the best surviving standard roadside stations and notes that its garden won a lot of railway garden competitions. In 2026 the Inland Rail project trimmed the station awning and moved the track so 6.5-metre-high double-stacked freight trains can get through.

Forbes railway station with the statue of Ben Hall out the front. Mattinbgn, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The platform at Forbes station. Sheba_Also 43,000 photos, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Heritage Buildings

Forbes Post Office

The post office at 118 Lachlan Street is the grand old building in town. It was designed in the Colonial Architect's Office under James Barnet and built between 1879 and 1881 by P. M. Vaughan. The first official Post and Telegraph Office opened on the same site in October 1863. By 1877 the town had outgrown it.

There was a long row over the clock tower. With the tower in, the cost went up to £4,500, and the Postmaster-General's people said that if the town wanted one added later, the council would have to pay for it. In the end the tower went up with the main building, and staff moved in on 8 September 1881. The telephone exchange opened in 1900, a new automatic exchange in 1962, and the clock was electrified in November 1982 so nobody had to wind it any more. That same year it was the New South Wales post office picked for a stamp series showing one post office from each state. It's on both the State Heritage Register (22 December 2000) and the Commonwealth Heritage List (22 June 2004).

Forbes Post Office on Lachlan Street, with its clock tower. Mattinbgn, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The post office in 2022. Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Town Hall, court house and the government buildings

Around the post office there's a whole group of old civic buildings: the Town Hall, the Court House, the old Police Quarters and lock-up, the timber Lands Office and the Literary Institute. A photo note on Commons dates the timber Federation-style Lands Office to 1898.

Forbes Town Hall in 2022. Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The foundation stone on the Town Hall. Mattinbgn, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Forbes Court House in an old undated photograph. Unknown author, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Court House today. Mattinbgn, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Forbes lock-up, in an undated photograph from State Records NSW. State Records NSW (Photographic Collection from Australia), CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Police Inspector's quarters at Forbes, also from State Records NSW. State Records NSW (Photographic Collection from Australia), CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The timber Lands Office. AYArktos, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

The Literary Institute. Mattinbgn, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Masonic building. Mattinbgn, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Victoria Park and the memorials

The Thomas Fountain in Victoria Park. Mattinbgn, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The war memorial in Victoria Park. Mattinbgn, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Boer War memorial. Peter Ellis, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Boomerangs, one of the 1915–16 recruiting marches, coming through Forbes. Photo by Howes Studios. Howes Studios, State Library of New South Wales, no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

The museum and the church

The Forbes Historical Society Museum. Calistemon, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A Benett ten-ton wagon at the museum. Calistemon, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

St Laurence O'Toole's Catholic Church. Mattinbgn, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Forbes Today

Forbes is the centre of a big cropping district, mostly wheat and similar grains. The census population depends on which line of the Forbes article you read (more on that below). It sits where the Newell Highway, the Lachlan Valley Way and the Henry Lawson Way meet. The Forbes Camel Races have been run every Good Friday at the racecourse since 2001. The town has the Forbes Advocate and the free weekly Forbes Phoenix, a TAFE campus, Forbes High, and the Catholic secondary school, Red Bend Catholic College, out on the river.

A fair few well-known people came out of Forbes. Among them are Eve Langley, born there in 1904, the tobacco man and newspaper owner Sir Hugh Denison, born there in 1865, the cricketer Cec Pepper, former Deputy Premier Carmel Tebbutt, the singer Celia Pavey (Vera Blue), born in 1994, and the ultramarathon runner Nedd Brockmann.

The Pyramid sculpture by Gillie and Marc in Forbes, 2022. Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Central West Livestock Exchange, the council-run cattle saleyards outside Forbes. Amanda Slater, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Timeline

• Before 1815 – Wiradjuri country, along the river they called Kalari (or Kalare, Galari or Galiyarr).
• 1815 – George William Evans reaches the river and names it after Governor Lachlan Macquarie.
• 1817 – John Oxley passes the site of Forbes and names it Camp Hill.
• 1834 – The first settlers move into the district.
• 9 May 1837 – Ben Hall is born, at Maitland according to most accounts.
• June 1861 – Gold is found by "German Harry" Stephan at what becomes the Black Ridge field.
• 1 December 1861 – A post office opens to serve the diggings.
• 17 April 1862 – Hayward Atkyns is appointed the first official postmaster.
• 15 June 1862 – The gold escort is robbed at Eugowra Rocks.
• 27 October 1862 – The Forbes Telegraph Office opens.
• 12 July 1863 – Kate Kelly is born at Beveridge, Victoria.
• October 1863 – The first Post and Telegraph Office opens. The £4,000 reward notice for Gilbert, O'Meally, Hall and Vane is issued on 26 October.
• 5 May 1865 – Ben Hall is shot dead by police near Billabong Creek.
• 7 May 1865 – Ben Hall is buried in Forbes Cemetery.
• 1 January 1870 – The post and telegraph offices are merged.
• 8 September 1881 – The new Post Office, with its clock tower, is occupied.
• 1887 – The start of the flood record: a major flood roughly every seven years since.
• 25 November 1888 – Kate Kelly marries William Foster and settles in Forbes.
• 18 December 1893 – The railway opens from Parkes.
• October 1898 – Kate Kelly (Foster) dies and is buried in Forbes Cemetery.
• 1918 – The line is extended to Stockinbingal.
• 1926 – Marist education begins in Forbes in Johnson Street.
• 1952 – The biggest recorded flood, at 10.8 metres.
• 1957 – Ben Hall's death site is marked, and his present headstone goes up.
• 1974 and 1983 – Passenger trains end, first south to Stockinbingal and then north to Parkes.
• 2 April 1999 – Forbes railway station goes on the State Heritage Register.
• 10 February 2009 – The Albion Hotel burns down.
• 8 October 2010 – The Ben Hall Sites are listed on the State Heritage Register.
• September 2016 – The Lachlan peaks at 10.67 metres, and about 1,000 people are evacuated.
• November 2021 – The flood reaches 10.52 metres, and more than 1,500 people are evacuated.
• 2026 – Inland Rail works at the station, and 100 years of Marist education in Forbes.

Where the Sources Disagree

• Where the name came from. The Forbes article on Wikipedia says the town was "probably" named after Sir Francis Forbes, first Chief Justice of New South Wales, and the old railway station names list says the same. The same Forbes article also says the name may have been a government mix-up, and was supposedly meant for the field now called Hill End.
• How many came for gold. Wikipedia's Forbes article says about 30,000 people came at first, dropping to about 3,500 by 1863. The Forbes Post Office heritage history says there were 1,500 miners when the mail service started in 1861, and upwards of 28,000 by 1862.
• The first post office. The Forbes article says the post office opened on 1 December 1861 under the name Black Ridge, though that name was changed before it opened. The Post Office history says the 1861 mail service ran out of J. H. Burchart's rented premises, and that the first official postmaster wasn't appointed until 17 April 1862.
• The Eugowra haul. Wikipedia's Forbes article puts it at 77 kilograms of gold and £3,700. The Ben Hall article says 2,700 ounces of gold and banknotes worth more than £14,000 in all. The Escort Rock photo description on Commons says gold dust and notes to the value of about £14,000.
• Where Hall was shot. The Ben Hall article says Goobang Creek. The State Heritage Register story (Ben Hall's Death Site) says Billabong Creek, on the old Blowclear run, now Nelungaloo Station. The Forbes article puts it about 20 kilometres north-west of town, and the heritage listing says about 19 kilometres.
• Hall's age and birthplace. The headstone says he was 27. The Grave of Ben Hall article notes that some people say he was 28, while the Australian Dictionary of Biography's date of 9 May 1837 makes him 27. The Ben Hall article gives Maitland as his birthplace, but mentions an 1865 newspaper report, possibly wrong, that named Breeza Station.
• How Kate Kelly died. Wikipedia's Forbes article says she drowned in Lake Forbes saving an Aboriginal child during a flood in 1898. Wikipedia's Kate Kelly article doesn't mention a rescue. It says she went missing on 6 October 1898 and was found eight days later in a lagoon on Condobolin Road, that the doctor couldn't tell the cause of death, and that there's some evidence of postnatal depression and drinking.
• When the passenger trains stopped. The Forbes railway station article says the last passenger service ran on 15 October 1974 and the station formally closed in 1990. Wikipedia's Forbes article says passenger trains ran until 1983. The Stockinbingal–Parkes line article explains the gap: services south to Stockinbingal stopped in October 1974, while Parkes to Forbes kept a mail train and a rail motor until 1983.
• Population. The same Wikipedia Forbes article gives the 2021 census figure as 6,319 in its opening paragraph and as 9,319 in its demographics section.

My Earlier Posts

• Hangings at Darlinghurst Gaol – The Executions and Famous Prisoners (including the Eugowra robbery and the Collector shooting)
• Names Of Railway Stations In New South Wales – Including Aboriginal Names & Meanings (Forbes is in there)
• History Of Dubbo – New South Wales (more on Oxley's inland expeditions)

Sources

• Wikipedia, Forbes, New South Wales: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbes,_New_South_Wales
• Wikipedia, Ben Hall (bushranger): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Hall_(bushranger)
• Wikipedia, Ben Hall's Death Site (based on the NSW State Heritage Register listing): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Hall%27s_Death_Site
• Wikipedia, Grave of Ben Hall (based on the NSW State Heritage Register listing): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grave_of_Ben_Hall
• Wikipedia, Kate Kelly (outlaw): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Kelly_(outlaw)
• Wikipedia, Forbes Post Office (based on the NSW State Heritage Register listing): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbes_Post_Office
• Wikipedia, Forbes railway station (based on the NSW State Heritage Register listing): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbes_railway_station
• Wikipedia, Stockinbingal–Parkes railway line: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockinbingal%E2%80%93Parkes_railway_line
• Wikipedia, Lachlan River: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lachlan_River
• Wikipedia, Wiradjuri: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiradjuri
• Wikimedia Commons file descriptions for Escort Rock, the 1863 reward notice (National Museum of Australia), the 2021 Copernicus flood image and the Forbes Lands Office, as linked under each picture: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Forbes,_New_South_Wales
• Forbes Phoenix, 100 Years Of Marist Education In Forbes (2026): https://www.forbesphoenix.com.au/100-years-of-marist-education-in-forbes/
• My Australian History Journey, Hangings at Darlinghurst Gaol: https://myozhistoryjourney.blogspot.com/2026/10/hangings-at-darlinghurst-gaol.html
• My Australian History Journey, Names Of Railway Stations In New South Wales: https://myozhistoryjourney.blogspot.com/2026/09/aborignal-names-of-places-in-nsw.html