Editing Cobar (section)

===Cobar township===

In March 1881 the settlement at Cobar was described as “large and scattered, as mining towns generally are, composed chiefly of huts and cottages, which lie about in all directions and cover an extensive area of ground”. The population was estimated to number 2,500 consisting “principally of miners and their families”.  The township was “divided into three portions”, described as “the Government Township, the Private Township (or that upon the land taken up by or belonging to the company working the mine), and Cornish Town”, with “the mine and its appurtenances in the centre”. Most of the houses, places of business and public buildings were located in the Private Township.  In the surveyed Government Township there were “very few houses indeed”.  Cornish Town was described as “pretty thickly populated”.  The “want of water” was described as “the great drawback to the comfort of the inhabitants of Cobar” and on a number of occasions “the people have been upon the verge of a water famine”. Government-constructed tanks relying on rainfall was the principal means of household supply and the watering of stock, supplemented by “small tanks sunk in the ground” beside many of the houses.<ref name="Industries">[https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13485295 The Industries of the Colony: XXXII. – Cobar and Its Copper Mine], ''Sydney Morning Herald'', 10 March 1881, page 7.</ref>

A description of Cobar published in April 1888 noted that “the houses generally are substantially built; many of them being of brick”, with a number of “weather-board and iron buildings and some adobe or clay houses” scattered throughout the town. The courthouse was described as “a handsome brick structure in Barton-street” with a gaol next to it.  The township had nine hotels, “the principal ones being the Cobar and the Commercial”, and two banks, “the Commercial and the Joint Stock”. The writer was of the opinion that “Cobar owes its existence as a town largely to the Great Cobar Copper Mine, although the pastoral properties have also contributed in a great measure to make it a fairly prosperous inland settlement”.<ref>[https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/71096861/5096392 In the Cobar District], ''Australian Town and Country Journal'', 28 April 1888, page 30.</ref>

Several fine heritage buildings from the late 1880s/early 1900s settlement are still in existence, including the Great Western Hotel (1898), claimed  to have the longest verandah (at 91 metres) in [[New South Wales]],<ref>{{Cite NSW HD|1350061|Great Western Hotel|access-date=14 April 2019}}</ref> the [[Cobar Post Office]] (1885), the Cobar Court House (1887) and Court House Hotel (1895) in Barton Street, as well as the Cobar Heritage and Visitor Information Centre, located in the former Mines Office (1910). On Hillston Road southeast out of town is Fort Bourke Hill, which affords a view of the town, as well as the historic Towser's Huts, a series of stone miners' cottages dating back as early as the 1890s, possibly even the 1870s, and built by an Italian miner by the name of Antonio Tozzi.

At its peak, Cobar had a population of 10,000. It also became the regional centre for nearby mining villages, such as [[Elouera, New South Wales|Elouera]], [[Illewong]], [[Wrightville]], [[Dapville, New South Wales|Dapville]], and The Peak, and some further away such as [[Canbelego]], [[Mount Drysdale, New South Wales|Mount Drysdale]], [[Nymagee]] and [[Shuttleton, New South Wales|Shuttleton]]. However, mining operations in the area had virtually ceased by the early 1920s. In March 1919, the vast [[Great Cobar mine]], Cobar's main employer, closed.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1919-03-19 |title=COBAR THREATENED WITH EXTINCTION. |pages=17 |work=[[The Sydney Mail|Sydney Mail]] |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article159656796 |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref> The Chesney Mine had used the Great Cobar's smelters, and it too closed in March 1919.<ref name=":27">{{Cite journal |last=McKillop |first=Bob |date=October 2004 |title=Mining Railways of Cobar - 7. Other Mines, 1871-1922 |url=http://media.lrrsa.org.au/code179/Light_Railways_179.pdf |journal=Light Railways |publisher=Light Railway Research Society of Australia Inc. |issue=179 |pages=4, 5, 6}}</ref> Then came the unexpected closure, due to an underground fire, of the C.S.A. Mine, located to the north of the Cobar township, at Elouera, in March 1920.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1920-07-16 |title=FIRE IN C.S.A. MINE. |pages=9 |work=[[Sydney Morning Herald]] |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15898051 |access-date=2023-01-16}}</ref> The Gladstone Mine, at Wrightville closed, around May 1920, because it was reliant upon the copper smelters at the [[CSA Mine]], which closed at that time.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1920-04-22 |title=N.S.W. MINING NEWS. |pages=20 |work=[[The Australian Worker|Australian Worker]] |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article146174775 |access-date=2023-01-17}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=1920-08-27 |title=Mining News. |pages=2 |work=Western Age |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article136903134 |access-date=2023-01-17}}</ref> The Occidental gold mine, at Wrightville, closed in July 1921.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1921-07-29 |title=The Occidental Gold Mine. |pages=3 |work=Western Age |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article137166648 |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=1921-08-18 |title=NEW SOUTH WALES MINING NEWS. |pages=14 |work=[[The Australian Worker|Australian Worker]] |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article145774553 |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=1921-09-05 |title=OCCIDENTAL CONSOLIDATED, N.L. |pages=11 |work=Sydney Morning Herald |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15961536 |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref> Last, in September 1921, hard rock mining ceased at the [[Mount Boppy Gold Mine]], further away at Canbelego,<ref name=":21">{{Cite news |date=1921-09-06 |title=TOWNSHIP DOOMED |work=[[Daily Telegraph (Sydney)]] |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article239703553 |access-date=2023-08-31}}</ref> and the remaining surface operations closed during 1922. In less than four years, all the major mines in the Cobar region had closed. The town was saved by the reopening of the old Occidental gold mine, in 1933, thereafter known as the [[Wrightville#Revival, terminal decline, and disappearance (1933-1970)|New Occidental mine]],<ref>{{Cite news |date=1935-08-08 |title=COBAR GOLD MINE REOPENED |pages=15 |work=[[Courier-Mail]] |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article36768989 |access-date=2023-01-23}}</ref> and the Chesney Mine in 1937.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1937-05-18 |title=New Occidental's Chesney Mine |pages=4 |work=[[The Sun (Sydney)|Sun]] |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article229410110 |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref> These mines both closed in 1952.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1952-10-13 |title=NEW OCCIDENTAL MINE AT COBAR TO CLOSE |pages=1 |work=[[Barrier Daily Truth]] |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article141446347 |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=1953-09-29 |title=New Occidental Loss |pages=7 |work=[[Kalgoorlie Miner]]|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article256941677 |access-date=2023-01-04}}</ref>

By the 1930s the town's population had dropped to little over 1,000, only to rise again and stabilise at around 3,500 through the 1970s and early 1980s. Copper mining was intermittent until 1965 when full-time operations resumed.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.csamine.com.au/about-us/|title=About Us - CSA|website=www.csamine.com.au|access-date=15 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180330055024/http://www.csamine.com.au/about-us/|archive-date=30 March 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> In the 1980s, [[gold]], [[silver]], [[lead]] and [[zinc]] were discovered in the area, which led to a further population increase. The town's current positive economic development is due to the affluence of the mining boom. Three important mining belts are operational in the Cobar area: the Cobar belt, the [[Canbelego]] belt and the [[Girilambone]] belt. Visits to mine sites may be arranged through the Cobar Heritage and Visitor Information Centre overlooking the [[open-pit mining|open cut mine]]. The ''Festival of the Miners' Ghost'', held during the last weekend in October, is a festival celebrating the spirits of the old miners.

The area of Cobar also includes the now empty sites of the former villages of [[Wrightville|Wrightville and Dapville]],<ref name=":10">{{Cite web |title=Map of the village of Dapville [cartographic material] : Parish of Cobar, County of Robinson, the Land District of Cobar, NSW 1902 |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-233311138 |access-date=2023-01-09 |website=Trove |language=en}}</ref> and the informal settlement of Cornish Town.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Appendix L - New Cobar Complex Project State Significant Development (SSD-10419) |url=https://majorprojects.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/prweb/PRRestService/mp/01/getContent?AttachRef=SSD-10419%2120210212T073544.189%20GMT |pages=27, 28, 29}}</ref> Further away, but at locations now within the area of Cobar, are the empty sites of two other former mining settlements, [[Illewong]] and Elouera.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Johnson |first=R.S |date=1908 |title=Map of the town of Elouera : Parish of Kaloogleguy, County of Robinson, Land District of Cobar, Western Division N.S.W. |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/34791705 |access-date=2023-01-14 |website=trove.nla.gov.au |publisher=Department of Lands, Sydney, N.S.W.}}</ref> There was also a village site at The Peak, proclaimed in 1897.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1897-01-09 |title=Government Gazette Proclamations and Legislation |pages=127 |work=New South Wales Government Gazette |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article224338015 |access-date=2023-01-19}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=1971-07-30 |title=CANCELLATION OF THE DESIGN OF THE VILLAGE OF THE PEAK, PARISH OF COBAR, COUNTY OF ROBINSON, SHIRE OF COBAR |pages=2826 |work=Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article220133597 |access-date=2023-01-19}}</ref>