Blayney is a farming town and administrative centre in the Central West region of New South Wales. Situated on the Mid-Western Highway about 240 km west of Sydney, 35 km west of Bathurst and 863 m above sea-level, Blayney is the seat of Blayney Shire Council.

History
Prior to European settlement the area was probably occupied by the Wiradjuri or Gundungara Aborigines.

The first European to travel through area was surveyor George Evans, in 1815 and unofficial occupation of the district began in 1821. The first land grant in the general area known as Coombing Park was issued to Thomas Icely in 1829.

The area that would become the town also boasted a mill, an inn and several houses by 1837, and then Governor Gipps proposed the creation of a village to be named Blayney in 1842. His proposed site however was about 9 km north-east of the present site in an area known as Kings Plains but once that spot proved unsuitable the Blayney village location was established on its present site in 1843.

Industry
The arrival of the railway in 1874 boosted development and Blayney replaced Carcoar as the major service centre to local farmlands. Blayney then became a municipality in 1882 and by 1900 a butter factory and freezing works employed many within the town. An abattoir opened in 1957 and this industry was later supplemented with tanneries and a pet food plant. The abbatoirs closed in 1999.

In 1989, Nestlé built a new pet food plant, Nestle Purina, and purchased adjoining land including Blayney Foods. The Nestlé factory exports pet food to Asia and the Pacific.

The Cadia-Ridgeway Mine is a major employer in the area.  In 1994, Blayney became home to Australia's largest inland container terminal, which is situated beside the railway station.

The Blayney Wind Farm, launched in 2000, is the largest of its type in Australia. It consists of 15 wind turbine generators on elevated ridges between Carcoar Dam and Mount Macquarie. Capacity is 10 megawatts, sufficient energy to supply 3,500 Australian homes.

Transport
The town's railway station is served by the daily Countrylink XPT service between Sydney and Dubbo, as well as several Countrylink Coach and private company bus services connecting with Bathurst and Orange. The weekly Broken Hill Countrylink Outback Xplorer also services the station.

Notable citizens
Nathan Burns: professional football player with Greek league AEK Athens, previously played for Adelaide United in the Australian Hyundai A-League.

Bathurst

Bathurst is a regional town in the Central Tablelands of New South Wales. It is approximately 200 km west of Sydney and is the seat of the Bathurst Regional Council. Bathurst is the oldest inland settlement in Australia.

History
The Bathurst area was originally occupied by the Wiradjuri Aboriginal people.

Colonial period (1800s) to gold rush era (1850s)
The government surveyor, George William Evans, was the first European to sight the Bathurst Plains in 1813. In 1814, Governor Lachlan Macquarie approved an offer by William Cox to build a road crossing the Blue Mountains, from Sydney to the Bathurst Plains. This first road to cross the Blue Mountains was 12 feet wide by 163 km long, built between 18 July 1814 to 14 January 1815 using 30 convict labourers and 8 guards. Governor Macquarie surveyed the finished road in April 1815 by driving his carriage across it from Sydney to Bathurst. The Governor commended Cox and stated that the project would have taken three years if it had been done under a contract. As a reward Cox was awarded 2,000 acres of land near what is now Bathurst.

Bathurst was founded at the terminus of Cox's Road in 1815 on the orders of Governor Lachlan Macquarie, and is the oldest inland town in Australia. The name Bathurst comes from the surname of the British Colonial Secretary Lord Bathurst. It was intended to be the administrative centre of the western plains of New South Wales where orderly colonial settlement was planned.

Local Wiradjuri groups under leaders such as Windradyne resisted the settlers until the Frontier Wars of the early 1820s ended the open conflict.

The initial settlement of Bathurst was on the eastern side of the river in 1816. It is in today's suburb of Kelso. Each of 10 men were granted 50 acres, five were men new born in the colony and five were immigrants. These men were William Lee, Richard Mills, Thomas Kite, Thomas Swanbrooke, George Cheshire, John Abbott, John Blackman, James Blackman, John Neville and John Godden. In 1818 Governor Lachlan Macquarie stated in his diary: This morning I inspected 10 new settlers for Bathurst. I have agreed to grant each 50 acres of land, a servant, a cow, four bushels (141 litres) of wheat, an allotment in the new town, and to provide for them for 12 months from the King's stores.

Flecks of gold were first discovered in the Fish River in February 1823, but it was not until the discovery of gold at Ophir and later Sofala in the 1850s and 1860s that the town of Bathurst began to boom.

Bathurst's economy was transformed by the discovery of gold in 1851. It later became the centre of an important coal-mining and manufacturing region. The Main Western railway line from Sydney reached Bathurst in 1876.

In December 2001 the inaugural meeting of the biennial Australasian Ornithological Conference series, initiated and organised by the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union, was held in Bathurst.

Motorsport
Today, Bathurst is synonymous with motorsport, being the site of the Mount Panorama motor racing circuit. It hosts the Bathurst 12 Hour motor race each February and the Bathurst 1000 motor race each October, during which the population swells with visitors. It has a long history of racing beginning with motorcycle racing from 1911. From 1931 to 1938, motorcycle racing was conducted at the Old Vale Circuit  before moving to the newly created Mount Panorama Circuit.

Culture
Bathurst is a cathedral city, being the seat for the Anglican and Roman Catholic bishops of Bathurst.  It was also the home of wartime Labor Prime Minister Ben Chifley, who represented the area in the Federal Parliament and is buried in Bathurst.

Bathurst is unusual in that it has a collection of house museums representing different periods of its history from first settlement to the 1970s. The house museums include Old Government Cottage, Abercrombie House, Miss Traill's House and Chifley Home.

Central Bathurst is host to the Australian Fossil & Mineral Museum, which houses the Somerville Collection of fossils and minerals, and features Australia's only complete Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton. The Somerville Collection also consists of one of the largest collections of tourmaline in the Southern Hemisphere.

Education
Charles Sturt University has a major campus in Bathurst, complementing campuses in Wagga Wagga, Albury, Dubbo and Orange. It is a major provider of regional tertiary education as well as distance education both nationally and internationally. The Bathurst campus offers courses in business, communication, computer science, nursing, policing, psychology, and teaching.

The Western Institute of TAFE has two campuses in Bathurst. The College has 12 Industry Training Divisions including arts and media, building and construction, business services, computing and information services, engineering services, rural and mining services and tourism and hospitality.

Bathurst has numerous primary schools and high schools, both public and private. These include the All Saints College, Denison College, MacKillop College, St. Stanislaus College and The Scots School.

Transport
Roads
Bathurst is a regional highway hub. Several roads including the Great Western Highway, Mid-Western Highway, Mitchell Highway, O'Connell Road to Oberon and Bathurst-Ilford Road all start in Bathurst. Other major roads in Bathurst include Durham Street, Eleven Mile Drive, and Bradwardine Road.

Public transport
Bathurst Railway Station is located ten minutes' walk away from the city centre. It is serviced by CountryLink trains and buses to Sydney or Lithgow and Dubbo. Local bus services operate in the surrounding suburbs of Bathurst, with a bus interchange in Howick Street, opposite Stockland Bathurst.

Regional Express Airlines is the only airline providing passenger services at Bathurst Airport; it services the route from Bathurst to Sydney. Several flight schools operate from the airport, and it is used very frequently by trainee pilots during their navigation training.

Suburbs
The main suburbs of Bathurst are; Kelso, Eglinton, West Bathurst, Bathurst, Llanarth, South Bathurst, Rose Hill, Windradyne and Abercrombie Estate. One of the newer suburbs is Marsden Estate, in Kelso.

Significant people from or associated with Bathurst
Windradyne (c.1788-1835), Wiradjuri Warrior
George William Evans (1780–1852), first European to reach site of Bathurst
William Cox (1764–1837), engineer of the first road from Sydney to Bathurst
Lord Bathurst (1762–1834), British politician
Robert Gordon Edgell (1866–1948), founder of Edgells food processing
Ben Chifley (1885–1951), Australian Prime Minister
Gus Kelly (1890–1967), Member for Bathurst for 38 years
Kim Mackay (1902–1960), British Labour politician
Arthur George "Bluey" Wilkinson (1911–1940), Australian speedway rider, Individual World Champion in 1938.
Reg Campbell (1923–2008), Australian portrait painter
Brian Booth (1933-), test cricketer and Olympic hockey player
Peter Brock AM (1945–2006), motor racing legend, known as The King of the Mountain
James McTeigue (1952-), Hollywood director
Scott McGregor (1957-), Television presenter, actor
Andrew Denton (1960-), producer and host of Enough Rope
Reagan Murphy (1960-), award-winning journalist and sponsor of Bathurst Battlers Cup
Amanda Keller (1962-), 2WS FM radio announcer, completed journalism degree at Charles Sturt University
Peter O'Malley (1965-), Australian professional golfer, born and raised in Bathurst
Chris Bath (1967-), Seven News journalist and presenter, completed journalism degree at Charles Sturt University
Rodney keft (A.K.A Rodney Rude) (1969-) Australian Comedian
Natarsha Belling (1970-), Network Ten news presenter, completed journalism degree at Charles Sturt University
Melissa Doyle (1970-), Seven Network Sunrise presenter, completed journalism degree at Charles Sturt University
Jessica Rowe (1970-), Seven News presenter, completed journalism degree at Charles Sturt University
Jessica Rich (--), Nine News reporter, completed journalism degree at Charles Sturt University
Jodie Noyce (--), Nine News reporter, completed journalism degree at Charles Sturt University
Deborah Knight (1972-), Ten News newsreader, completed journalism degree at Charles Sturt University
Mike Fitzpatrick (1973-), Triple M Breakfast Show host, attended Kelso High School 1986-1989.
Anna Coren (1975-), CNN International journalist and presenter, completed journalism degree at Charles Sturt University
Kathryn Robinson (1975-), Sky News presenter, Network Ten reporter and producer.
Brendan Cowell (1976-), actor, screenwriter and director
Samantha Armytage (1977-), Seven Network presenter, completed journalism degree at Charles Sturt University
Archie Thompson (1978-), A-League record-holding footballer
Allison Langdon (1979-), Nine News reporter, completed journalism degree at Charles Sturt University
Rob Canning (1980-), Network Ten presenter, completed journalism degree at Charles Sturt University
Hamish Macdonald (1981-), International Al Jazeera English news journalist.
Matt Naylor (1983-), Australian field hockey player
Beau Robinson (1986-), Australian rugby union player
Mark Renshaw (1982-), Australian professional cyclist, born and educated in Bathurst