Central NSW – Sofala : Australia’s oldest surviving gold town

Sofala

Sofala is Australia’s oldest surviving gold town, . During boom times the main street stretched to 16 km, a lot longer the current 500 m or so containing the remaining nucleus of the town located along the Turon river. At the turnoff to Sofala the original bridge across the river is displayed. It was brought to Australia in pieces from England as no steel was manufactured in Australia prior to the smelter at Lithgow commencing steel production.

In the main street are a variety of historic buildings, there is also a museum.

   

 

 

 

One resident clearly has a warped sense of humour

   

Present day fossickers apparently still find a bit of gold although we did not try our luck here. There are a number of campsites along the river, but they generally have no facilities other than the odd rubbish bin. We stopped at this beautiful spot which had obviously been used by quite a few campers over the Easter holidays. Wet stinky mutts again – sigh.

       

 

 

 

Leave a Comment