Mudgee

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title: "Mudgee" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["towns-in-new-south-wales", "towns-in-the-central-west-(new-south-wales)", "central-tablelands", "mudgee"] topic_path: "geography/united-kingdom" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mudgee" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::data[format=table title="Infobox Australian place"]

FieldValue
typetown
nameMudgee
stateNSW
imageMudgee Roundabout.jpg
captionView of the town centre, showing War Memorial Clock Tower
coordinates
pop11457
pop_year2021
pop_footnotes
postcode2850
elevation454
maxtemp23.0
mintemp8.3
rainfall673.9
regionCentral West
countyWellington
lgaMid-Western Regional Council
stategovDubbo
fedgovCalare
dist1270
dir1NW
location1Sydney
dist2128
dir2ESE
location2Dubbo
dist3192
dir3N
location3Orange
dist4201
dir4W
location4Muswellbrook
local_mapyes
::

| type = town | name = Mudgee | state = NSW | image = Mudgee Roundabout.jpg | caption = View of the town centre, showing War Memorial Clock Tower | coordinates = | pop = 11457 | pop_year = 2021 | pop_footnotes = | est = | postcode = 2850 | elevation = 454 | maxtemp = 23.0 | mintemp = 8.3 | rainfall = 673.9 | region = Central West | county = Wellington | lga = Mid-Western Regional Council | stategov = Dubbo | fedgov = Calare | dist1 = 270 | dir1 = NW | location1 = Sydney | dist2 = 128 | dir2 = ESE | location2 = Dubbo | dist3 = 192 | dir3 = N | location3 = Orange | dist4 = 201 | dir4 = W | location4 = Muswellbrook | local_map = yes | near-nw = | near-n = | near-ne = | near-e = | near-se = | near-s = | near-sw = | near-w =

Mudgee () is a town in the Central West of New South Wales, Australia. It is in the broad fertile Cudgegong River valley 261 km north-west of Sydney and is the largest town in the Mid-Western Regional Council local government area as well as being the council seat. At the 2021 Census, its population was 11,457.

History

Wiradjuri people

The Mudgee and Dabee clans of the Wiradjuri people lived at and around the site of what is now the town of Mudgee on the Cudgegong River. Some cultural and tool-making sites of these Aboriginal people remain, including the Hands on the Rocks, The Drip and Babyfoot Cave sites.

Significance of local names

Many place-names in the region are derived from the original Wiradjuri language, including Mudgee itself, which was named by the Wiradjuri clan who lived there. There are various translations as to what Mudgee means including "resting place", "contented", "nest in the hills" as well as "friend or mate" which the latter coincides with the Wiradjuri word "mudyi". The correct pronunciation has also been recorded as either Moudgee, Moothi or Mougee. Nearby places include Lue (Loowee, 'a chain of waterholes'); Gulgong ('a gully'); Wollar ('a rock water hole'); Menah ('flat country'); Eurunderee ('a local tree'); Guntawang ('a peaceful place'), Cooyal ('dry country'); Wilbertree ('a long switch'); Gooree ('native chasing live animal'); Burrendong ('darker than usual'). The Aboriginal name of the Rylstone area was Combamolang.

Early British colonisation (1821 to 1850)

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Mudgee_Post_Office_(2712968826).jpg" caption="Mudgee post office"] ::

James Blackman, leading a small expedition in the latter half of 1821, was the first British colonist to enter the Mudgee district. Not long after, Lieutenant William Lawson who was then commandant of Bathurst, made several further expeditions to Mudgee. Both Blackman and Lawson found the site to be an Aboriginal settlement or bimmel inhabited by around 100 people who called the area Mudgee or Mujjee.

In February 1822, George and Henry Cox, sons of William Cox, followed the trails set up by Blackman and Lawson with 500 head of livestock, and established a grazing property at Menah, 3 km north of the current town. The Coxes were soon in conflict with the Mudgee clan who drove away their workers and livestock. George Cox gathered some men at Bathurst and returned to Menah where a two hour fight later ensued, resulting in six Mudgee people being killed and one of Cox's employees being speared to death.

The violence in the region worsened in June 1824, when Theophilus Chamberlain, who was the Coxes' superintendent of their Mudgee property holdings, led a number of punitive expeditions against the local Aboriginal people. A skirmish at Guntawang to the north of Mudgee resulted in some settlers being killed, with around 70 or more Aboriginal people dying in follow up raids. Martial law was declared by Governor Thomas Brisbane in August 1824, leading to further killings of the Wiradjuri people in the Mudgee area. Descendants and workers of the Coxes later described this period as one where "an immense number of natives, men, women and children were slaughtered" and "the bodies of the blacks were piled together and burnt...like old tar barrels". The violence forced the Coxes to abandon Guntawang, and relieving Chamberlain of his duties, they shifted their enterprise to nearby Dabee.

The Cox family remained prominent landholders around Mudgee for many decades, owning the Dabee, Menah and Burrundulla properties. William Lawson and his descendants also continued to be leading pastoralists in the region, holding estates such as Putta Bucca and Havilah.

The site of the Mudgee township was surveyed in 1837 and the first land sales occurred in August 1838. It has been incorrectly claimed that Robert Hoddle designed the village. Although Hoddle was the first surveyor in the region, marking out the boundaries of Putta Bucca and Bombira, by the time the village was gazetted, he had already left the district to become leader of the Port Phillip Survey. John Blackman built a slab hut, the first dwelling in Mudgee and its general store.

By 1841 there were 36 dwellings, three hotels, a hospital, a post office, two stores and an Anglican church. St John's Church of England was consecrated on 6 May 1841. The police station moved from Menah in the mid-1840s and an Anglican school was established in that decade.

1850 to present

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Mudgee_Railway_Station_001.JPG" caption="Mudgee Railway Station]] (1884)"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/CountryTown0008.jpg" caption="Lovejoy House"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/Mudgee_market_st.jpg" caption="View of Market Street, looking towards the centre of the town"] ::

In 1851 the population of Mudgee was 200. This skyrocketed with the discovery of gold by Edward Hargraves in nearby Hargraves, leading to a gold rush. While no gold was found in Mudgee itself, the town is central to the goldfields of Gulgong, Hill End and Windeyer, and grew rapidly as a result.

Mudgee was declared as a municipality in 1860 making it the second oldest municipality west of the Great Dividing Range with a population of 1500 in 1861. A public school was built in the 1850s together with the present Anglican, Catholic Methodist and Presbyterian churches. A new police station, courthouse, Mechanics' Institute and a town hall were built in the 1860s. There were four coach factories operating in Mudgee to cater for the demand of the nearby goldfields. The National Trust of Australia has a number of these buildings registered including the Mudgee Museum (formerly the Colonial Inn), the Catholic presbytery, the court house, the police station and the Anglican Church. On 1 June 1861 the Electric Telegraph system arrived and was opened for messages to be transmitted and received at the Telegraph office.

One gold miner attracted to the Mudgee district was Niels Peter Larsen, who married Louisa Albury in Mudgee in 1866. They were the parents of leading Australian poet Henry Lawson, born in Grenfell in 1867, and changed their names to Peter and Louisa Lawson. By the birth of their third child, they moved to a selection at Pipeclay (now Eurunderee) 8 km north of Mudgee. The site is now a rest stop with a plaque.

Louisa Lawson's vigorous lobbying led to the establishment of the slab-and-bark Eurunderee Public School in 1876 with Henry Lawson first attending aged nine. He would later write about the school in his poem, The Old Bark School. Lawson later attended St. Matthews Central School, Mudgee before progressively worsening deafness led to him leaving school at 14. He lived in the region until age 15 and many of his stories were written about the district.

Tiny diamonds were sometimes found and discarded by gold panners when "washing off", but sometime before June 1869 a larger specimen was found on the banks of the Cudgegong River about 25 mi from Mudgee and appraised by the jeweller George Crisp, of Queen Street, Melbourne, at 22.2 carat. Dubbed the "Mudgee diamond", it was the largest found to that date in Australia, however commercial quantities were not found and companies founded to exploit the discoveries were wound up a few years later.

As the gold petered out in the latter half of the 19th century, Mudgee was sustained by both its wool industry and a nascent wine industry founded by a German immigrant, Adam Roth, in the 1850s. The opening of the railway extension from Rylstone to Mudgee occurred on 10 September 1884.

The railway boosted the town's agriculture. The extension between Rylstone and Mudgee closed on 2 March 1992. This same section re-opened eight years later, on 2 September 2000 and closed again in 2007. The Wallaby Track Drive Tour visits various sites associated with Lawson including the old Eurundee Public School, the Henry Lawson memorial, the Budgee Budgee Inn, Sapling Gully, Golden Gully and the Albury Pub which was owned by Lawson's grandfather.

In 1890 a local newspaper was founded with the title the Mudgee Guardian and North-Western Representative. Its title changed in 1963 to the Mudgee Guardian and Gulgong Advertiser and is currently published twice a week.

Mudgee's Glen Willow Regional Sports Stadium hosted the 2012 City vs Country Origin rugby league match with an attendance of 8,621, and the 2017 match with an attendance of 8,322. The St. George Dragons regularly host home matches there.

Additionally, in the A-League, the Western Sydney based Western Sydney Wanderers have chosen to take their Community Round match to Mudgee's Glen Willow Regional Sports Stadium, as part of their new Regional Strategy,

In 2014, the local council found itself involved in a statewide corruption investigation when officers of the Independent Commission Against Corruption (New South Wales) raided the local council's offices.

Economy

Mudgee has developed as a wine producing region, it has manufacturing and repair industries. It is also heavily dependent on several major mines in the surrounding area and fly-in fly-out (FIFO) miners who live in the town but work elsewhere.

Other rural produce includes cattle, sheep, wheat, alfalfa, olives, fruit, tomatoes, sweetcorn, honey, alpacas and dairy products. These, however, do not play as large a role as mining.

The Ulan coal mines are in the district and it also produces marble, pottery clays, shale and dolomite. These mines have further potential to expand in the region, however they attract environmental protests.

Local real estate, petrol and living costs skyrocketed since 2010 when the mining boom began to peak. This has rolled onto the local population, who have since had increased difficulty in living in the town.

Media

Radio

Radio stations that broadcast to Mudgee are ABC Central West, 2BS, 2BXS, and Real FM, a community based station which broadcast from the town.

Television

Mudgee receives the following free-to-air television stations:

Newspapers

The Mudgee Guardian is local newspaper which is available on print and online.

Demographics

According to the 2021 Census:

  • Mudgee had a population of 11,457, consisting of 5,538 males (48.8%) and 5,868 females (51.2%) and the median age was 36.
  • 864 (7.5%) stated that they were Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander, 9,996 (87.2%) stated they were non-Indigenous.
  • 9,586 (86%) stated they were born in Australia. The other top responses were England (2.1%), New Zealand (0.9%), Philippines (0.5%), India (0.4%) and Nepal (0.4%).
  • 56.5% are Christian, with Catholic (24%) and Anglican (18.9%) being the two largest denominations. People with no religion accounted for 37.8%.
  • English is the primary language used at home with 89.7% stating that they only used it. Languages other than English accounted for 6.4% with the top languages being, Nepali (0.4%), Punjabi (0.4%), Tagalog (0.3%), Spanish (0.3%) and Mandarin (0.3%).
  • The weekly median household income was $1,678.

Climate

Mudgee has a humid subtropical climate (Cfa), with semi-arid (Bsk) characteristics. Summers are hot with many severe thunderstorms. Winters are relatively cold, with frosty mornings and mostly sunny days, interspersed with periods of rain and, rarely, snow; Mudgee's heaviest snowfall on record was 1 ft on 5 July 1900. Rainfall is moderate and falls fairly evenly all year round, with a slight peak in summer. Extreme temperatures have ranged from -8.3 °C up to 43.9 °C. The highest monthly rainfall ever recorded was 303.2 mm in March 1926. Mudgee gets 113 clear days, annually. |metric first=y |single line=y |location = Mudgee Airport (1991–2020 normals, extremes 1962–present) | Jan record high C = 42.5 | Feb record high C = 43.9 | Mar record high C = 38.3 | Apr record high C = 34.5 | May record high C = 27.2 | Jun record high C = 22.8 | Jul record high C = 23.6 | Aug record high C = 26.8 | Sep record high C = 32.5 | Oct record high C = 38.2 | Nov record high C = 42.5 | Dec record high C = 42.7 | year record high C = | Jan avg record high C = 38.3 | Feb avg record high C = 36.3 | Mar avg record high C = 32.8 | Apr avg record high C = 28.3 | May avg record high C = 23.6 | Jun avg record high C = 19.3 | Jul avg record high C = 19.3 | Aug avg record high C = 22.0 | Sep avg record high C = 27.3 | Oct avg record high C = 30.6 | Nov avg record high C = 34.7 | Dec avg record high C = 35.8 | year avg record high C = 39.4 | Jan high C = 31.1 | Feb high C = 29.4 | Mar high C = 26.8 | Apr high C = 23.0 | May high C = 18.6 | Jun high C = 15.0 | Jul high C = 14.6 | Aug high C = 16.3 | Sep high C = 19.7 | Oct high C = 23.2 | Nov high C = 26.5 | Dec high C = 28.9 | year high C = | Jan mean C = 23.7 | Feb mean C = 22.6 | Mar mean C = 19.8 | Apr mean C = 15.5 | May mean C = 11.3 | Jun mean C = 8.7 | Jul mean C = 7.9 | Aug mean C = 8.9 | Sep mean C = 12.0 | Oct mean C = 15.5 | Nov mean C = 18.9 | Dec mean C = 21.4 | year mean C = | Jan low C = 16.2 | Feb low C = 15.7 | Mar low C = 12.8 | Apr low C = 8.0 | May low C = 4.0 | Jun low C = 2.4 | Jul low C = 1.1 | Aug low C = 1.5 | Sep low C = 4.3 | Oct low C = 7.8 | Nov low C = 11.3 | Dec low C = 13.8 | year low C = | Jan avg record low C = 9.4 | Feb avg record low C = 9.0 | Mar avg record low C = 5.5 | Apr avg record low C = 1.3 | May avg record low C = -2.8 | Jun avg record low C = -4.3 | Jul avg record low C = -4.6 | Aug avg record low C = -4.1 | Sep avg record low C = -1.7 | Oct avg record low C = 0.9 | Nov avg record low C = 4.1 | Dec avg record low C = 6.5 | year avg record low C = -5.5 |Jan record low C = 3.4 |Feb record low C = 4.0 |Mar record low C = 1.5 |Apr record low C = -3.7 |May record low C = -5.8 |Jun record low C = -7.5 |Jul record low C = -8.3 |Aug record low C = -6.4 |Sep record low C = -4.4 |Oct record low C = -2.3 |Nov record low C = 0.2 |Dec record low C = 2.0 |year record low C = |rain colour = green |Jan rain mm = 66.2 |Feb rain mm = 64.3 |Mar rain mm = 62.3 |Apr rain mm = 36.3 |May rain mm = 36.7 |Jun rain mm = 42.9 |Jul rain mm = 43.4 |Aug rain mm = 34.4 |Sep rain mm = 54.4 |Oct rain mm = 50.6 |Nov rain mm = 72.3 |Dec rain mm = 79.0 |year rain mm = |unit rain days = 1 mm |Jan rain days = 5.6 |Feb rain days = 5.1 |Mar rain days = 5.2 |Apr rain days = 2.7 |May rain days = 4 |Jun rain days = 5.5 |Jul rain days = 5.3 |Aug rain days = 4 |Sep rain days = 4.9 |Oct rain days = 5.5 |Nov rain days = 6.3 |Dec rain days = 6.1 |year rain days = | Jan dew point C = 11.4 | Feb dew point C =12.5 | Mar dew point C =10.4 | Apr dew point C =6.8 | May dew point C =6.0 | Jun dew point C =5.0 | Jul dew point C =3.9 | Aug dew point C =3.1 | Sep dew point C =4.9 | Oct dew point C =5.9 | Nov dew point C =7.9 | Dec dew point C =9.4 |time day=3 pm | Jan afthumidity =37 | Feb afthumidity =42 | Mar afthumidity =42 | Apr afthumidity =41 | May afthumidity =49 | Jun afthumidity =57 | Jul afthumidity =55 | Aug afthumidity =47 | Sep afthumidity =44 | Oct afthumidity =41 | Nov afthumidity =40 | Dec afthumidity =37 |source 1 = Bureau of Meteorology (Dew point for 3pm, extremes include George Street station){{cite web |url = http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/data/ |title = Climate data online (Site number: 062021, 062101) |publisher = Bureau of Meteorology |access-date = 30 Sep 2025}}}}

Heritage buildings

Mudgee has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:

Churches

  • St John's Anglican Church
  • St Mary's Catholic Church
  • St Paul's Presbyterian Church
  • Mudgee Uniting Church
  • Frontline Assemblies of God
  • Mudgee Baptist Church
  • Salvation Army
  • Seventh Day Adventist Church
  • One Life Church Mudgee

Schools and colleges

  • Cudgegong Valley Public School
  • Mudgee High School
  • Mudgee Public School
  • St Matthews Catholic School
  • Mudgee College (TAFE)

Gallery

Image:AMudgeeShot0003.jpg|Commercial building in town Image:Mudgee Pub 2009.jpg|Lawson Park Hotel Image:AMudgeeChurch1.JPG|Presbyterian Church at night Image:AMudgeeShot0008.jpg|Cudgegong River where it passes close to the town

|type= Australia |1921|3170 |1933|3993 |1947|4178 |1954|5294 |1961|5312 |1966|5372 |1971|5598 |1976|5724 |1981|6015 |1986|6576 |1991|7447 |1996|8195 |2001|8603 |2006|8249 |2011|9830 |2016|10966 |2021|11563 |source=Australian Bureau of Statistics data.

Notable people

;Groups

References

References

  1. "Sydney Basin". New South Wales [[Department of Primary Industries (New South Wales).
  2. (2021). "Gudyarra, The First Wiradyuri War of Resistance.". NewSouth.
  3. (30 October 2019). "Exploring My Backyard & Aboriginal Art – Hands on Rock, Mudgee".
  4. (15 December 1938). "Aboriginal Place Names". Mudgee Guardian and North-Western Representative.
  5. Grant, Stan. (2010). "A new Wiradjuri dictionary, compiled by Stan Grant and John Rudder". Restoration House.
  6. (2021-02-06). "Word Up: Nathan Sentance".
  7. "Mudgee".
  8. (13 May 1964). "PLACE NAMES.". National Library of Australia.
  9. (27 March 1933). "Mudgee's Earliest History". [[Mudgee Guardian and North-western Representative]].
  10. Greaves, Bernard. "Blackman, James (1792–1868)".
  11. (1920). "The Discovery of Mudgee". Royal Australian Historical Society.
  12. (29 August 1900). "A Reminiscence.". The Bligh Watchman And Coonabarabran Gazette.
  13. (12 September 1907). "Mudgee in the Early Days.". [[Mudgee Guardian and North-western Representative]].
  14. "Transcript: Declaration of Martial Law".
  15. (12 December 1912). "The late Mr. N. S. Lawson". [[Mudgee Guardian and North-western Representative]].
  16. (15 April 2014). "Mudgee Guardian".
  17. Yap, Brian. "John Blackman". Ancestry.com.
  18. (4 June 1936). "ST. JOHN'S, MUDGEE". [[Mudgee Guardian and North-western Representative]].
  19. "Colonial Inn Museum". Mudgee Historical Society Inc.
  20. Annette Piper. (1 June 1861). "Western Post June 1861". Western Post.
  21. (7 July 1869). "Intercolonial". [[The Darling Downs Gazette and General Advertiser]].
  22. (29 June 1869). "Victoria". [[The Mercury (Hobart)]].
  23. (18 October 1873). "The Bingera Diamond Field". [[The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser]].
  24. (7 April 1871). "Melbourne". [[Empire (newspaper).
  25. (9 September 1884). "Extension of the Railway to Mudgee". National Library of Australia.
  26. Bozier, Rolfe. "Gwabegar Line". NSWrail.net.
  27. [https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/title/648 Mudgee Guardian and North-Western Representative], trove.nla.gov.au. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  28. Chammas, Michael. (23 April 2012). "Classy Carney closes on Origin spot with sizzling show". [[Brisbane Times]].
  29. (19 October 2018). "Dragons announce Mudgee fixtures for 2019".
  30. (11 July 2018). "Wanderers to take Community match to Mudgee as part of new Regional Strategy".
  31. (15 May 2014). "ICAC searches Mid-Western Regional Council offices in Mudgee".
  32. (21 May 2014). "Mid-Western Council abandons extraordinary meeting over ICAC inquiry".
  33. "Mudgee". Visit NSW.
  34. "People's rally protests Mudgee conference {{!}} Beyond Zero Emissions".
  35. (5 January 2015). "Petrol prices down but Mudgee still among most expensive towns to fill up".
  36. (17 September 2014). "If everyone thinks it's a bubble, it probably isn't".
  37. "Australia has to face up to the facts on coal".
  38. "Real FM".
  39. {{Census 2021 AUS
  40. "5 July 1900 Snowstorm".
  41. {{BoM Aust stats. (April 2013)
  42. ""Regent Theatre" {{!}} NSW Environment, Energy and Science".
  43. {{cite NSW SHR. 5045728. St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Presbytery, Convent & Hall
  44. {{cite NSW SHR. 5045732. Mudgee Town Hall
  45. {{cite NSW SHR. 5045269. Mudgee Post Office & Quarters
  46. {{cite NSW SHR. 5053370. Binnawee Homestead and Outbuildings
  47. {{cite NSW SHR. 5012115. Mudgee Railway Station, yard and locomotive yard
  48. (9 July 2012). "St John's Anglican Church Mudgee P.1". Mudgeehistory.com.au.
  49. "Mudgee Catholic Church :: Home". Mudgee.catholic.org.au.
  50. "Mudgee, St Paul's Presbyterian Church – Find a Presbyterian Church". Findapresbyterianchurch.com.
  51. "Uniting Church Mudgee and Rylstone".
  52. "Contact Us". Frontline.org.au.
  53. "Google Maps". Google Maps.
  54. Jones, Andrew. (16 October 2012). "Mudgee Corps ť". My.salvos.org.au.
  55. "Mudgee Seventh-day Adventist Church – Home". Mudgee.adventist.org.au.
  56. Cudgegong Valley Public School in All Our Best. "Home". Cudgegongv-p.schools.nsw.edu.au.
  57. "Mudgee Public School". Mudgeepublic.com.au.
  58. (30 March 2012). "St Matthews Central School Mudgee NSW Australia". Stmattsmudgee.nsw.edu.au.
  59. "Mudgee College : TAFE Western". Wit.tafensw.edu.au.
  60. "Statistics by Catalogue Number". Australian Bureau of Statistics.
  61. "Search Census data". Australian Bureau of Statistics.

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