page_title: Carcoar, New South Wales
section_title: Settlers
hierarchical_section_title: Carcoar, New South Wales / History / Settlers
context_page_description: Carcoar is a town in the Central West region of New South Wales, Australia, in Blayney Shire. In 2016, the town had a population of 200 people. It is situated just off the Mid-Western Highway 258 km west of Sydney and 52 km south-west of Bathurst and is 720 m above sea level. It is located in a small green valley, with the township and buildings on both banks of the Belubula River. It is the third oldest settlement west of the Blue Mountains. Carcoar is a Gundungurra word meaning either frog or kookaburra. Nearby towns are Blayney, Millthorpe, Mandurama, Neville, Lyndhurst and Barry
  It was once one of the most important government centres in Western New South Wales. The town has been classified by the National Trust due to the number of intact 19th-century buildings, with a significant amount of cultural materials relating to 19th century Australian life.
  St Paul's Anglican Church is one of the oldest churches in the state, with graves dating back to the 1800s. It was reported in 2019 that the Anglican diocese plans to sell it to raise money for compensation for the church's sex abuse victims, a move which has outraged locals, who spent their own money on restorations.
context_section_description: The original occupants were the Wiradjuri Aboriginals. The first European to travel through the area was surveyor George Evans, who, heading south-west from Bathurst in 1815, sighted evidence of the Wiradjuri presence. "Belubula" has been identified as the Wiradjuri word for "stony river".
  The first European settlers arrived in 1821. The first official land grant, comprising 560 acres (2.3 km²), was issued to Thomas Icely on 26 May 1829. He named it Coombing. In 1838 Thomas Icely requested that a village be established to service his large pastoral estate. On 29 September 1839 Carcoar became just the third settlement west of the Blue Mountains to be gazetted.
  The first allotments in the town were sold in 1840. By 1850 Carcoar was the second most populous town west of the mountains, second in size only to Bathurst, and became a banking and administrative centre for the area.  In 1857 the town's public school opened. It has continued to function as a school since that day, making it one of the oldest continuous schools in Australia.
  The main street is Naylor Street. It was named after the first Anglican minister, the Reverend Thomas Beagley Naylor.
  Tenders were called in March 1842 for the construction of a court house and lock up and these structures were built soon after. The court house also served as a place of worship. It was replaced by a second court house, of an Italianate design, that was commenced in 1879 and finished in 1882.
  The discovery of gold further to the west in the mid-1860s started the decline of the town. The government began erecting a number of significant public buildings starting in the late 1870s.
caption: Historic machinery outside the Stoke Stable Museum
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot A95", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2006:09:25 14:46:38", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS Windows", "Image ExifOffset": "320", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1230", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8929", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/500", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2006:09:22 11:19:26", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2006:09:22 11:19:26", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "287/32", "EXIF ApertureValue": "159/32", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "95/32", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash fired, compulsory flash mode, red-eye reduction mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "125/16", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1200", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "900", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "2592", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "1944", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1080", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "2592000/283", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "486000/53", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}