Collector, New South Wales

Collector is a small village in New South Wales, Australia. It is on the Federal Highway between Goulburn, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory and is 7km north of Lake George.

The area was first settled by Europeans in 1829. T.A. Murray started a farm and built a 12-room house on the land in 1837. A post office opened at Collector in 1848.  The village is named after the Australian aboriginal name for the area, colegadar.   The village was by-passed by the Federal Highway in 1988.

The Bushranger Hotel in Collector was the site of the shooting of policeman, Constable Samuel Nelson on 26 Jan 1865, by John Dunn. Dunn was a bushranger and a member of Ben Hall's gang. The bushrangers were robbing the hotel when Nelson tried to stop them.

Other businesses in the village are: The Grapefoodwine Restaurant, Lynwood Café /Restaurant, Cafe Lerida of Lerida Estate Winery, Collector Art Gallery and Collector Quarries.

Collector is also famous for the sculpture Dreamers Gate  by Tony Phantastes. He built it between 1993 and 1997 to as a memorial, among other things, to his father. It is a gothic sculpture made of cement and wire 24 metres long and 7 metres high. The artist and the Gunning Shire Council have been arguing over the sculpture since 1999.http://www.aussieheritage.com.au/listings/nsw/Collector/DreamersGate/3961 The council want the sculpture removed because it is unsafe.

References

 Exploring the ACT and Southeast New South Wales, J. Kay McDonald, Kangaroo Press, Sydney, 1985 
  Australian Heritage Listing, Dreamers Gate

Other websites

 Collector
 Fight over Dreamer's Gate 

Category:Towns in New South Wales