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Bargo | |||||||||||||
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 Remembrance Drive, the town'shigh street | |||||||||||||
  Bargo | |||||||||||||
| Coordinates:34°17′27″S150°34′47″E / 34.290955°S 150.579701°E /-34.290955; 150.579701 | |||||||||||||
| Country | Australia | ||||||||||||
| State | New South Wales | ||||||||||||
| Region | Macarthur | ||||||||||||
| LGA | |||||||||||||
| Location |
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| Government | |||||||||||||
| • State electorate | |||||||||||||
| • Federal division | |||||||||||||
| Elevation | 338 m (1,109 ft) | ||||||||||||
| Population | |||||||||||||
| • Total | 4,516 (2021 census)[2] | ||||||||||||
| Postcode | 2574 | ||||||||||||
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Bargo is a town in theMacarthur Region ofGreater Sydney inNew South Wales, Australia, in theWollondilly Shire. It is located approximately halfway betweenCampbelltown andBowral, about 100 km south west of the Sydney CBD.
It is situated between the township ofTahmoor (north) and the village ofYanderra (south), and accessible via the Hume Highway that links Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne. It was previously known asWest Bargo andCobargo.
The name Bargo may be derived from the localAboriginal language nameBarago, meaning cripple, thick scrub, or brushwood.[3] The earliest reference toBarago was noted as byGeorge Caley in a letter toSir Joseph Banks on 25 September 1807. TheAboriginal people, called the Bargo areaNarregarang, meaning that the soil was not firm – a shaky place.[4][5] Caley's Aboriginal guide Mowatiin referred to the area's name as meaning "place of cliffs" or "thick shrubs".[6]
Early explorers and convicts found getting through the Bargo area a difficult experience due to the thick scrub, explorers dubbing the tricky bush the "Bargo Brush". In early colonial times, Bargo Brush became notorious among travellers for harbouring convicts who had escaped from captivity and becomebushrangers.[7]
Bayley quotes William Riley, who passed through Bargo Brush on horseback in 1830:[4]
"... a miserable, barren scrub, thickly wooded for eight miles; there having been so much rain lately this abominable part of the road was a continuation of bogs for eight miles." Soon the Brush, with its thickets for hideouts, became the lurking place for robbers and caused travel to become fraught with peril. TheSydney Gazette of 17 March 1832 reported the road as ". . . one uninterrupted morass"!
J. H. Heaton, under the heading 'Crimes and Criminals, Remarkable' lists "Desperate conflict between four police and eleven prisoners at Bargo Brush, N.S.W. Constable Raymond shot dead by a prisoner named James Crookwell, 15 April 1866."[8]
Bargo is noted as being where the first recorded sightings of thelyrebird,koala andwombat took place by European settlers. Bargo is also near the site of an infamousmassacre in 1816, when settlers forced local Aborigines to walk off a big cliff and shot them if they refused.[9] Bargo Police Station, now abandoned, is currently used as a doctors' surgery. The lock-ups remain behind the building. The patrol area of the Bargo Police Station included Pheasants Nest, Bargo, parts of Tahmoor and Yanderra.
Bargo railway station was first opened on 19 July 1919 asWest Bargo and then renamed in 1921 asBargo.[10] The station is on theMain South line and is served bySydney TrainsSouthern Highlands Line services. The original Bargo railway station building on the eastern side of the platform was destroyed by arson; it was replaced by ademountable building.[citation needed]
Bargo has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:
At the time of the2016 census, there were 4,393 people in Bargo.
Wollondilly AFL Club
Australian Football was established in Bargo in 1982 at the Bargo Sportsground. Firstly with the Wollondilly Junior Australian Football Club – The Cygnets with teams from U9's – U15's competing in the Greater West Sydney Competition. Then followed in 1989 Wollondilly Senior Australian Football Club – The Knights fielding First Grade and Reserve teams in the South Coast AFL Competition. In 2014 Wollondilly Senior Australian Football Club moved into the Sydney AFL Competition, competing in Division 4. Both Junior & Senior clubs now play home games at Hannaford Oval, Wilton.
Yerrinbool-Bargo Bushrangers
Bargo is home to theYerrinbool-Bargo Bushrangers football team. The team was established by a group of men in the Pub one night, the Bushrangers now have teams from Under 6 to All Age Men & Women competing in the Highlands Competition. Notably, the Yerrinbool-Bargo coalition soccer team is one of the only local soccer teams where two places of different regions and councils form a coalition;Yerrinbool is of theSouthern Highlands andWingecarribee Shire while Bargo is part of theWollondilly Shire andMacarthur Region.
Bargo Rural Fire Brigade
Bargo Rural Fire Brigade was established 1939. From its humble beginnings, the brigade's few handtools and drum of water have been constantly upgraded to its present-day Pumper, Heavy Tanker and Light Tankers, housed in the purpose-built Village Two category building on the outskirts of the township. The brigade's services include fighting structure fires and bush fires in the local area and attending vehicle accidents on the Hume Highway where passes throughWilton,Pheasants Nest andYanderra. Bargo Fire Brigade assists with out-of-area disasters, for example, the 1994 Sydney Bushfires, the Sydney Hail Storm of 1999, the bushfires of the Christmas period 2001/2002, and 2007 Gosford storm damage.
The Brigade celebrated its 70th year of operation on 26 December 2009.
Bargo Yanderra Tennis Association
has recently upgraded facilities with new court surfaces and is currently running an interclub competition between Thirlmere tennis club and Bargo. Ladies social competition are usually run on a Tuesday during school terms.
W. A. Bayley observed:[4]
"The whole road was a nightmare with its succession of bogs wherebullock waggons sank to their axles. Drivers cut saplings tocorduroy sections of the road and threw stones into bogholes. Teams on unbogged waggons were attached to teams on bogged vehicles to help pull them free; sometimes only to see them sink again! A waggon could take a couple of days from Bargo River toMittagong, camping the night anywhere aroundYerrinbool, then called Little Forest, before the steep climb of Catherine Hill which would then be attacked with fresh bullocks in the morning... TheSydney Morning Herald of 2 June 1865 reported that it had not been uncommon to see all the types of vehicles 'stuck fast or rather half buried in the numerous sloughs ... filled with mud .'
A verse of the Australian folk songStringybark andGreenhide (circa 1865) celebrates the bad reputation amongbullock drivers of the Bargo roads:[15]
"If you travel on the road, and chance to stick in Bargo,
To avoid a bad capsize, you must unload your cargo;
For to pull a dray about, I do not see the force on,
Take a bit of greenhide, and hook another horse on."
Text is licensed by State of New South Wales (Department of Planning and Environment) underCC BY 4.0licence. Text is licensed by State of New South Wales (Department of Planning and Environment) underCC BY 4.0licence. Text is licensed by State of New South Wales (Department of Planning and Environment) underCC BY 4.0licence.