Molong | |
|---|---|
 The main shopping area of Molong, Bank Street | |
  Molong | |
| Coordinates:33°06′0″S148°51′0″E / 33.10000°S 148.85000°E /-33.10000; 148.85000 | |
| Country | Australia |
| State | New South Wales |
| LGA | |
| Location |
|
| Established | 1849[citation needed] |
| Government | |
| • State electorate | |
| • Federal division | |
| Elevation | 565 m (1,854 ft) |
| Population | |
| • Total | 1,621 (UCL2021)[2] |
| Postcode | 2866 |
| Mean max temp | 22.3 °C (72.1 °F) |
| Mean min temp | 6.2 °C (43.2 °F) |
| Annual rainfall | 707.7 mm (27.86 in) |
Molong is a small town in theCentral West region ofNew South Wales, Australia, inCabonne Shire.
The name Molong comes from theAboriginal word for 'all rocks'.[3]
William Lee of Kelso is said to have had cattle in the area by 1819. He later held property just north of present Molong, around Larras Lee. In 1826, a military and police outpost was established at Molong, onGovernor Darling's orders, as a step in opening up the government stock reserve west of the Macquarie River for settlement. For its first twenty years the settlement was at a site approximately 1.5 km (0.93 mi) east of the current location. The present village of Molong was officially gazetted in March 1849.[4][5] In 1845, Copper was discovered at Copper Hill, just north of the town.[5]
The Historical Museum is housed in a former hotel (1856), built byrubble-mason James Mortal, who sold it in 1861 toJohn Smith of Gamboola. Smith let the building to a series of publicans and it later became the residence and surgery for a series of doctors. The Historical Society acquired it for use as a museum, in 1969, with help from the Molong Shire Council.
In November 2022 many of the town's buildings were damaged in a flood.[6]
Molong has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:
Molong is located on theMitchell Highway about 300 kilometres (190 mi) west ofSydney and about 30 kilometres (19 mi) from the city ofOrange, and an elevation of 529 metres above sea level. At the2021 census, Molong had a population of 1,621 people.[9]Charles Sturt visited Molong in 1828. Molong was the site of an earlycopper mine in Australia, located at Copper Hill just outside Molong.
Therailway from Sydney reached Molong in 1886; it was later extended toParkes.[10] Abranch railway toDubbo was opened in 1925 and closed in 1987.[11]
Despite Molong's elevation, it still manages to have ahumid subtropical climate (Cfa) due to its northern latitude, having warm to hot summers and cool to cold winters with the odd snowfall. While mean temperatures have been recorded since 1907 at the site, extreme temperature records are found only between 1957 and 1975.
Perhaps the most extreme weather event to have affected Molong since European colonisation was the snowfall on 5 July 1900, having fallen to a depth of 1 ft 3 in (38 cm) in town, with snow drifts in some areas reported to an exceptional depth of 11 ft (3.4 m).[12][13]
| Climate data for Molong (Hill St, 1907–1975, rainfall 1884–2022); 565 m AMSL; 33.09° S, 148.86° E | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 42.3 (108.1) | 40.0 (104.0) | 37.8 (100.0) | 32.8 (91.0) | 27.2 (81.0) | 23.3 (73.9) | 21.7 (71.1) | 25.7 (78.3) | 32.8 (91.0) | 33.9 (93.0) | 37.8 (100.0) | 40.3 (104.5) | 42.3 (108.1) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 31.0 (87.8) | 30.1 (86.2) | 27.5 (81.5) | 22.5 (72.5) | 17.4 (63.3) | 14.0 (57.2) | 12.9 (55.2) | 14.7 (58.5) | 18.6 (65.5) | 22.6 (72.7) | 26.4 (79.5) | 29.5 (85.1) | 22.3 (72.1) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 13.3 (55.9) | 13.2 (55.8) | 10.3 (50.5) | 6.0 (42.8) | 2.8 (37.0) | 0.9 (33.6) | −0.1 (31.8) | 0.6 (33.1) | 2.4 (36.3) | 5.4 (41.7) | 8.4 (47.1) | 11.4 (52.5) | 6.2 (43.2) |
| Record low °C (°F) | 3.4 (38.1) | 2.2 (36.0) | 0.6 (33.1) | −2.9 (26.8) | −6.7 (19.9) | −7.8 (18.0) | −8.8 (16.2) | −7.2 (19.0) | −4.4 (24.1) | −4.4 (24.1) | −0.6 (30.9) | 1.7 (35.1) | −8.8 (16.2) |
| Averageprecipitation mm (inches) | 69.8 (2.75) | 57.0 (2.24) | 58.2 (2.29) | 51.4 (2.02) | 52.3 (2.06) | 59.9 (2.36) | 59.4 (2.34) | 61.5 (2.42) | 54.0 (2.13) | 58.4 (2.30) | 60.6 (2.39) | 64.1 (2.52) | 707.7 (27.86) |
| Average precipitation days(≥ 0.2 mm) | 6.6 | 5.7 | 5.7 | 5.4 | 7.3 | 9.6 | 10.4 | 9.5 | 8.2 | 7.9 | 6.8 | 6.5 | 89.6 |
| Source:Australian Bureau of Meteorology[14] | |||||||||||||
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
|---|---|---|
| 1921 | 1,503 | — |
| 1933 | 1,531 | +1.9% |
| 1947 | 1,662 | +8.6% |
| 1954 | 1,791 | +7.8% |
| 1961 | 1,655 | −7.6% |
| 1966 | 1,430 | −13.6% |
| 1971 | 1,383 | −3.3% |
| 1976 | 1,504 | +8.7% |
| 1981 | 1,374 | −8.6% |
| 1986 | 1,400 | +1.9% |
| 1991 | 1,563 | +11.6% |
| 1996 | 1,604 | +2.6% |
| 2001 | 1,560 | −2.7% |
| 2006 | 1,569 | +0.6% |
| 2011 | 1,629 | +3.8% |
| 2016 | 1,674 | +2.8% |
| 2021 | 1,621 | −3.2% |
| Source:Australian Bureau of Statistics data.[15][16] | ||
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.
Media related toMolong at Wikimedia Commons
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