Bathurst (pop. 36,230) is a city in central New South Wales, Australia, about 130 miles (210 kilometers) west of Sydney. Bathurst lies in an area of rich, fertile plains on the south bank of the Macquarie River. The surrounding countryside contains some of the best pastureland in the state. 
Bathurst is a center of tourism. Many people visit the city to see its fine examples of Georgian and Victorian architecture dating from the period when New South Wales was a British colony. Such structures include the Bathurst Court House, Bathurst Gaol, and Bathurst Railway Station. The Ben Chifley House serves as a memorial to the prime minister of Australia from 1945 to 1949. It is also a museum of life in the early 1900’s. The Australian Fossil and Mineral Museum features a collection of rare fossils and minerals that includes a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton. It is housed in a school building dating from the 1870’s. The Bathurst Regional Art Gallery celebrates contemporary Australian art. 
Kings Parade, a park in central Bathurst, features several public memorials. The Bathurst South African War Memorial, presented in 1910, commemorates the soldiers who died in the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902. The George Evans Memorial, dedicated in 1920, recognizes the British surveyor who encountered the Bathurst Plains and the Macquarie River in 1813 and named both features. The Bathurst War Memorial Carillon, a set of musical bells housed in a tower, opened in Kings Parade in 1933. It honors men and women who served in World War I (1914-1918) and other conflicts.
Mount Panorama, in southwest Bathurst, is home to an automobile-racing course. It hosts many road races each year, including the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) Bathurst 1000. Mount Panorama is also home to the National Motor Racing Museum.
In addition to being a tourism center, Bathurst has a number of factories. The Edgell canning factory processes many of the fruit and vegetable products of the area. Other factories in Bathurst produce cans for the food industry, footwear, and precision engineering goods. Bathurst is also an important railroad center. Additionally, the city and district are noted for their educational facilities, including several boarding schools and the main campus of Charles Sturt University.
The Wiradjuri people are the traditional inhabitants of the land on which Bathurst stands. They are one of the largest Aboriginal groups in New South Wales. Lachlan Macquarie, the governor of New South Wales, founded Bathurst in 1815. It was the first inland settlement established by Europeans in Australia. Macquarie named the settlement after his British supervisor, Henry, Earl of Bathurst.
Beginning in 1822, conflict arose between the settlers and the Wiradjuri people. Many settlers established large sheep stations (ranches) on the land, thus impacting the Wiradjuri hunting grounds. Aboriginal warriors, including the Wiradjuri leader Windradyne, carried out raids on sheep stations in 1822 and 1823. In 1824, a local farmer killed several Wiradjuri people. Windradyne then led a series of attacks on nearby sheep stations. After months of violence, Bathurst was placed under temporary martial law (military control). British soldiers killed many Wiradjuri people in the military campaign that followed. This conflict, later called the Bathurst War, ended with Windradyne’s surrender in December 1824. Windradyne died in 1929 and was buried just north of Bathurst. In 2006, the government of New South Wales established Windradyne’s grave as a protected state heritage site. 
On Feb. 12, 1851, the prospector Edward Hargraves, with his assistant John Lister, found grains of gold in Lewis Ponds Creek, near Bathurst. Lister and Hargraves’s other assistants—the brothers William, James, and Henry Tom—discovered more gold near Bathurst in April. They sent the news to Hargraves in Sydney, and Hargraves proclaimed the discovery of gold. This discovery marked the beginning of gold rushes in Australia and drove a period of mass immigration to New South Wales. The colony’s population increased from 200,000 in 1851 to 357,000 a decade later. 
The gold rush helped transform Bathurst into a commercial center. During the 1850’s, Bathurst’s population doubled to more than 4,000. In 1862, Bathurst became a municipality. Also in 1862, the famous American coach company Cobb and Co. set up its headquarters in Bathurst. Cobb and Co. transported gold, freight, mail, and passengers from Bathurst to surrounding villages and beyond. A railway connecting Sydney to Bathurst opened in 1876. In 1885, Bathurst was proclaimed a city. By the end of the 1800’s its population had surpassed 9,000.
