Dubbo NSW Australia

Dubbo is a city in the Orana Region of New South Wales, Australia. It is the largest population centre in the Orana region, with a population of 32,327, and serves an estimated catchment of 130,000.

It is located at the intersection of the Mitchell, Newell and Golden highways. Dubbo is located approximately above sea level, north-west of the state capital Sydney (400 km (249 mi) by road) and is a major road and rail freight hub to other parts of New South Wales. Dubbo is considered the cross-roads of New South Wales. It is linked by national highways north to Brisbane, south to Melbourne, east to Sydney and Newcastle, and west to Broken Hill and Adelaide.

Dubbo is included in the rainfall records and weather forecast region for the Central West Slopes and in the Central West Slopes and Plains division of the Bureau of Meteorology forecasts.

History

Evidence of habitation by Indigenous Australians dates back approximately 40,000 years.

The explorer, John Oxley, was the first European to report on the area now known as Dubbo in 1818. The first permanent European settler in the area was Robert Dulhunty, described as one of the wealthiest citizens in the Australian colony at the time. There are records of squatters being given permission to set up large sheep and cattle stations in the area in 1824 but these were not maintained. Dulhunty occupied a property, known as Dubbo station (established in 1828), from the early 1830s on a squatting basis. With the passing of the Squatting Act in 1836 he took out a licence on the property.