Crookwell is a small town located in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia, in the Upper Lachlan Shire.
Crookwell is a small town located in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia, in the Upper Lachlan Shire. At the 2016 census, Crookwell had a population of 2,641. The town is at a relatively high altitude of 887 metres and there are several snowfalls annually, especially during the winter months. The nearest major centre is the city of Goulburn which is about a half-hour drive to the south-east of the town. Crookwell is easily accessible to the state capital of Sydney and also the federal capital of Canberra.
Most employment is based on rural industries, and the district is renowned for potato farming. Crookwell is also home to what was NSW's first wind farm, which consists of 8 turbines, and is located a few kilometres out of town on the road towards Goulburn.
A railway once connected Goulburn and Crookwell, which opened in 1902, but passenger services to Crookwell station ceased in 1974, and the last goods train ran in 1985. The line is technically not closed, but has been listed as out of use, and in some locations is now impassable.
History
The area now known as Crookwell lies within the traditional lands of the Gundangurra people. These people spoke a similar if not identical language to the neighbouring Ngunnawalpeople to their south.The first Europeans known to be in the area were the exploratory party of surveyor James Meehan which camped 1 km south of present-day Grabben Gullen (12 km south-west of Crookwell). John Oxley passed to the north and east later that same year. Crookwell was originally known as "Kiama". The area around Crookwell was first settled in the 1820s, and had received its current name by the 1860s. After this, selection of blocks occurred; and the population of was over 100 by midway through that decade. The first allotments were sold at the end of the decade. By the mid-1870s the population had already reached 1000 people.From 1941 to 1945, 508,500 tons of iron ore was mined—about six miles by road from the town—and railed to Port Kembla for wartime steel production.
Weather
Owing to its exposed western location on the upwind side of the Great Dividing Range and high altitude, snow falls frequently during the winter months, with its snowfall often exceeding that of more elevated towns in the Central Tablelands (such as Oberon). Summers are warm and dry, with occasional severe thunderstorms. Winters are cold and wet; during westerly frontal systems, daily maximum temperatures can struggle to exceed 3 °C (37 °F).
Things to do