Sunny Corner

Sunny Corner is a small village in the central west of New South Wales, Australia and former mining area located between Lithgow and Bathurst just north of the Great Western Highway (Route 32).

Sunny Corner is a small village in the central west of New South Wales, Australia and former mining area located between Lithgow and Bathurst just north of the Great Western Highway (Route 32). At the 2016 census, Sunny Corner had a population of 92 people (down from 626 people ten years earlier at the 2006 census).

Sunny Corner was never officially known as Sunny Corner until it was gazetted in 1885. In consequence the place was brought into existence by the development and success of the Sunny Corner Silver-mining Company's mine, and therefore the people generally acquired the habit of calling the whole place, including the newly surveyed town, after the company's property. By November 1884 there was talk of Sunny Corner being named Mitchell. This became a reality by February 1885, however the townsfolk were not in favour of the new name. The township was also called Mitchell's Creek but the local community always called the area Sunny Corner and the name continued in use.

The original inhabitants of the area later called Sunny Corner were Aboriginal people, probably from the Wiradjuri tribe or nation. Although by the time written records of the area were created there were no Aboriginal people living there, Powys notes some archaeological evidence of their occupation in the form of stone axes.The town of Sunny Corner grew up following the discovery of silver lodes in the area in 1884. This prompted a "rush" to the area, which had previously not been settled, and a town grew up on Crown Land adjacent to the mining leases.

The village of Sunny Corner was formally gazetted on 2 October 1885 (as R No 122). The gazette also revoked temporary reserves presumably gazetted to cover the rush to Sunny Corner. Immediately to the north-west a recreation reserve was gazetted, and a camping reserve was located on the southern border of the town.

In January 1886 an anonymous correspondent to the Sydney Morning Herald described Sunny Corner as having a population "anything from 1600 to 3000". The town was described as follows:

There is one long, comparatively straight street, on which most of the dwellings are built, while here and there about the ranges habitations are dotted in all sorts of nooks and corners. A galvanised iron roof is de rigueur, but the materials for the wall may be either "wattle and daub" sawn hardwood, or slabs cut with an adze. The names for such buildings as are the general resort of the public are of the most select type. There are the Royal, the Criterion, and Star Hotels, and the Carrington billiard room the Sunny Corner Boot Palace, Sunny Corner Coffee Palace and the Tattersall's saddler's store."

Later, on 3 September 1887, the village was gazetted as a town.The 1885 survey plan shows a number of buildings and features in situ at the time of the survey and thus records the nature of the township at that time. Like many working class settlements of the time Sunny Corner had a School of Arts. In the late 1890s it had a well-regarded choir with a classical repertoire.