Clarence, New South Wales Explained

Type:town
Clarence
State:NSW
Pop:200
Pop Footnotes:[1]
Elevation:1112.8
Lga:City of Lithgow
Fedgov:Calare
Stategov:Bathurst
Dist1:135
Dir1:W
Location1:Sydney
Dist2:10
Dir2:W
Dist3:10
Dir3:E
Location3:Lithgow
Near-Nw:Oakey Park
Near-N:State Mine Gully
Near-Ne:Bell
Near-W:Corney Town
Near-E:Dargan
Near-Sw:Hartley, Vale Of Clwydd
Near-S:Hartley
Near-Se:Dargan, Hartley Vale

Clarence is a location in New South Wales, Australia. It was originally a railway outpost on the original railway line across the Blue Mountains, but by 1908 when Clarence was used as headquarters for the Ten Tunnels Deviation works, the town population had flourished to over 5,000 residents, the majority being the navvies employed on the deviation works. When the deviation was opened in 1910, the town population quickly fell, despite a new platform built on the new deviation.

History

Clarence was originally a railway outpost on the Main Western railway line. The original railway station was opened in 1869 and closed in 1910 when the Zig Zag Railway was bypassed for the Ten Tunnels Deviation.

Population

In the 2016 Census, there were 200 people in Clarence. 74.6% of people were born in Australia and 87.6% of people spoke only English at home.[1]

Zig Zag Railway

See main article: Zig Zag Railway. In 1975, the Lithgow Zig Zag, which had been abandoned for 65 years was taken over by the Zig Zag Railway enthusiast enterprise. Narrow gauge track was laid on the alignment and several withdrawn ex-Q.R steam locomotives were imported for use on the Zig Zag tourist line. Today, it is one of Australia's most well-known tourist lines and the original station at Clarence has since been restored for use as the terminus.

There is the nearby Clarence Colliery, opened in the 1970s, that was closed and then re-opened again. It is served by a loop line that branches off Newnes Junction.

References

  1. Material was copied from this source, which is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.