The main street of Ivanhoe

Ivanhoe
Small quiet service centre in Outback New South Wales
Ivanhoe is a quiet, unassuming town characterised by a particularly wide main street. Located 826 km west of Sydney via the Great and Mid Western Highways and 90 metres above sea-level it has some 500 residents.

The town was originally situated on a well-used route across flat, western New South Wales between Wilcannia and both Balranald and Booligal.

George Williamson purchased the first land in the area between 1869 and 1873 and became a central figure in the town's development. He established a branch store with a liquor license in 1870. At that stage the store and a bark hut constituted the town. The Ivanhoe Hotel came into existence by 1872 and a Post Office opened on January 1, 1874.

The town's name probably came from Williamson who named it after Sir Walter Scott's novel Ivanhoe. Williamson was a Scot and there were a number of Scots in the area. They looked to their country of origin (and its most famous novelist) for other local place names - Mossgiel, Glenro, Waverley (another novel by Scott) and Abbotsford (Scott's birthplace).

A telegraph station opened in 1883, by which time there were about 50 residents, a blacksmith's shop, two hotels, two stores, the telegraph office and a few cottages. The town was a change station (where coach horses were changed) for Cobb & Co. by 1884. A police station opened the following year and a school in 1889. Ivanhoe was proclaimed a village in 1890. The arrival of the railway in 1925, and the completion of the line from Sydney to Broken Hill in 1927, was a definite boost to the town.

There is little information available on the local Aborigines. However it is clear that there was, in general, intense and violent conflict over European settlement of the far west of NSW until the 1850s and 1860s. On the shore of Boolaboolka Lake, to the east, a group of whites shot a entire tribe and left the skeletons to bleach in the sun.

The Carowra Tank Aboriginal Settlement was later established under the supervision of the Mossgiel police and a local resident recalls no conflict from this period. In the 1930s the tank dried up and the Aborigines moved away although some have, over time, made their way back.

Today Ivanhoe is a railhead and service centre for the surrounding pastoral industry and a stopover for those travelling on the Cobb Highway.

Things to see:  

Looking around the town
A good introduction to the town can be had by following the eight signposted locations on the Ivanhoe Heritage Trail. Each location offers a detailed description and history of (1) the arrival of the railway (2) the Government Tank (3) the Post Office (4) Bushrangers (5) Watering Holes (6) Industrial trouble (7) the Cobb Highway and (8) Reminiscences. All sites, except the railway station, are located within a block of the main street. A pamphlet is available from the post office and other retail outlets, and a book with more detailed information can be purchased for $8.50.

	Tourist Information
	Ivanhoe Post Office Columbus St Ivanhoe NSW 2878 Telephone: (02) 6995 1140
	Caravan Parks
	Ivanhoe Caravan & Cabin Park Columbus St Ivanhoe NSW 2878 Telephone: (02) 6995 1277 or 6995 1123
	Restaurants
	Ivanhoe R.S.L. Club Columbus St Ivanhoe NSW 2878 Telephone: (02) 6995 1166