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.
| Clarence New South Wales | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
  Clarence | |||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 33°28′25″S 150°13′34″E / 33.47361°S 150.22611°E | ||||||||||||||
| Population | 200 (2016 census)[1] | ||||||||||||||
| Elevation | 1,112.8 m (3,651 ft) | ||||||||||||||
| Location | |||||||||||||||
| LGA(s) | City of Lithgow | ||||||||||||||
| State electorate(s) | Bathurst | ||||||||||||||
| Federal division(s) | Calare | ||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
History
editClarence 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
editIn 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
editIn 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 Narrow gauge track was laid on the alignment and several withdrawn ex-Q.R steam locomotives were imported for use on the Zig Zag tourist line.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.
See also
edit
References
edit- ^ a b Australian Bureau of Statistics (27 June 2017). "Clarence (State Suburb)". 2016 Census QuickStats. Retrieved 27 October 2018.
Material was copied from this source, which is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
- Belbin, Phillip; Burke, David, 1927- (1981), Full steam across the mountains, Methuen Australia, ISBN 978-0-454-00278-2
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - Hicks, George; O'Brien, Dennis (1999), Shays in the Valley, ISBN 0-909862-50-8
- Langdon, Mark (2006), Conquering the Blue Mountains, Eveleigh Press, ISBN 978-1-876568-30-6