Dubbo


Dubbo is a city in the Orana Region of New South Wales, Australia. It is the largest population centre in the Orana region, with a population of 43,516 at June 2021.
The city is located at the intersection of the Newell, Mitchell, and Golden highways. Dubbo officially became a city in the year 1966. Dubbo is located roughly above sea level, north-west of Sydney and is a major road and rail freight hub to other parts of New South Wales. It is linked by national highways north to Brisbane and Charleville, south towards Melbourne and Canberra, east to Sydney, Newcastle and Gosford and west to Broken Hill and Adelaide.
Dubbo is included in the rainfall and weather forecast region for the Central West Slopes and in the Central West Slopes and Plains division of the Bureau of Meteorology forecasts.

History

Evidence of habitation by the Wiradjuri tribe, Indigenous Australians dates back over 40,000 years.
Explorer and surveyor John Oxley was the first European to report on the area, now known as Dubbo, in 1818. The first permanent British colonists in the area were English-born Robert Dulhunty and his brother Lawrence Dulhunty.
Dulhunty occupied a property, known as Dubbo Station, from the early 1830s on a squatting basis. With the passing of the Squatting Act in 1836, he took out a licence on the property.
Dulhunty showed an affinity with Indigenous Australians, his party included some 40 Aboriginals and he favoured using Aboriginal names for properties, including Dubbo. Dubbo is now thought to be a mispronunciation of the local Wiradjuri word thubbo, but because of a lack of precise records from Dulhunty at the time and an incomplete knowledge of the Wiradjuri language today, some conjecture remains over the word's meaning. Some references indicate that Dubbo was the name of an old Wiradjuri man who resided at the site when Dulhunty took the land. Dubbo's name apparently meant "red soil", consistent with the local landscape. Thubbo or tubbo possibly is Wiradjuri for "head covering".
Dundullimal Homestead is a farmhouse from that period, built around 1840 by John Maugham on his sheep station. The building is one of the oldest homesteads still standing in western NSW and today is open to visitors.
In 1846, due to the number of settlers in the area, the government decided to establish a courthouse, police station, and lock-up in the Dubbo area. A constable's residence was completed in 1847 and a wooden slab-construction courthouse and lock-up was completed in early 1848. By this time, the settlement had only four buildings - the constable's residence, courthouse and lock-up, a store, and an inn.
Due to the lack of title for the land, in 1848, storekeeper Jean Emile Serisier organised a petition asking for a land sale of town allotments. The plan was presented to the colony's surveyor general in May 1849 by surveyor G. Boyle White. The settlement was gazetted as a village in November 1849 with the first land sales taking place in 1850. Population growth was slow until the Victorian gold rush of the 1860s brought an increase in north–south trade. The first bank was opened in 1867. Steady population growth caused the town to be proclaimed a municipality in 1872, when its population was 850. The railway extension of the main western railway from Wellington to Dubbo was formally opened on 1 February 1881. By 1897, Dubbo had a general store, Carrier Arms, a slab courthouse, a jail, and a police hut. The final section of the Molong to Dubbo railway opened in late May 1925.
Dubbo was officially proclaimed a city in 1966.

Heritage listings

Dubbo has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:
The Macquarie River runs through Dubbo, as does Troy Creek. The City of Dubbo lies within a transition zone between the ranges and tablelands of the Great Dividing Range to the east and the Darling Basin plains to the west.

Climate

Dubbo falls in the warm temperate climate zone. Under the Köppen climate classification, Dubbo has a humid subtropical climate that borders the semi-arid climate. Summers are warm to hot, and winters cool to cold, bringing some occurrences of early morning frost but generally no snowfall - unlike the nearby city of Orange. The last occurrence of snow was recorded by The Dubbo Liberal and Macquarie Advocate in July 1951 and 1920, with a heavy fall of snow in July 1900. The town's location in this transition area allows a large temperature variation during the year, with high summer temperatures, often peaking above typical of western New South Wales, and colder subzero temperatures typical of the Central Tablelands in winter.
Dubbo's location in the transition area between the Central Tablelands and the Central Western Plains has provided a mild distribution of rainfall throughout the year. Dubbo's wettest month is January with an average rainfall of occurring on average over five days. Evaporation in the Dubbo area averages around per year. Dubbo is considerably sunny, receiving 148.6 days of clear skies annually, in contrast to Sydney's 104 days.
Wind patterns vary over the whole year. The prevailing winds at Dubbo are from the southeast, south, southwest and west, which account for a combined 64.4% of the wind direction over the whole year.

Demographics

In August 2021, the population of Dubbo was 43,516; 51.6% of residents were female and 48.4% were male. The median age is 35, slightly younger than the national average of 38. People aged 0–14 constitute 21.5% of the population compared to 18.2% nationally, and 15.6% of residents are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander; the median age in this group is 22.
About 81.2% of residents report being born in Australia, notably higher than the national average of 66.9%. Other than Australia, the most common countries of birth are India, Nepal, England, the Philippines, and New Zealand. The most common reported ancestries in Dubbo are Australian, English, Australian Aboriginal, Irish, and Scottish.
Around 72.3% of residents report both parents having been born in Australia, significantly higher than the national average of 45.9%. About 82.7% of people only spoke English at home. Other languages spoken at home included Nepali, Punjabi, Malayalam, Urdu, and Mandarin.
The top religious groups in Dubbo are Catholic, Anglican, and Uniting Church ; 27.2% reported no religion and 9.2% did not answer the question.

Economy

The city's largest private employer is Fletcher International Exports, which exports lamb and mutton globally. Other local industries reflect the city's status as a regional base for surrounding agricultural regions.
A large employer is the Dubbo Base Hospital, with hospitals being the area's single largest employer.

Retail

Dubbo is also considered a major shopping centre for the surrounding regional areas in the Central and Far Western districts of New South Wales. Dubbo has many shopping districts, including the large Orana Mall, Macquarie and Talbragar Streets, Centro Dubbo, Riverdale, Delroy Park and Tamworth Street local stores. Dubbo features many boutiques and unique stores, as well as major national stores.

Tourism

Tourism is also a significant local industry. Dubbo features the open-range Taronga Western Plains Zoo, which is home to various species of endangered animals, including the white, black, and Indian rhinoceroses, and runs a successful breeding program for a number of endangered species. The zoo is home to numerous specimens from around the world in spacious open-range moat enclosures, grouped according to their continent of origin. Other town attractions include the historic Dundullimal Homestead, and the historic Old Dubbo Gaol in the middle of the commercial centre of Macquarie Street. The Western Plains Cultural Centre includes four gallery exhibition spaces, two museum exhibition spaces, and a community arts centre.
The Royal Flying Doctor Service base at Dubbo Regional Airport has a large visitor information centre, staffed by volunteers, which features a King Air 200 turboprop aircraft and a variety of touch-screen interactive displays illustrating aspects of RFDS operations.

Rare-earths

The Dubbo mine and processing plant, located on the Toongi mineral deposit, has total ore reserves of over 75 million tonnes, and a rare-earth oxides proportion of 0.74%. The mine will produce zirconium dioxide, a material used in dental implants. The mine is being developed by Australian Strategic Minerals in partnership with Hyundai, with plans to process the ore in South Korea. It is a recipient of a government grant under the Commonwealth Government's "International Partnerships in Critical Minerals" program.

Education

The 20 schools and secondary colleges include the Dubbo School of Distance Education. It is home to one of the four main campuses of Charles Sturt University, which is located next to the Senior Campus of Dubbo College. There are three private K–12 schools located in Dubbo which are Macquarie Anglican Grammar School, Dubbo Christian School and St Johns College.

Architecture

Dubbo has several fine examples of Victorian civic architecture, including the Courthouse, the Lands Office with its use of timber and corrugated iron cladding, and the railway station. Towards the centre of the city, the older residential areas contain numerous examples of red brick houses built in the "California Bungalow" style architecture of the early 20th century, together with Victorian terraced houses and a few Edwardian semidetached homes.