Lithgow is a town in the Central Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia and is the administrative center of the City of Lithgow local government area.
Lithgow is a town in the Central Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia and is the administrative center of the City of Lithgow local government area. It is located in a mountain valley named Lithgow's Valley by John Oxley in honour of William Lithgow, the first Auditor-General of New South Wales.
Lithgow is on the Great Western Highway, about 150 km (93 mi) or two hours drive west of Sydney, or via the old mountain route, Bells Line of Road, from Windsor. At June 2018 Lithgow had an estimated urban population of 12,973.
Lithgow is surrounded by a varied landscape characterised by seven valleys which include national parks, one of which, the Blue Mountains National Park, is a World Heritage Area. The Wollemi National Park is home to the Jurassic-age tree the Wollemi Pine, which was found growing in a remote canyon in the park.
History
The mountainous terrain of the Blue Mountains and the expense of building long tunnels required the construction of The Great Zig Zag railway between 1866 and 1869. The line was opened as far as Bowenfels, just to the west, in 1869, but Lithgow station was not opened until 1877. Although it was superseded in 1910 by more modern engineering methods, including ten tunnels, parts of the Zig Zag have been developed into a popular tourist attraction. Following a period of industrialisation in the late 1860s and 1870s, the town of Lithgow boomed during the 1880s, and it was incorporated as a borough in 1889.The town is the centre of a coal mining district and there is one coal-powered power station nearby. It is the site of Australia's first commercially viable steel mill, the ruins of which are open for inspection at "Blast Furnace Park". Due to the abundance of coal and relative proximity to Sydney, in the areas surrounding Lithgow is one of the largest power stations in NSW, the Mount Piper power station.The Wallerawang power station closed in 2014 and was subsequently demolished. The (now demolished) Lithgow Power Station was in use from 1928 to 1964.
Weather
Lithgow features a subtropical highland climate (Köppen climate classification Cfb) with warm summers, cool to cold winters and generally steady precipitation year-round. Despite its location on highlands, Lithgow manages to have 90.3 clear days annually.
Lithgow is one of the few Australian cities to see snow, although snowfall is rarely in significant quantities due to the foehn effect brought about by the ranges to the west of the city. One major event was the late season snowfall in October 2014, where 20 centimetres of snow fell.
Things to do