Hartley, NSW, is a unique 19th-century village on the western edge of the Blue Mountains.
Located within the City of Lithgow local government area, Hartley, which is approximately 150 kilometres west of Sydney, consists of 17 buildings of historic significance, built from 1837 to 1850.
Hartley Village is located four kilometres northwest of Little Hartley, along the Great Western Highway.
The Gundungurra Aboriginal People
The Gundungurra people (other spelling variations), according to Norman Tindale, have traditionally lived around Goulburn, Wollondilly Shire, the Blue Mountains and the Southern Highlands, for thousands of years.
The Hartley Valley area was a meeting place for the Gundangarra, Darragh and Wiradgeri people, whose territories all bordered the valley. River Lett, next to Hyde Park, was a place of marriage ceremonies.
Gundungurra
people moved around according to the seasons and food sources; campsites at Hartley, near the River Lett, have been identified.
Blackfellows Hand Cave, about 34.6 km from Hartley, displays ochre stencil art: hands, boomerangs, axes and other figures.
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| Blackfellows Hands Cave was a meeting place for the Aboriginal tribes of the area. The rock overhang features a number of hands and weapons painted onto the cave. Blackfellows Hands Road, 24km north of Lithgow PO, just off the Wolgan Road to Newnes. |
The surveyor and anthropologist, R. H. Mathews, wrote about the Bunan ceremony of initiation performed by the Gundungurra people and other Aboriginal groups. In 1901, Matthews also published an elementary grammar of the Gundungurra language, coauthored with Mary Everitt. Mathews said that Aboriginal children were among his earliest playmates.
According to Mathews, the Bunan ceremony was for boys approaching puberty: "a ceremony to initiate them into the privileges and responsibilities of manhood". A circular space would be cleared, with raised earth walls in connected circles, and trees would be marked. A bullroarer was often used to call others to attend the ceremony from more
remote locations of the territory. (read
here). Tooth extraction was an element of ceremonies in some regions.
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| The Aboriginal Bora Ceremony, Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1919), Saturday 31 December 1898 |
Mathews' works and unpublished notes based on his visits to Aboriginal camps or settlements preserve Aboriginal folklore and beliefs that might otherwise have been lost.
During the Dreamtime (gun-yung-ga-lung, "times far past"), according to Gundungurra beliefs, two creator beings,
Gurangatch, a rainbow serpent, and
Mirragañ, a quoll, who both had some human characteristics, were running about
the landscape, and as they did so, creating the land formations, and rivers.
Aboriginal beliefs also encompass a connection
to land, culture, animals, totems, kinship and sacred sites. Each Gundungurra horde (tribe or nation) had a totem, which can be a plant or an animal that is inherited by members of a clan. The totem also brings rights and responsibilities to the totemic animal and the environment. If your totem is kookaburra, you cannot kill and eat it or harm it.
Stone and trees were used to make tools, weapons and other items of material culture. Grinding grooves in the region show evidence of sharpening of tools and weapons.
Gundungurra people wore possum skin cloaks in the colder months, made of the skins of small animals sewed or laced together. The only other body coverings were aprons made of string worn by girls after puberty.
Billy Russell (Werriberri) said that Gundungurra children were usually named after the place where they were born. (
My Recollections by William Russell "Werriberrie", King Billy of Appin, which came out in 1914, describes Werriberrie’s Gundungurra language and childhood).
Clan membership and totems determined appropriate marriage partners. Gundungurra marriage involved betrothals by male elders. A girl could be betrothed before she was born and grow up knowing who her future husband would be (generally a much older man). Individuals with the same totem could not marry. (read more)
In the 1830s William Govett observed a Wiradjuri funeral ceremony, likely also a Gundungurra practice and how Aboriginal women would wail, cutting their scalps with axes. Other clans would hit their head with a stone during funeral ceremonies. The trees all around the tomb were marked with zigzags and stripes.
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Carved tree by Aboriginal people of the Central West region, NSW, Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), Wednesday 8 November 1933
Billy Russell (Werriberrie) stated that Gundungurra clans were friendly with each other. But they would sometimes fight with Wiradjuri people of Bathurst and Yass and the "Dharruck and the Camden tribes" (Johnson 2007).
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The Gundungurra spoke in Ngunnawal, a variation of Yuin-Kuric language. Matthews observed that the Darug and Gundungurra people were able to communicate with little difficulty.
With the arrival of Europeans, and the reduction of
accessible lands for hunting and gathering, many Aboriginal people left the region or became engaged in conflict.
European agriculture involves ownership of livestock
and land, on which the farmer worked. Aboriginal people saw the land as a communal resource. These different world views often clashed. Other Aboriginal people began working on farms as stockmen and servants. Disease like smallpox also greatly impacted Aboriginal populations.
British Settlers and Exploration
1813
The
rough terrain of the Blue Mountains seemed an impassible barrier to the British settlers. However, Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth officially became the first Europeans to succeed in crossing the Blue Mountains in May 1813, also reaching Cox’s River and Hartley. Though, a First Fleet convict named John Wilson may have reached the upper Cox's River Valley near Hartley in 1792.
William Lawson wrote in his journal that it took two hours to descend from Mt York into the Hartley Valley.
To the west, smoke from Aboriginal campfires was seen on 31st May. Extinguished fires were observed and evidence that the Aboriginal people had sharpened their spears. No contact was initiated by either group.
Gregory Blaxland noticed an Aboriginal camp near the River Lett where flowers of the honeysuckle tree were used for food.
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| Gregory Blaxland, William Lawson and William Charles Wentworth, crossing of the Blue Mountains in 1813, NSW |
In 1814, William Cox, assisted by two Aboriginal men Colebee (Darug and Boorooerongal) and Joe (Mulgoa), along with a team of thirty convicts, and eight guards built a road across the Blue Mountains, in just four months.
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| Lieut. William Cox, The Road Builder |
Setting out from Emu Plains on the 18th July 1814, the road
covered a distance of 47 miles to Mount York. In just six months, the road was one hundred and one miles long and ran all the way to Bathurst.
The construction of a descent from the bluff at Mount York took William Cox and his road party five weeks between 7 November and 14 December 1814.
Settlers began to cross the Blue Mountains and settle on the fertile plains around Hartley.
Governor Macquarie sent cattle to graze in the valley below Mt. York, under guard. The Governor journeyed across the Blue Mountains in 1815.
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| ROAD OPENED BY SURVEYOR EVANS DOWN MOUNT YORK, FIRST DRIYEN OVER BY GOVERNOR MACQUARIE IN 1815. Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 - 1912) |
William Lawson took stock over the mountains, he then settled near Bathurst. Lawson also discovered coal in Hartley Vale.
The Glenroy, Cox's River Military Station and Government Provision Depot was built, on the traditional lands of the Wiradjuri people, from 1815 to 1832, by convict labour. In 1816 the Government Provision Depot was plundered by Aboriginal people from the other side of the Blue Mountains.
Thomas Jones, a natural history specimen collector, in 1819, traced the Cox’s River from Hartley, along with Gilderoy, Millot (Joe) and Nagga (Jack), all Darug men.
1820s-30s
The first settler, John Grant,
made his home, Moyne Farm, on 50 acres at the foot of Mt Victoria. By 1823 he was selling wheat to the government store.
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| Drawing of Moyne Farmhouse at Little Hartley, NSW |
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| New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney, NSW : 1832 - 1900), Tuesday 6 August 1844 |
Moyne Farm (1821) and Collitts Inn (1823) are the oldest buildings in the Hartley Valley. Pierce Collitts built his inn on the abandoned barracks site, without a permit. It was wriiten in the events of 1824:
"A Mr. Collett (sic), formerly a settler on the
Nepcan hanks, has lately settled in
the Vale of Clwydd. at the foot of
Mount York, where he has opened an
inn called the Golden Fleece. The
traveller to Bathurst, prior to this
event, had no proper resting place
from Emu or Springwood until he
arrived at. Bathurst; but now both
man and horse can he attended to at
a reasonable expense."
The wife of the colour sergeant, James Rodd, gave birth to a daughter Eliza, who died on 14 September 1831. Eliza's grave is about 300 metres from the barracks, at Glenroy, Cox's River Military Station.
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| The Baby's Grave, Glenroy, NSW. Glenroy was a significant government station in the two decades after 1816. Nothing remains above ground of the government site and this grave is unusual testimony to the soldiers stationed there. It is also the earliest dated grave marker west of the Blue Mountains. In 1831 the 39th regiment of foot was stationed at Glenroy: on 12 January the wife of the colour sergeant, James Rodd, bore a daughter. She was christened Eliza but died on 14 September 1831 and was buried some 300 metres from the barracks. The property has been pastoral since the military withdrew soon after Eliza's burial. Blue Mountains Library, Local Studies |
After this, Macquarie sent a detachment of from the 46th Regiment to protect the Government stockmen, cattle and provision depot.
On 23 June, 1830, Mitchell
announced by letter to The Colonial Secretary:
“I have much satisfaction in being able to state, that I have succeeded also in finding a more favorable descent from the Blue Mountains, by a ridge nearly parallel to that of Mount York, but more in the direct line, so that the angle formed in the present road descending by Mount York to Colletts’ [sic] is cut off, by which the road is shortened considerably. The point of hill by which this descent may be effected, being parallel to Mounts York and Clarence, I have named, for the sake of distinction, Mount Victoria.”
In 1832, Mitchell's Bridge was opened as part of Victoria Pass, built by convicts. It took many gangs of chained convicts to accomplish the task of cutting into the ironstone mountainside. Huge stone buttresses, eighty feet high (
1.). It is still in use today. The western road
travelled through the Hartley area. Many convicts were labouring in the area and the establishment of a town was proposed.
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| The Victoria Pass, Blue Mountains, NSW, from an old print |
Mitchell's plans in 1833 were for a village at the foot of Victoria Pass, on the banks of the River Lett. However, at this time, only a stockade for convicts and military guards was located there. (only square outlines remain of convict huts)
Travel in the early years was closely regulated by the Government. “Gentlemen or other respectable free persons” desiring permission
to travel over the Mountains were required to make written application and were issued with a special pass if approved.
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| COLONEL SIR THOMAS LIVINGSTONE MITCHELL, who constructed the road 'down Mt. Victoria, NSW |
The hamlet of Little Hartley was created to serve the traffic along the new road, coming down Victoria Pass, with sixteen streets laid on a grid pattern.
The town soon became an important stopping point for travellers crossing the Blue Mountains, in the early decades of the 1800s.
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Old Military Barracks, Hartley Vale. The little building on the right of the picture contained five or six small cells, with heavily-barred windows. The local tradition is that the building was used by the military in the early days during the road construction, Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), Wednesday 21 May 1913
struction. |
The Harp of Erin inn opened in 1832 as a general store and public house.
Pierce Collitts, who had been successful at the Golden Fleece Inn at the foot of Mount York (Hartley Vale), established the Royal Garter Inn (Billesdene Grange) in Little Hartley, with a convict-built causeway connecting Billesdene Grange to the Great Western Highway.
John and Amelia Skeen obtained a license in 1835 under the sign of "The Rising Sun". A post on the site, Convict Records (
here) states that the convict John Skeen: Married Amelia Collits (daughter of convicts Pierce Collits, on 29th June 1832 at Kelso in the Central Tablelands of NSW, they had 9 children between 1832-1854. Amelia had been in love with a bushranger, who had a hideout in a cave at Mt. York. He would visit Amelia at the inn. One of the female servants at the inn was jealous of Amelia and the bushranger. The servant notified the police that the bushranger was at the inn. The police came and killed the bushranger. Amelia swore to marry the first man who next came to the inn. This was John Skeen, he was a convict overseer of the men building Victoria Pass. The play "Collits Inn", of the 1930s, is said to be about Amelia, who travelled over 55 miles
on horseback to Kelso, for her marriage to John.
An
historic precinct developed around the Hartley Courthouse from 1837, along Mitchell's new line of road.
The village did not develop around the the Royal Garter Inn, but spread out along the Great Western Highway.
Deputy Surveyor-General, Perry’s design for the village was approved by Acting-Governor Snodgrass on December 13, 1837, and gazetted under the name of the Township of Hartley on January 1, 1838.
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| S. A. Perry, Deputy Surveyor-General, who was responsible for the design of the town of Hartley. Polish Count Paul Strzelecki, who found gold in the Hartley) Valley in 1839. Lithgow Mercury (NSW : 1898 - 1954). |
The courthouse, including cellblock, built in 1837 in the Grecian Revival style from locally quarried sandstone,
was designed by Colonial Architect Mortimer Lewis. The courthouse operated for over fifty years and replaced the stockade at Cox's River.
The Police Magistrate who compiled the list for Blanket Returns from Hartley between 1838 until 1842 noted that although, 82 individuals were recorded for Aboriginal
people living between Mt Victoria and Bathurst during this period. "...[did] not by any means comprise the number of Aborigines belonging to the District for in consequence of their being at war with a neighbouring tribe, nearly all the women and a number of the men were afraid to come up to apply for Blankets."
Rosedale was built in 1839 for William Cummings. It was originally licensed as the Coach and Horses, but the name was later changed to Victoria Inn.
In 1839, Paweł Edmund Strzelecki geologist and explorer
discovered small amounts of gold in silicate at the Vale of Clwyd near Hartley.
1840s
St Bernard's Catholic Church, in the Gothic-style, was completed in 1846, but the windows and altar were constructed later. The church designed by Alexander Binning was used continuously until 1965 and is still consecrated. Hartley had a large Irish-Catholic population in this period.
The Rose Inn
was opened in 1845 by Joseph Collits (son of Pierce Collits).
Farmers Inn was built by John Finn around 1845-46.
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| Hartley Chapel and Court House [picture] / on stone by W.L. Walton, from a sketch by Col. Mundy in 1846. SLNSW |
The post office was built between 1845 and 1852.
The Royal Hotel, built by James Nairn, was first licensed as Hartley Hotel in 1846 and was the booking office for passenger and mail coaches.
John and Mary Finn also built Old Trahlee in the late 1840s and named the semi-detached house after their hometown in Ireland.
1850s
In the 1850s, gold was discovered in the Bathurst district, leading to hopeful diggers, coming from all over the world and within Australia, making their way across the Blue Mountains.
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| Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Friday 18 July 1851 |
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| Hartley, Chapel and Courthouse: Notes: From a sketch by Col. Godfrey Charles Mundy. In 1852 Mundy published 'Our Antipodes: or, Residence and Rambles in the Australasian Colonies. With a Glimpse of the Gold Fields.' It was illustrated with landscapes and lively scenes engraved from his own sketches. The first book went through three editions and the second four, not counting translations in German (1856) and Swedish (1857). !852; Blue Mountains Library, Local Studies |
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| Bathurst Free Press (NSW : 1849 - 1851), Saturday 23 November 1850 |
The area around Laurence O’Connell’s dam was known as Chinaman’s Creek during the gold rush, as many Chinese people camped here on the to the goldfields.
The Farriers Arms, the lower storey of the current Nioka property, opened as an inn in 1856 by James Bergin, who remained the licensee of the inn until 1868. In the 1850s-70s, it served as a Cobb & Co staging post
for coaches en route between Sydney, Bathurst and Mudgee.
For the downhill slope at Mt. York, Mt. Victoria, it was necessary to attach huge logs- to the back of the coach to act as a brake and prevent the vehicle from dashing down the steep hill to disaster. (
1.)
Ivy Cottage, constructed in the 1850s by the Finn family, became the Police Magistrate¹s house.
St Bernard's Catholic Presbytery constructed 1858-61.
St John's Anglican Church, built in 1858-59, was designed by Architect, Edmund Blacket. The church was opened on 27/2/1859 by Bishop Barker.
1860s
In the 1860s, the Rose Inn (Ambermere Inn) held the Cobb & Co contract for the coaches that travelled from Sydney to Bathurst twice a week.
Between 1865 and 1869, the licensing records in the NSW Government Gazette listed four hotels for Hartley - The Shamrock, Farmers, Welcome and Mt. Victoria Inns.
A small denominational school had been established by 1869, opposite the Church of England. (possibility part of the unlicensed hotel). The school became a public school in 1869, but in the following year, the school was transferred to another site.
Kerosene shale
was discovered in the 1860s, and miners and their families flocked to the area. More than 2000 people were living in the town, and its hinterland in this period.
The land on which the Kerosene Inn would be built in 1866 was purchased by Hugh Beattie around 1844. Then bought by George and Elizabeth Jarvis (Harp of Erin) before 1867. The building became the Kerosene Inn in 1866 under publican John Martin. John Lewis Meads was licensee from 1871 to 1873. Known as Meade’s Farm today.
In 1869, Hartley was bypassed by the railway and the town fell into decline.
An oil-extraction industry developed in Hartley Vale in the 1860s.
1870s
Henry Williams became the owner of the general store and post office in the 1870s, and the Williams family continued to operate these businesses until 1975.
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| Bark hut, Hartley, NSW, 1870-1875, State Library of New South Wales |
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| Woman and cottage, Hartley, NSW, 1870-1875, State Library of New South Wales |
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| Robert Evan's Farmers Inn, Hartley, NSW, 1870-75 (SLNSW) |
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| Hartley Courthouse, 1871, NSW |
The woodshed
was built in the 1870s of galvanised iron and timber in vernacular style.
Only the Shamrock and Farmers Inns were still licensed in 1870.
The Farmers Inn was the only hotel licensed at Hartley 1871-1894.
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| The village of Harley, NSW, in 1872, post card |
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| Edward Field's Hotel, Little Hartley, NSW. 1870-1875. Edward Field's Inn was no longer used as an inn when the railway reached Lithgow in 1874. The inn later became a house named Ambermere. |
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| W. Lewington General Store and Post Office, Little Hartley, ca 1870-75, Est 1832, Little Hartle, Holtermann collection |
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| Anglican Church of St. John the Evangelist, Hartley, NSW, 1870-1875, State Library NSW |
"Bonnie Blink" was built in 1874 by Charles Henry Edward Blackmann, and later owned by the Hordern family. Since 1916, the property has been owned by the Baaner family and was once a successful flourishing apple orchard (up for sale 2021).
In 1878, the Police headquarters transferred to Lithgow.
The Comet Inn was licensed around 1879 in nearby Hartley Vale and named after the brand name of the kerosene which
was produced from the shale in this area. However, in the coming years, kerosene would be replaced by electricity and many people would move away in search of new jobs.
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| Charles Pittitt Wheelwright and family, at Hartley, NSW, 1878, State Library of NSW |
1880s
Hartley's Court of Petty Sessions closed in 1887.
1890s
John Berghofer bought the The Mount Victoria Inn (built in 1839) in 1892 and renamed it, Rosenthal. However, anti-German sentiments of the time caused him to change the name to Rosedale around 1915.
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| Little Hartley, NSW, in the late 1800s, with Merlin's photographic cart in the foreground and the Victoria Pass in the background. State Library of NSW |
From 1898 to 1921, Robert McGarry, held a Colonial Wine License for the Royal Hotel. McGarry owned a collection of convict memorabilia, including a pardon granted to a convict. It is signed by Sir John Franklin, then Governor of Van Dieman's Land, who died in 1847, while on an expedition in the Arctic searching for the Northwest Passage. Mr McGarry's grandparents, who came from Ireland, journeyed to Hartley, over the mountains, on pack horses.
1900s
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| THE PLANT IN USE FOR PRESSING PARAFFINE WAX IN THE REFINERY AT HARTLEY VALE. Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1883 - 1930), Thursday 18 August 1910 |
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| The Lett river, which flows through Hartley, NSW. Pre 1910. Blue Mountains Library |
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| Overland car in Hartley, NSW, 1909-1910 with "Lizard, Satan, & The Stork". State Library NSW |
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| Freeman's Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1850 - 1932), Thursday 2 September 1909 |
Berghoffer's Pass was an alternative route, to the steep hill, Mitchell Pass, and more suitable for cars. However, it had sharp curves and was abandoned as cars became more powerful. It is now a walking track.
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| Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 - 1931), Saturday 30 December 1911 |
Reminiscences
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| Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), Wednesday 21 May 1913 |
My Recollections, by William Russell "Werriberrie", a Gundungurra man, was released in 1914, Read
here  |
| Billy Russell (Werriberri) Gundungurra man (My Recollections by William Russell "Werriberrie", King Billy of Appin, which came out in 1914, describes Werriberrie’s Gundungurra language and childhood. |
WWI
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| The Coo-ee recruits are here marching along the beautiful mountain road between Bowenfels and Hartley. Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), Wednesday 10 November 1915 |
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| PTE. HAROLD WILLIAMS. Pte. Williams is a native of Hartley Vale, but of late has resided at Oakey Park. He enlisted last year and sailed early in 1916. He is suffering from gunshot wounds, which are not so far as is known, serious. Young Williams is one of three brothers on active service.Lithgow Mercury (NSW : 1898 - 1954), Monday 24 July 1916 |
1920s |
| Old cottage, Little Hartley, New South Wales [picture] between 1920 and 1929. Cazneaux, Harold |
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| Forbes Advocate (NSW : 1911 - 1954), Wednesday 5 June 1929 |
1930s |
| Lithgow Mercury (NSW : 1898 - 1954), Wednesday 3 October 1934 |
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Collits' Inn is an Australian musical play. Sydney Mail (NSW
: 1912 - 1938), Wednesday 20 June 1934 |
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| GLENROY STOCKADE A RELIC OF THE OLD WESTERN ROAD, Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Saturday 25 April 1936, |
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| Relics of the old convict days at Hartley Courthouse, NSW, Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 - 1954), Sunday 18 April 1937 |
1940s and WWII |
| Lithgow Mercury (NSW : 1898 - 1954), Monday 1 April 1940 |
Cripps,. Pte. J. S. (NX54407), Inf., Little Hartley. |
| Tourists at Old Court House, Hartley, NSW: Notes: Harry Paish on right, his son Lindsay Paish fourth from right. This was taken on Lindsay's pre-embarkation leave from the RAAF. 1943, Blue Mountains Library, Local Studies |
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| Farriers Arms Inn, at Little Hartley, NSW, on the Bathurst Road, next to the Mt Victoria Inn, until it was closed in 1868. It is currently known as Nioka |
1970s
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| Part of Cox's Road, near Mt. York, Blue Mountains, NSW in the 1970s |
1980s
In 1982 Hartley's post office closed. It was said, at the time, that it was the longest operating post office in Australia.
The bridge, over River Lett, forms part of the original alignment of the Great Western Highway. A deviation of the highway was built in 1975, bypassing Hartley village. The old highway continued to be used as access to Jenolan Caves Road until the old bridge became unsafe in the late 1980s and this section of road was closed.
2021
A dual-carriageway linking the village of Hartley to the Blue Mountains looms. The proposed: The Great Western Highway Upgrade route passes through the State Heritage Register listed Hartley Historic Site. Showing the road to directly pass beside the northern wall of the 1837 sandstone, Old Colonial Greek architectural style Courthouse, designed by Colonial Architect Mortimer Lewis.
Around Hartley |
| Hartley woodshed, NSW, Built c. 1870s of galvanised iron and timber in vernacular style |
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| Old Tralee, Hartley, NSW, built 1846-54, by John and Mart Finn, has brick walls, a hipped iron roof (with shingles beneath) and various pit sawn timbers. |
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| The Hartley Courthouse, NSW, built 1837 in sandstone and a very good example of Old Colonial Greek architectural style, designed by Colonial Architect Mortimer Lewis |
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| St Bernard's Presbytery, built in the late 1850s to house the priests of St Bernard's Church (1848), Hartley, NSW |
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| St Bernard's Church was designed and built by Alexander Binning from sandstone which was quarried at South Bowenfels and hand sawn local timber, Hartley, NSW |
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| St John's Anglican Church, Hartley, NSW, Built c. 1858-9 in Victorian Gothic style |
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| Horse trough outside the Shamrock Inn at Hartley, NSW |
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| Farmers Inn, Hartley, NSW, Built c. 1843 is a single storey, roughcast rendered brick building |
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Rear of the Shamrock Inn, Hartley, NSW. the Shamrock Inn was built 1842 for Patrick Phillips as a family home but by 1856 it had become an inn catering for the miners who were travelling through Hartley on their way to the goldfields at Turon
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| Ruined cottage near Hartley, NSW |
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| The rear of the Shamrock Inn. Built as a private residence in the 1840s, and was licensed by 1856 to cater for the traffic through Hartley, NSW, to the Goldfields and Bathurst. |
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| Ambermere Rose Inn, Hartley, NSW, Joseph Collits held the licence for the Rose Inn between 1846 and 1848 |
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| Brick toilet, built 1850s of brick in vernacular style, Hartley, NSW |
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| Harp of Erin Inn circa 1832 is located in Hartley, NSW |
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| Corney's Garage was built from corrugated iron c1945, Hartley, NSW |
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| Old Bathurst road, the river Lett bridge, Hartley, NSW. Part of the original alignment of the Great Western Highway. A deviation of the highway was built in 1975, bypassing Hartley village |
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| The Collits' Inn was built by Pierce Collits, an ex-convict, in 1823, Hartley, NSW |
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| Bonnie Blink, built by an English architect, John Blackmann, Baaners Lane, Little Hartley, NSW |
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| Royal Hotel, Hartley, NSW, built 1872. owner: George Jarvis |
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| Hartley General Cemetery Great Western Highway, Hartley. "Sacred to the memory of Thomas Madden, Constable, who was accidentally shot the 30th April 1867 while in the discharge of his duty at Pulpit Hill. A native of County Mayo, Ireland. Aged 30 years. May his soul rest in peace." Erected by the members of the Police Force in the Western District. On the 29 April, 1867 a party of eight police led by Sergeant Walter Casey camped at Pulpit Hill (near present day Katoomba) with fifteen or sixteen ‘heavily ironed’ prisoners they were escorting from Bathurst Court to Darlinghurst Gaol. At midnight Constable Madden took his turn to watch over the lockup in which the prisoners were housed. When he was relieved at 2am by Constable Hitchcox, Constable Madden went to check the prisoners. When he opened the door of the lockup, the prisoners, who had apparently been waiting for their chance to escape, rushed the constable. Sergeant Casey, who realised what was occurring, began firing at the prisoners. Unfortunately, of the five shots fired by the sergeant, three accidentally struck Constable Madden, inflicting fatal wounds. Two prisoners were also wounded.The Sydney Morning Herald of 14 May, 1867 gave news of the inquest into the death of Constable Madden |
Black Fellows Hands Reserve
Mount Victoria Convict Stockade
Historic Glenroy, Cox's River, Hartley, N.S.W.
Ivy Cottage, constructed in the 1850s by the Finn family, became the Police Magistrate¹s house.
