The general store at Binalong

Central Binalong looking towards the post office and the Hotel Binalong

Binalong (postcode: 2584, 34°40′ S 148°39′ E) is a village in New South Wales, Australia 37 km north-west of Yass. It has a population of about 250 people. Motto: Orta Recens Quam Pura Nites (Newly Risen, How Brightly You Shine) Nickname: First State, Premier State Other Australian states and territories Capital Sydney Government Governor Premier Const. ... Yass Court House Yass (postcode: 2582, 34°49′ S 148°54′ E) is a town in New South Wales, Australia. ...

The indigenous people of the district were part of the Ngunnawal people. The first Europeans recorded as visiting the area were the exploratory party of Hamilton Hume in 1821. Australian Aborigines are the main indigenous people of Australia. ... Hamilton Hume Hamilton Hume (19 June 1797-19 April 1873) was an Australian explorer. ...

The name of the town is believed to derive either from an Aboriginal word meaning 'towards a high place' or from 'Bennelong', the name of a noted Aborigine.

Binalong lay beyond the border of the Nineteen Counties which was the formal legal extent of European settlement in New South Wales. However, squatters settled in the district prioir to the formal establishment of squatting districts in 1839. From 1847 there was a permanent police presence in Binalong and a court of petty sessions. The old Cobb and Co inn dates from that time as a staging post for Cobb and Co coaches. The Nineteen Counties were the limits of location in the colony of New South Wales defined by the Governor of New South Wales Sir Ralph Darling in 1826 in accordance with a government order from Lord Bathurst, the secretary of State. ... This article is about occupying land without permission. ... Cobb and Co is the name of a transportation company in Australia. ...

The town was gazetted in 1850 and flourished as it was a stop over on the route to the goldfields at Lambing Flat or Young. The public school was established in 1861. The railway arrived in 1876. Young is a town in New South Wales, Australia. ...

The family of the poet Banjo Paterson moved to the Binalong district in 1869 when he was five years old. He attended the primary school in Binalong but later went to boarding school in Sydney returning home in the holidays. The district features in a number of his poems, for example, Pardon, the son of Reprieve. Paterson's father is buried in the local cemetery. Banjo Paterson. ...

The presence of gold meant also that there were bushrangers in the area. The grave of John Gilbert is near the town in the former police paddock. He was a member of the Gardiner-Hall gang and shot by police in 1865. Bushrangers were criminals who used the Australian bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities between committing their robberies, roughly analogous to the British-American highwayman. Their targets often included small-town banks or coach services. ... John Gilbert was an Australian Bushranger shot dead at the age of 25 near Binalong, New South Wales in 1865. ...

External links

• Banjo Paterson's account of the place where he spent his childhood
• Binalong Public School
• History of Binalong