Lithgow is a city in the Central Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia and is the administrative centre 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 Auditor-General of the colony of New South Wales.

Lithgow is on the Great Western Highway, about west of Sydney, or via the old mountain route, Bells Line of Road, from Windsor. At June 2021 Lithgow had an urban population of 11,197.

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.

Location

left|thumb|Main Street Shops in 2019

The city sits on the western edge of the sandstone country of the Blue Mountains and is usually considered the first true country town west of Sydney. Immediate surrounding areas include the old mining hamlet of Vale of Clwydd and Oakey Park, a famous iron and steel village, of which fiery night scenes have been depicted in many paintings, as well as large areas of bush and state forest. The next city to the west is Bathurst, away.

Lithgow is in the NSW State electorate of Bathurst, while federally it is part of electorate of Calare. Lithgow is the western terminus for the electric section of the Main Western railway line from Sydney. It is home to the Zig Zag Railway.

History

left|thumb|[[Lithgow Blast Furnace]]

The mountainous terrain of the Blue Mountains and the expense of building long tunnels required the construction of the Lithgow Zig Zag 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 Although it was superseded in 1910 by more modern engineering methods, including ten tunnels, parts of the Zig Zag have been developed into a popular tourist attraction.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 situated in 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 Lithgow Power Station was operational from 1928 to 1964.

Lithgow was the scene of the plot, for an attempt to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II on 29 April 1970 while she undertook a royal tour of Australia. The Queen and her husband Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh were on a train trip from Sydney to Orange.

Population

At the 2021 census, there were 12,385 people in Lithgow.

  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 8.3% of the population.
  • 82.2% of people were born in Australia. The most common other countries of birth were England 2.2%, New Zealand 1.1%, Philippines 0.7%, India 0.6% and Scotland 0.4%.
  • 86.5% of people only spoke English at home. Other languages spoken at home included Italian, Thai and Mandarin, all at 0.3%.
  • The most common responses for religion were No Religion 34.2%, Catholic 20.7% and Anglican 16.4%.

Heritage listings

thumb|St Helens

thumb|Methven

Lithgow has a number of heritage-listed sites, including the following listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register:

  • Bent Street: Lithgow Valley Colliery and Pottery Site
  • Brewery Lane: Lithgow Zig Zag
  • Gas Works Lane: Lithgow Coal Stage Signal Box
  • Inch Street: Lithgow Blast Furnace
  • 70 Inch Street: Eskbank House
  • Jenolan Caves Road: McKanes Falls Bridge
  • Main West Line 156.334 km, James Street: Lithgow Underbridge
  • Main Western railway: Eskbank railway station
  • Main Western railway: Ten Tunnels Deviation
  • Railway Parade: Lithgow railway station
  • Top Points Zig Zag railway: Cooerwull railway footbridge

In addition, the following sites were listed on the (now defunct) Register of the National Estate:

  • Former Station Master's Residence (now Caddie's Restaurant), a sandstone cottage designed by John Clifton and built in 1869
  • Eskbank House, Bennett Street, built by Thomas Brown in 1842
  • Lithgow Valley Pottery Site Kiln, 1875 to 1908
  • Lithgow Court House, corner Bridge and Mort Streets, a brick building in the Arts and Crafts style
  • La Salle Cottage (formerly Cooerwull Academy), Rabaul Street, a stone building in the Victorian Gothic Revival style, built circa 1882
  • Methven, Lidsdale Road, a sandstone house built by Andrew Brown in the 1870s
  • Lithgow Small Arms Factory

Lithgow was also the location of an alleged assassination attempt on the life of Queen Elizabeth II in 1970.

Climate

Lithgow features a moderate oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification Cfb) with mild to 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 appreciable snowfall, though mostly insignificant in quantity due to the winter rain shadow brought about by the ranges to the west of the city. One major event was the late-season snowfall in October 2014, where of snow fell.