Place:Wilcannia, New South Wales, Australia

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Wilcannia is a small town located within the Central Darling Shire in north western New South Wales, Australia. Located on the Darling River, the town was the third largest inland port in the country during the river boat era of the mid-19th century. At the , Wilcannia had a population of 745.

Predominantly populated by Aboriginal Australians, Wilcannia has received national and international attention for government deprivation of its community's needs, and the low life expectancy of its residents. For indigenous men, that figure is 37 years of age. Residents have reported that water quality in Wilcannia is unsafe, leading locals to rely on boxed water transported from Broken Hill, nearly away. The town has been one of the worst hit by the COVID-19 pandemic in New South Wales, and the government's refusal to ban tourists from the area to preserve the health of its struggling residents has been met with condemnation.

History

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The area lies in the traditional lands of the Barkindji people, who call the river "Baaka". The name Wilcannia is said to be derived from an indigenous term for either "gap in the bank where floodwaters escape" or "wild dog". Neither meaning has been linguistically verified.^[1]

In 1835, explorer Major Thomas Mitchell was the first European to reach the region, when he traced the Darling River to what is now Menindee.

In late January 1859, Captain Francis Cadell, in charge of the river boat Albury, entered the Darling River at its junction with the Murray and, after eight days travel, reached the Mount Murchison pastoral station, held by Hugh and Bushby Jamieson. Flour and other stores were delivered to the station and one hundred bales of wool were loaded for the return journey. Cadell's pioneering journey was the beginning of river boat transport on the Darling River (when river conditions allowed). The site of the future township developed as the location for the unloading and loading of river-borne cargo. The settlement was initially known as Mount Murchison, taking its name from the nearby pastoral run. As economic activity increased, the location attracted business and trades providing services and amenities to the surrounding stations.

In June 1866, the New South Wales Department of Lands formally declared "portions of Crown Lands" to be set apart as a site for the town of Wilcannia. Despite the official proclamation, the older name for the settlement persisted. In March 1867, a correspondent from the town wrote that: "the township of Mount Murchison is fast springing into importance, owing to the splendid country surrounding it, and which is fast being taken up for pastoral pursuits. We have public houses, stores, butchers' shops, boarding houses, a cordial manufactory in full operation, and a colonial ale brewery in course of erection".

In 1871, the population of Wilcannia was 264, consisting of 176 males and 88 females. In January 1874, the township's first newspaper, the Wilcannia Times, began publication.

An account of Wilcannia in December 1874 described the buildings in the town as "on the whole being of a very poor description, principally small weatherboard places, many of them looking rather dilapidated". Three stores were operating in the township, as well as three public houses: the Mount Murchison Hotel, Wilcannia Hotel and Britannia Hotel. There were signs of increased commercial activity in the township: two banks, the Australian Joint Stock Bank and the Commercial Bank, had recently opened branches, and four stock and station agents had started businesses "within the last three months". However, there was no telegraph office, "the want of which is sorely felt by the business people of the town, and in fact the whole district". Wilcannia had a public school, but no churches. There were two doctors, "but as it is a very rare thing to find them otherwise than drunk, they are worse than useless".

In December 1880, a second local newspaper, the Western Grazier, began publication in Wilcannia. By early 1881 patients were being treated in the newly built local hospital. At the census of 1881 the population of Wilcannia was recorded as 1,424 (976 males and 448 females).^[2] Wilcannia was incorporated as a municipality in February 1883, with Edmond O'Donnell elected its first mayor. The first major project of the municipality was the construction of water supply system for the township. A July 1884 report stated that Wilcannia had a population "of about 1200", and was described as a township "of well-laid-out streets and good buildings", situated "in the centre of a large sheep country". The Post and Telegraph Office was reported to be "a handsome building" and several of the stores ("notably Frew, Wright, and Co., J. Palmer and Co., and Cramsie, Bowden, and Co.") were described as "not only extensive but of considerable architectural beauty". It was explained that a quarry of freestone "of excellent quality", within of the township "has been largely used for building purposes". The only local industry of note was a brewery.

Wilcannia was the location of a Customs station on the Darling River. It was described as a "large and important centre of trade, where in 1881 £13,100 was collected as Customs revenue". The river trade during the 1880s was so extensive at Wilcannia that its Customs House was "probably the largest inland Customs Station in New South Wales".

When river conditions permitted travel by steamers Wilcannia was a major port on the Darling River. A visitor to the town described the river scene in 1890:

There are several wharves (so-called) which were merely graduated slopes cut out of the river bank, and in the wool season the river, in their vicinity, is thronged with steamers and barges, waiting for or unloading the season's clip, for the bulk of it goes away either to Bourke, for Sydney, or to Wentworth, or Goolwa. A barge, laden with from 1,200 to 2,000 bales of wool is a pretty sight; and a still more interesting spectacle is a string of 30 or 40 camels, each carrying two bales, proceeding into town from some far back station.

At the time of the 1891 census the municipality of Wilcannia had a non-Aboriginal population of 1,287 (775 males and 512 females).^[2]

Vehicles and stock were crossed over the Darling River at Wilcannia by a punt operated by Charles Smith until the mid-1890s. In 1895 a bridge was constructed at Wilcannia and opened to traffic in January 1896. The bridge consisted of five spans, a total length of 310 feet (94.5 metres) with a centre lift span "to permit of steamers passing when the river is high".

In January 1917 it was reported that the Wilcannia Hospital was "without a doctor". The hospital was "full of patients, some diphtheria cases among them, and the Matron is having a very hard and anxious time".

In December 1939 Wilcannia was described as "merely a shopping centre for the wide district, although people travelling into Queensland and lonely sections of New South Wales often rest there". At the 2020 ARIA Music Awards, Wilcannia Central School's Sarah Donnelley won Music Teacher of the Year.

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