Binalong, New South Wales

Binalong is a village in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia, 37 km north-west of Yass in Yass Valley Shire. At the, Binalong and the surrounding area had a population of 543.OverviewThe 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.The name of the town is believed to derive either from an Aboriginal word meaning 'under the hills, surrounded by hills, or 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 prior 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 same year a local entrepreneur applied successfully to the Commissioner of Police for a grant to build an inn to provide accommodation and victuals for the visiting magistrate and police witnesses, and the Swan Inn was established close to the courthouse. The town was gazetted in 1850.In 1853, Cobb and Co was established in Melbourne as a coaching company, and upon eventually expanding their operations into New South Wales, entered into an agreement with the Swan Inn to provide staging services for coaches, drivers and passengers travelling along the adjacent road to the goldfields at Lambing Flat or Young. The town flourished as a coaching stop. The Swan Inn became known as "The Cobb and Co".