Bulahdelah, New South Wales

Bulahdelah is a town and locality in the Hunter/Mid North Coast region of New South Wales, Australia in the Mid-Coast Council local government area. At the 2011 census, the locality had a population of 1,519. The main population centre, where 69% of the area's population lived in 2006, is the town of Bulahdelah.GeographyThe town is situated 235km north of Sydney along the eastern and northern banks of the Myall River, approximately 480m east of the confluence of the Myall and Crawford rivers. The eastern sector of the township is built on the foot of the Alum Mountain. Leading into the town from the south is the Bulahdelah Bridge which forms part of the Pacific Highway.HistoryThe 292m mountain on which the south-eastern sector of the township is built was first named by the Aboriginal people of the area, the Worimi. They called their mountain "Boolah Dillah" (meaning: the Great Rock). In 1818 John Oxley, a crown surveyor added the word "Mountain" to its original name. The mountain is widely known by its long-term nickname, "the Alum Mountain", but is officially registered as Bulahdelah Mountain.After the discovery of alunite on the mountain, the mountain was mined from 1878 to 1927, and was managed by the Department of Mining from 1897 onwards. A refinery "The Alum Works" was created to facilitate the extraction of alum from the mined alunite. Another period of mining was then again from 1934 to 1952. Decreasing profitability meant mining had ceased by 1952 and in 1979 NSW State Forests took over management of the mountain.