Stuart Town, New South Wales

Stuart Town, formerly known as Ironbark, is a small town on the Central Western Slopes of New South Wales, Australia within Western Plains Regional Council. It is located 317km north-west of the state capital, Sydney. At the, Stuart Town had a population of 487. The area around the town is rich in cattle farming and orchards, so the town serves as a service centre to that area. The town was established in 1879 with the arrival of the railway from Sydney after reports of gold being found in the area, but was not fully established until the construction of the nearby Lake Burrendong. The town was formerly called Ironbark and so is the feature of the Banjo Paterson poem "The Man from Ironbark". It conducts an annual Man from Ironbark Festival.Stuart Town is often claimed to be the birthplace of the former New South Wales Premier Sir Robert Askin. In fact, he was born at Glebe in Sydney, but he did spend much of his childhood at Stuart Town.It has a public school and Catholic and Anglican churchesTransportStuart Town station is served by a daily NSW TrainLink XPT service which runs between Sydney and Dubbo.