Capertee

Capertee ( ) is a village 46 km north of Lithgow, New South Wales, Australia. It is on an elevated site (808 metres) above the Capertee Valley. In 2021, the township had a population of 130 people¹. The Castlereagh Highway (previously known as the Mudgee Road) links Capertee with Lithgow to the south and Mudgee to the north. The township is surrounded by National Parks and grazing land. Principal employment is in coal mining, farming and tourism-related services. The Capertee Valley forms a part of the catchment area of the Hawkesbury River, but the village lies very close to the Great Divide watershed, with the Turon River catchment nearby to its west.

Capertee ( ) is a village 46 km north of Lithgow, New South Wales, Australia. It is on an elevated site (808 metres) above the Capertee Valley. In 2021, the township had a population of 130 people. The Castlereagh Highway (previously known as the Mudgee Road) links Capertee with Lithgow to the south and Mudgee to the north. The township is surrounded by National Parks and grazing land. Principal employment is in coal mining, farming and tourism-related services. The Capertee Valley forms a part of the catchment area of the Hawkesbury River, but the village lies very close to the Great Divide watershed, with the Turon River catchment nearby to its west.

Capertee Camp

In June 1861 John Shervey purchased 33 acres of land “on the road from Mudgee to Sydney, near Blackman’s Crown, lying northerly from M. Corlis’ 30 acres”. The location became known as ‘Capertee Camp’. Shervey erected a building called the Capertee Camp Inn to provide accommodation, food and beverages to travellers along the Sydney to Mudgee road. The first specific mention of the Capertee Camp locality was in newspaper reports of the pursuit and capture of one of the two bushrangers who had robbed the Sydney mail coach in April 1863 at Cherrytree Hill between Bowenfels and Cudgegong. The robbers were pursued by constables Wright and Cleary who finally captured one of the men at “a place called Eli Flat, between Capertee Camp and Freestone’s house”. In common with many roadside shanties in isolated locations Shervey's Capertee Camp Inn was not licensed but provided alcoholic drinks to travellers. In October 1869 it was reported that Mary Shervey “of Capertee Camp, Mudgee Road” was summoned “for selling spirits without a license”. She was fined £30 “and costs” (which was paid in order to avoid “three months imprisonment in Mudgee Gaol”). A traveller through the Capertee Valley wrote in August 1877 that the “Capertee Basin” was “composed of shaggy forest, rugged ridges, distant mountain peaks, and bold bluffs of red and gray rocks that would delight the eye of the artist or a lover of the picturesque”.

Capertee village

The township itself dates from the time of the establishment of the railway station in 1882. The station and nearby station master's residence date from this period while several other extant buildings date from the late 19th and early 20th century. In September 1885 land was set aside for the village of Capertee (county of Roxburgh, parish of Bandamora). From 1882 Capertee was a temporary terminus of a railway branch line from Wallerawang on the main Western railway line. When the line was extended to Mudgee, there was no flat ground on which to build a crossing loop, so Capertee ended up with an unusual dead-end crossing siding instead. The line still operates although the railway station is closed.

Amenities

Capertee has a public school, police station, bush fire brigade hall, community hall (Progress Hall), public house (Royal Hotel), public telephone, two (rare) fibro constructed churches, and a combined garage/shop/post office. A community market is held on the fourth Sunday of each month at The Royal Capertee Hotel.

References

Notes

Sources

Santella, Chris (2007). Fifty Places to Go Birding Before You Die, Stewart, Tabori & Chang, New York,

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1366252501 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.