Bathurst, New South Wales

Bathurst, New South Wales

Bathurst ( /ˈbæθərst/) is a regional city in the Central Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia. It is approximately 200 kilometres (120 mi) west of Sydney and is the seat of the Bathurst Regional Council. Bathurst is the oldest inland settlement in Australia and had an estimated population of 33,110 people on 2011 Census night. Residents of Bathurst are known as “Bathurstians”.

Bathurst is often referred to as Gold Country as it was the site of the first gold discovery and where the first gold rush occurred in Australia. Today education, tourism and manufacturing drive the economy. The internationally known racetrack Mount Panorama is a landmark of the city. Bathurst has an historic city centre with many buildings remaining from the gold rush period of the mid to late 1800s.

The median age of the city's population is 34.0 years; this is related to the large education sector in the community and is particularly young for a regional centre (the state average is 36.4.) Population growth has reached 1.6% per annum over the five years until 2010, making Bathurst the seventh fastest growing regional city in NSW. This growth over recent years has resulted in increased urban development including retail precincts, sporting facilities, housing estates and expanding industrial areas.