WE Bathurstians can lay claim to having two movie star towns in our region. Given our rich colorful history these towns lend themselves for being the ideal spots for the productions.  

Not far from Bathurst, heading towards Cowra, a slight diversion off the highway brings the traveller to Carcoar where part of the Bryce Courtenay novel Jessica was made into a telemovie.

  OurPatch will check our Carcoar at a later date.

Let’s have a look at the other town.

It is the town of Sofala  and the two movies were The 1974 Peter Weir film The Cars That Ate Paris, and Village scenes in the 1994 John Duigan film Sirens. 

Sofala about 250 kms NW of Sydney, 45 km north of Bathurst, alongside the Turon River and our “Movie Star” town came about as the direct result of the goldrush which had been triggered by an Edward Hargraves who discovered gold at Summerhill Creek on 12 February, 1851.  

By the winter of that year, a veritable tent city had been established in the Turon Valley, with thousands of people wanting to “strike it rich.’ At the end of June, 1851 more than 200 ounces of gold taken from the Turon Valley had been sold in Bathurst. 

A big population means a big demand for goods and services and thus, the Royal Hotel and The General Store were built.

This was an extraordinary rush. One landowner knowing full well, he could not move the miners from the area, turned his disadvantage into a money-making venture, by becoming a butcher and selling mutton to the miners.

  A contemporary travelling journalist described Sofala as: ” A strange jumble of tents of every possible shape: canvas, calico, slab and bark huts, bough gunyahs and nondescripts. Among the medley, two circuses are conspicuous. Stores of every possible description and containing varieties of merchandise are everywhere, embellished with placards announcing the best gold prices available. Shoe makers and blacksmith establishments boasting a large number of visitors.’ 

  The population peaked at 10,000 in September, and by Christmas, dropped to 5,000 It was a ramshackle temporary town with dozens of pubs and, at its height, an estimated 500 illegal sly grog shops. 

Of course, the Government of the Day wanted its cut and did so in the form of licences and in 1852, a brief altercation took place between the miners and police over the licences of thirty shillings ($3.00), a large sum in those times. The police prevailed and the licence fees retained.

By 1853 visitors were describing the town as little more than shingle huts, weatherboard, houses and tents scattered along the river.’ 

Fortunes certainly wax and very quickly, wane. So it was with Sofala, as the gold petered out, so did the miners. By May 1854 there were less than 500 diggers on the field and by 1855, with new gold discoveries at nearby Wattle Flat, Sofala was in decline.

By 1856 there were only 325 males and 203 females living in bark huts and working the goldfields in Sofala. Even though the town was beginning to reduce in importance the gold rush had established a substantial infrastructure. 


There was a post and money order office, a telegraph office, a hospital, court of petty sessions, district court, police camp, gold commissioner’s camp, three churches (Anglican, Roman Catholic, Wesleyan), two denominational and five private schools, two hotels (the Sofala Inn and the Barley Mow), a number of public houses and several extensive stores.

 A booking office  was established at the Barley Mow for Cobb & Co., where coaches could be caught for Bathurst, Orange, Lambing Flat (Young) and Forbes. There were branches of the Savings Bank and the AMP Society.

We’ll continue our journey to Sofala, next issue.