Bathurst Wine Region – Click to Enlarge
Bathurst in NSW – Click to Enlarge
The city of Bathurst sits in the Central Tablelands, 200km west of Sydney and is the oldest inland settlement in Australia. The region was originally occupied by the Wiradjuri Aboriginal people before the city was settled in 1813. The government surveyor, George Evans, was the first European to sight the Plains, following the successful European crossing of the Blue Mountains.
Flecks of gold were first discovered in the Fish River 10 years later, but it wasn’t until 1851, when Edward Hargraves announced the discovery of payable gold, that the gold rush began. In the years to follow, the town was built around gold and became dependent on the industry. The town suffered a dramatic downturn when the gold ran out before the 1900’s.
Today, education, tourism, and manufacturing drive the economy. Mount Panorama, the internationally renowned racetrack, is a landmark of the city and draws huge crowds each year for the Bathurst 1000. The region is also gaining a reputation as a producer of gourmet food and drink.
Bathurst is in the heart of the Central Ranges wine zone alongside Mudgee, Orange, and Cowra. A handful of small wineries share this cool climate wine growing space – particularly of note is Renzaglia Wines in O’Connell. Check out their ‘Bella Luna’ Cabernet Merlot.
Bathurst is not an officially recognised wine region, and as such, we have used artistic license to create the region’s borders for the embedded maps.
