Grenfell Sketchbook: Hilarie Lindsay and Stephen Pile (Illustrator)

Grenfell, mid-western new South Wales, boomed in the gold rush of 1866. Once the gold declined, Grenfell became one of the richest pastoral areas in Australian, renowned for its wool and wheat. John Butler Wood first squatted there in 1833, travelling from Parramatta to Waugoola, where friendly Aborigines guided him to Brundah and water. Originally known as Emu Creek because of the high numbers of emus, the town became Grenfell after John Granville Grenfell, the crown land commissioner who was shot by bushrangers in 1866. Here can be seen where Ben Hall had his home; the site of the old police barracks and the grave of Dan Charters, bushranger-turned-informer is buried in the local cemetery. Henry Lawson, writer and poet, was born on the Grenfell goldfields in 1867. And it is rumoured that the gold from the Eugowra Gold Escort holdup is still hidden in the Weddin Mountains.