Coonamble


Coonamble is a town on the central-western plains of New South Wales, Australia. It lies on the Castlereagh Highway north-west of Gilgandra. At the 2016 census, Coonamble had a population of 2,750. It is the regional hub for wheat growing and sheep and wool. The name for the town is taken from the Gamilaraay word guna and -bil .
Brigidine nuns from Ireland established a school in 1883. Their architecturally distinguished convent was dismantled in 1990 and transported to Pokolbin, where it now houses The Convent resort.
Although Coonamble had been a major sheep industry region in the 1980s to 2000, there has recently been an increasing interest in cattle rearing. The summers can have temperatures reaching up to and in winter, there are nights as cold as. Most recently Coonamble has gained media coverage due to their mass floods over Christmas 2009.

Bushrangers

the bushranger and last of the Ben Hall gang was captured near Coonamble after a gunbattle with police at Christmas 1865.

Population

Coonamble has three schools: , St Brigids Catholic School and .
It has a and an church.

Rodeo

Coonamble hosts an annual rodeo that is the largest campdraft/rodeo in the Southern Hemisphere around 1,000 people annually come to compete in the rodeo with an average of about 4,000 spectators.

Radio station

Coonamble has its own local radio station, 2MTM 91.9FM, which has a wide variety of music from country to modern.

Sports

The Coonamble Bears play in the Castlereagh Cup rugby league competition. The Coonamble Rams play in the Western Plains Rugby Union competition.

Heritage listings

Coonamble has a number of heritage-listed sites, including: