Gunbar is in the Riverina district of south-western New South Wales in Australia, on a wide bend of the Mid-Western Highway between Goolgowi and Hay. It is part of the Carrathool Shire local government area, administered from Goolgowi. At the 2006 census, Gunbar had a population of 97 people.
In its heyday Gunbar was a village which served as the hub of the surrounding pastoral properties and the community of selectors that had settled in the district from the 1870s onwards. Nowadays the Gunbar community consists of those who live and work on district farming properties. The Presbyterian church, still used for worship, stands on an elevated position overlooking the original village-site, where the corrugated-iron Community Hall is the only other major building that remains. Scattered peppercorn trees give further evidence of the village that once stood there. Gunbar cemetery is located just over a mile away, nearby to the site of the old government-surveyed township (NNE of the original village).
History
'Gunbar' station
The land later known as 'Gunbar' station was first occupied by Europeans during the expansion by squatters along the Lachlan River in 1839 and the early 1840s. By the early 1870s 'Gunbar' and other surrounding runs were held by the partnership of G. Kirk, John Bramwell and Albert Synnot. The name 'Gunbar' is said to be an Aboriginal word meaning 'no meat'. In 1875, after Albert Synnot's death, the "Gunbar" lease was transferred to G. Kirk and D.B. Reid. In 1876 'Gunbar' station was held by W. Cumming & Co., with John Armstrong as manager. "Gunbar" comprised an area of at least during this period. In 1881 the Armstrong brothers - William, Thomas, Robert, and John - purchased the leasehold of 'Gunbar' for £300,000, and John Armstrong continued as the managing partner. Stock returns for 1888 record the area of 'Gunbar' station as , reflecting the inroads made by selectors since the mid-1870s as the district became more closely settled and the village of Gunbar was established. After John Armstrong's death in 1899 his eldest son, William, managed the station until it was sold in June 1918 to T.A. Creswick.
Gunbar village
William Spry and his brother George were successful carriers based in the Hay district in the 1860s. William Spry married Florence Donnelly in 1870 at Bendigo; at about that time Spry built a slab hotel at the future site of Gunbar village, a locality south of 'Gunbar' station where carriers often camped. By September 1871 Spry had applied for a licence for his public-house, the Gunbar Hotel. Florence Spry ran the hotel while her husband continued to work his bullock-teams in the district. The original structure was burnt down but William Spry replaced it with a weatherboard-clad structure. By November 1873 the licence of the Gunbar Hotel was held by John Donohue. In the first half of the following year the licence was transferred from Donohue to Charles Simpson, and soon afterwards to Ebenezer Wood. By October 1875 the publican was Henry Major. William Spry had selected land east of Gunbar which he called 'Paradise Farm' and continued to work as a carrier in the district. In 1879 the Gunbar Hotel licence was transferred from Henry Major to James McPherson.
A Post Office opened at Gunbar on 1 July 1879 (it closed in 1979), with James McPherson as postmaster. By the early 1880s Gunbar village consisted of the Gunbar Hotel run by Archibald McPherson, a blacksmith's shop, a wheelwright's shop, a Chinese market garden and a mail change (a dwelling and stables where the coach horses were changed). Robertson and Wagner (part of the Cobb & Co. network) ran mail and passenger services to Hillston from both Hay and Carrathool with the routes converging at Gunbar. Protestant religious services began to be held from January 1881 in the dining-room of the Gunbar Hotel, conducted by the Presbyterian minister from Hay, Rev. Samuel A. Hamilton.