Hartley historic site is a heritage-listed historic village located adjacent to the Great Western Highway, Hartley, City of Lithgow, New South Wales, Australia. It was built from 1837 to 1850. It is also known as Hartley Historic Site and Hartley Township. The property is owned and protected by Office of Environment and Heritage, an agency of the Government of New South Wales. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
History
The Hartley Valley was first crossed by Europeans during Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson's famous expedition of 1813. Settlement of the region extended during the 1820s and in 1832 Major Mitchell's new line of western road down Victoria Pass took the Bathurst Road through the Hartley area. Soon a town was proposed and, with large numbers of convicts working in the area, the need for a government detention and judicial centre was recognised (at that time no such place existed in all the country between the Nepean River and ). Consequently in 1837 a courthouse was erected at Hartley and the following year the town plan was gazetted. Hartley grew as both a government administrative centre and also as a wayside service centre, it being an important stopping point on the western road to Bathurst and further inland.
The railway arrived in the region late in the 1860s and while it led to the growth of places like Lithgow, Hartley declined owing to the reduction in road traffic. Late in the nineteenth century Hartley began to be recognised as a place of historic attraction and the village began to prosper also as a result of the passing tourist traffic to Jenolan Caves. During the interwar period motor car tourism played a particularly significant part in Hartley's history. After the World War II, however, improvements in vehicles and the highway saw a decline as increasing numbers of tourists travelled through town without stopping. During the 1960s and 1970s Blaxland Shire Council acquired many Hartley buildings. In 1972 the Hartley Historic Site was declared under the administration of the National Parks and Wildlife Service.
Structures on the historic site
The courthouse was designed by Colonial Architect, Mortimer Lewis in 1837.
St John's Anglican Church, built in 1858-59, was designed by leading Colonial Ecclesiastical Architect, Edmund Blacket.
St Bernard's Catholic Church, , and the adjacent presbytery, , reflect Hartley's substantial Irish population in the nineteenth century. The church, Gothic in style, was designed by Alexander Binning. The first mass celebrated in Hartley was by the Rev. Michael Cavanagh, who decided in 1838 that a church should be built to serve the large population of Irish Catholic settlers in the area. Its first priest was Father Dunphy, appointed in 1843.
The Royal Hotel dates from the late 1840s and at one time functioned as the Anglican Rectory and as a school. An NPWS post-card states it was built in 1846 and first licensed as the "Hartley" Hotel by James Nairn. In the 1850s-70s it served as a Cobb & Co staging post for coaches en route between Sydney, Bathurst and Mudgee.
Farmers Inn was built by John Finn around 1845-46. The Finn family was significant in Hartley's history, for the family also built the post office (which family members ran for fifty eight years), Ivy Cottage and Old Tralee. Farmers Inn was licensed from about the 1860s until 1895.
The Shamrock Inn was built in the mid 1840s and occupied as a residence by the Phillips family for a lengthy period. It catered for the needs of the men and women en route to and from the gold fields of Hill End, and the Turon workings.
Hartley's former post office was constructed between 1845 and 1852. When the building closed in 1982 it was said to be the longest operating post office in Australia.
Old Tralee, named after the Finns' family home in Ireland, was erected between 1846 and 1854. In 1839 John and Mary Finn and their eight children arrived in Australia from Ireland. They set out straight away for Hartley, where they built Old Tralee. Their home town rector had no doubt encouraged their migration with news of his son's progress as Magistrate in Hartley.
In 2016 St. Bernard's Presbytery, after major internal restoration now hosts overnight stay guests, along with nearby Old Tralee, for the first time.
Description
Hartley historic site is located on a steep slope above the River Lett. The immediate surrounding country is cleared though the higher country above is timbered. A range of exotic trees are found in the town. The village with its pervasive nineteenth century character has strong aesthetic qualities.