Louth, New South Wales
Template:Use Australian English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox Australian place Louth is a village on the eastern side of the Darling River in New South Wales, Australia. The village is in Bourke Shire, Template:Convert south west of Bourke and Template:Convert north west of Cobar. The town is made famous by the Louth Races which are held in August each year, attracting crowds of nearly five thousand.<ref name="Age">The Age - Louth Retrieved on 2009-7-3</ref> At the 2021 census, Louth and the surrounding region had a population of 74.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The town was established in 1859 when Thomas Andrew Mathews, an Irish immigrant from County Louth, built a pub to serve the passing trade along the then busy Darling River. At one stage the town grew to have three hotels, a cordial factory, three bakeries, two butchers, a post office, three churches, a Chinese garden, a general store and a police station.<ref name="Age"/> The post office still remains and has been beautifully restored.
When T.A. Mathew's first wife, Mary Mathews, died in 1886, he had a unique headstone built that is now an Australian National Monument. At dusk each night, the cross reflects the setting sun across the town acting as a beacon of light that on the anniversary of her death lights up the doorstep of where her family home once stood.<ref name="Age"/>
In 1888 the first mechanised shearing of sheep, in the world, took place at Sir Samuel McCaughey's Dunlop Station, a property located within the Louth district.<ref>Trilby Station Retrieved 26 September 2011</ref>
References
External links
- Louth races - Official website