Lake Bathurst

Where Christians first prayed in 1820

These days the desolate shores of Lake Bathurst look an uninviting location for the first church service in what was known as the ‘New Country’ or the southern districts of New South Wales, celebrated in 1820. There’s a memorial to this service at the lake, dry as a bone in 2005, but carrying plenty of fresh water in 1820. Early homesteads, pioneer graves and reminders of explorers also figure on this trail. There’s an echo of a sensational Arctic disaster of the 1840s, a World War 2 fuel store to be seen, numerous churches and an illustrated reminder of the writings of Henry Lawson.

The surveyor, explorer and settler James Meehan (1774-1826) who discovered Lake Bathurst on 3 April 1818, described it as a ‘large lake exceeding 10 miles [16.1 km] in circuit’ while the ‘quantity of ducks and other wild waterfowl on the lake and marshes are beyond description or comprehension’. The lake when full covers an area of about 1450 ha and is said to hold water more consistently than its bigger neighbour, Lake George.

Meehan named the smaller lake after Earl Bathurst, Secretary of State for the Colonies, a commendably patriotic act by a convict transported for his part in the Irish Rebellion of 1798. He received an absolute pardon in 1806.

Allan Cunningham, botanist and explorer came this way in 1824, a female Aborigine who had ‘acquired a colloquial knowledge of English’ telling him that she had lived all her life, about forty years, near Lake Bathurst and could remember a time when it was a mere sandy flat, perfectly dry. Cunningham recorded the lake as a ‘body of water five miles [8.05 km] in length by one [1.61 km] in width and saw ‘black swans, duck of various kind, shags, divers and pelican’ on the lake.

Source: Unlocking History’s Secrets: Journeys along the Canberra Region’s Heritage Trails by Graeme Barrow (2005)


Did your ancestors have any historical connection with Lake Bathurst? Please share your memories.