Orange was proclaimed a village on 18 November 1846. The area had been known as Blackmans Swamp, named after John Blackman the Chief Constable of Bathurst.
The village was named ‘Orange’ by explorer, Major Thomas Mitchell in honour of Prince William of Orange who he met during the Napoleonic Wars.
The story of Orange reflects a rich tapestry from the traditional Wiradjuri people to settlers, gold miners and commercial traders.
The development of the Orange Heritage Trail was a project of Orange City Council. Mr Ross Maroney was the researcher.
🚶🏽♀️ The walk starts from the Orange Visitor Information Centre and proceeds west along Byng Street, taking approximately 1.5 hours to complete.
This information is from the Orange Heritage Trail Booklet
1. The Carrington Club Hotel
The Carrington Hotel, which began life as John Peisley’s store in the mid 1850s, is believed to have been Orange’s first brick building, with the bricks brought from Bathurst. About 1874 the building became The Railway Hotel, renamed The Belmore Hotel in 1879 and The Carrington Club in 1886. World renowned stuntman Charles Blondin (who once walked across the Niagara Gorge) walked a tightrope from the roof of the Carrington in the 1880s, crossing the street to a very high pole erected in Robertson Park. He carried a boy on his back and used a long thin pole to keep his balance. While the present Court House was being erected in the early 1880s, court sittings were held in the hotel’s dining room. The hotel closed in 2017 and was restored as commercial premises (‘Live Better’).
2. Orange Court House
On a site where local Wiradjuri people are said to have once held corroborees stands the Orange Court House. A slab and bark watch-house was erected in 1849 and used as a court house from 1851. Early church services and the first council meetings were held here. A larger sandstone Court House was erected in 1860-62. Bushranger Ben Hall was tried here in the early 1860s. This building made way for the present neo-classical building designed by colonial architect James Barnet in 1883. A new wing was constructed at the rear of the site in 2001.
3. Orange Gaol
From the 1860s until 1912, when it was demolished, Orange Gaol was behind the Court House. The wall overlooking the exercise yard ran alongside Byng Street footpath and the armed warder was often seen patrolling the platform atop the wall. Bushranger John Dunn spent a night here en route to his trial in Sydney. By 1876 all prisoners from the west were housed here on their way to Bathurst or Darlinghurst. A new police station across the road was opened in 2009.
4. Canobolas Shire Council
The small building opposite with street frontage served as the temporary home of the Canobolas Shire Council from its formation in 1906 until their own premises were built in Kite Street in 1912. The building is now used as commercial premises.
5. The Metropolitan Hotel
The Metropolitan Hotel was built in 1864 as John Woodward’s store, the second brick store in Orange. It has been a hotel since a licence was granted to William West in 1886.
🚶🏽♀️ Looking south on Anson Street, you will see the Soldier’s Memorial Hall and Town Hall
6. The Soldier’s Memorial Hall
The Soldiers’ Memorial Hall, beside the Town Hall, was opened in 1922. Funds for its construction were raised by a public appeal following WWI. It houses a shrine of remembrance and a military museum.
7. Town Hall
Thestuccoed Italianate Town Hall designed by Sydney architect JJ Clarke was completed in 1888. Sir Henry Parkes spoke at the laying of the foundation stone in 1887. Built by Arthur and Oliver at a cost of £3,800, it housed the Orange Council for almost a century. A statue of Orange-born VC recipient John Hamilton is on the corner. The building is now the office of OCTEC.
8. Holy Trinity Anglican Church
This High Victorian Gothic Revival Church was designed by Thomas Rowe and opened in 1879. The steeple was completed in 1924 as a WWI memorial. Behind it, a short distance north along Anson Street, can be seen the earlier church, built in 1857 of bluestone. Set well back from the present church is the original Holy Trinity Rectory, a two- storey building erected in 1865.
9. The First Power Pole
Orange’s electricity supply was switched on in January 1923. The city’s first power pole, on the Byng Street side of the Town Hall, has been preserved.
🚶🏽♀️ Proceed west along Byng Street
10. The Diggers’ Arms Hotel
The Diggers’ Arms Hotel stood on the site of 100 and 102 Byng Street, and was opened by Patrick Boyle in 1877. On the block Boyle would organise sports, such as catching the greasy pig or climbing the greasy pole.
11. Orange’s First Foundry
Orange’s first foundry, run by Groub and Sattler, was located in this block, just to the west of Holy Trinity. It was also in this vicinity that the residents of Orange roasted a bullock to celebrate the arrival of the railway in 1877.
12. The School Of Arts
One of the earliest institutes in Orange was The Orange Mechanics Institute founded in 1857. Early meetings were held in the Old Royal Hotel, the Court House and the former Union Bank until 1874 when renamed the School Of Arts, it moved into premises erected by local builder, James Douglas. With a hotel on either side, a store nearby, a large mill across the road and the police station on the corner, it was the cultural centre of town, providing a library, a reading room and a hall used for lectures, concerts and plays. The Police Citizens Youth Club (PCYC) movement paid the School of Arts bank overdraft in 1963, and with the help of the community started renovating the building in 1967. The PCYC moved to the new Sir Neville Howse Stadium at Anzac Park in 2010. The building is now leased.
Having built his first store(between 1857 and 1859)on the southern side of Byng Street, Benjamin Nelson erected Nelson Bros’ Great Western Steam Flour Mill between 1863 and 1865, across the road almost opposite the School of Arts. At the same time, convinced Byng Street would remain Orange’s principal street, Nelson built an impressive two-storey store beside the mill. The store burnt down in 1868.
14. The Union Bank
Orange’s first bank, the Union Bank, is the two-storey building on the corner of Byng and Sale Streets. It opened in 1857. In 1862 the premises were taken over by the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney. It’s now a restaurant. This intersection was the scene of a piece of history for the NSW Police Force. The day after the sensational Eugowra gold coach robbery, police returned with the coach to Orange. On 16 June 1862 Constable William Haviland was preparing to get down from the coach as it rounded this corner. A pistol under a seat discharged, striking Haviland under the chin, killing him instantly. He was the first officer killed on duty after the NSW Police Force was formed earlier that year. The bank building was also used as a police station for a time. The solidly-built stables still stand in the yard.
15. ‘Brownholme’
82 Byng Street on the Sale Street corner, is one of several fine homes opposite St Joseph’s Church. This beautiful Federation home was built by local draper Ernie Maguire. For a time it served as a guest house.
16. 70 Byng Street
This was James Dalton’s first home, built in 1860. Eleven of his 12 children were born here, where he lived until his mansion, ‘Duntryleague’ was built in 1876. This house was remodeled c1925.
17. ‘Wendouree’
68Byng Street is a bungalow built by merchant Samuel George West, and named after the Wendouree Lakes at Ballarat, where he had previously lived.
18. ‘Emily’
66 Byng Street was built in 1900 for Jack Dalton, second son of James Dalton. It is in true Federation style, with an impressive domed central hall. It was later used as Onslow House for girls attending Holy Trinity School. It is now a private residence.
21. ‘Galbally’
60Byng Street is a large two-storey house that was built in 1918 as a town home for Edward (‘Dick’) Dalton, formerly of ‘Ammerdown’, James Dalton’s fourth son. Galbally was the Daltons’ home village in County Limerick, Ireland.
Most houses in Byng Street from Hill to Woodward Street are Edwardian/Federation, many of which have been tastefully restored.
🚶🏽♀️ Continuing along Byng Street turn left at Sampson Street and proceed one block to Summer Street. Then turn left again and resume the walk at number 22
22. ‘Berrilea’
Opposite Cook Park, at 29 Summer Street, is an attractive Edwardian home built for Mrs Robert Frost in 1902. It has wide wooden verandahs, external lacework and a large formal garden. In 1973 it was left by the then owner, Miss Fleurette Weston, to Wontama. The building is now used by Wontama Aged Care.
🚶🏽♀️You may wish to cross Summer Street here at the crossing, and view the next two houses from across the street before entering Cook Park
23. ‘Bruff’
31 Summer Street, next door to ‘Berrilea’, was another Dalton house where the widowed Mary Cecilia Dalton and her children lived.
24. ‘Blair Athol’
The two-storey ‘Blair Athol’ (No 43) on the Clinton Street corner, is a Victorian-style home built as his own home by local builder James Douglas.
25. Cook Park
Cook Park was four and a half hectares of low-lying swampy ground that narrowly escaped subdivision for housing. In 1873 it was set aside as a public reserve, and three years later some clearing was begun and a fence erected. In 1878 an assortment of trees was obtained from the Sydney Botanic Gardens. It was named Cook Park in April 1882, after the explorer Captain James Cook.
Gardens and walks were laid out, an ornamental lake excavated in about 1890, and the fountain was donated by James Dalton the following year. The band rotunda was donated by the Orange Band in 1908. The iron gates at the Sampson Street corner, designed by Dick Venables of Parkes, originally stood at the entrance to Robertson Park but were relocated in 1927. The park is listed on the State Heritage Register and is a popular spot for residents and tourists.
🚶🏽♀️ From Summer Street, turn right into Clinton Street, then proceed east along Kite Street
26. 37 Kite Street
This large Victorian cottage was built in 1878, originally set in a large orchard and garden. Note the striking cast-iron verandah and decorative brickwork in the chimney tops and under the eaves.
27. ‘The Channings’
Next door, 39KiteStreet was built about 1912 for the West family, and was originally named ‘West Lynne’.
28. ‘Mena’
The gracious ‘Mena’ at 50 Kite Street was built about 1875 by merchant James Dalton for his eldest son, Thomas Garrett (‘Gatty’) Dalton which was originally named ‘Killiney’. Designed (probably by Benjamin Backhouse) when art nouveau was at its peak, the home still has its original lead windows, fireplace tiles, cedar archways and mouldings. At one stage it operated as a hospital.
29. ‘Pauline’
JM Paul, Mayor of Orange in 1887 built the impressive ‘Pauline’ on the Hill Street corner. This house is a mix of Federation and Edwardian architecture and originally had a slate roof.
30. ‘Newstead’
This Victorian-style home was built in 1890. The huge Indian Cedar tree in front was planted shortly after the house was built. The building is now a child care centre.
31. St John’s Uniting Church
When the first Presbyterian church was built on this site about 1863 there was some dissatisfaction that it was too far ‘out of town’. It was replaced by the present building in 1910.
32. ‘Hawthornden’
The house was built in 1905 on the corner of Kite and Sale Streets and was home of TJ Robinson, owner of the Atlas Foundry.
33. Orange Public School & Schoolmaster’s Residence
On the opposite corner, the Victorian Gothic Orange Public School and Schoolmaster’s Residence were designed by GA Mansfield. The foundation stone was laid in 1880 by the Premier of NSW, Sir Henry Parkes.
34. ‘Braemar’
This house at75 Kite Street, next to Hawthornden, was originally Ardee Private Hospital in the early 1920s.
35. The Lands Board Office
The Lands Board Office, designed by WL Vernon, was built in 1909 in the Edwardian Style with semi-circular windows, rough cast walls and terracotta tiles on the roof. The building was bought by OCTEC in 2019.
🚶🏽♀️ Turn left into Anson Street
36. ‘Wyoming Court’
‘Wyoming Court’ wasbuilt in about 1880 as a two-storey pair of town villas. Each originally had its own name until Mrs Stuart Lamrock gave the building its present name.
37. ‘Anson House’
This double-storey office, built in 1937, is the only surviving older building in this block. The entrances and casement windows are reminiscent of a Georgian building.
🚶🏽♀️ Looking north-west on the opposite side of Anson Street
38. Orange Uniting Church
Originally the Methodist Church, to be seen on the western side of Anson Street, it was built by John Hale and opened in1863.The tower and porch are later additions. Untilthe1920s a two-storey parsonage, surrounded by lawns and gardens, adjoined the church on the Summer Streetcorner.
🚶🏽♀️ Turn right into Summer Street
39. Dalton Brothers
James Dalton began trading on the Post Office Lane corner in 1849 in a small store, which by 1860 was replaced by the eastern-most section of the present three-storey building. A second building was erected about 1870 on the western side, the gap between them being built over in 1895.Dalton Brothers boasted they could ‘fit a man out with everything.’ The facade of the original building was kept when the site was developed as a shopping centre in 2019.
40. Nelson Bros/Brown & Brown
Directly opposite the Post Office stood the three-storey building erected in 1872 for Nelson Brothers, said to have been so positioned to never let the sun shine on the store of Nelson’s rival, James Dalton.
41. Orange Post Office
Orange Post Office is a Victorian Italianate building, designed by Government Architect James Barnet and erected by James Douglas. It opened in 1880 on the site of an earlier Post and Telegraph Office, erected in 1864 by John Hale.
42. The AJS Bank/Centrepoint Building
Opened in1876as the Australian Joint Stock Bank, this building was bulit by John Hale. It was later Lamrock & Lound’s menswear store (note the ‘L & L’ brass letters embedded in the pavement).
43. The Hotel Canobolas
Constructed by Tooheys Ltd brewery this Art Deco style hotel opened in 1939 and featured 145 rooms and an extensive ballroom. It replaced the earlier Club House Hotel which was built in 1876.
44. The Royal Hotel
Built in 1859,the Wellington Hotel was the site of the booking office for Cobb & Co for many years. Renamed the Royal Hotel in 1881, the building was remodelled in the 1930s in the Art Deco style.
45. Robertson Park
Robertson Park was originally a low lying, swampy area through which Blackmans Swamp Creek flowed. In 1882 it was reformed into a park named after John Robertson, the former Premier. The Cobb & Co funded Whitney Fountain was constructed in 1896, and the Town Band Committee added the Bandstand in 1913. The Cenotaph dates from 1953.
46. Boer War Memorial
At the northern end of Robertson Park is the Boer War Memorial unveiled on 20 March 1905. The memorial was originally located at the intersection of Summer and Anson Street. Nearby is the Sir Neville Howse Monument, unveiled on 22 July 2000. It commemorates the life of the Orange doctor, mayor, soldier and statesman, and acknowledges him as the first Australian serviceman to be awarded the Victoria Cross. The first greens for the Orange Bowling Club were situated in Robertson Park and the CWA Hall was the club pavilion.
🚶🏽♀️ Walk through the park to return to Visitor Information Centre
The development of the Orange Heritage Trail was a project of Orange City Council. Mr Ross Maroney has researched information for this pamphlet.
Sources for further history & heritage information include:
• Orange & District Historical Society
• Orange Family History Group
• Orange City Library
Main image: Summer Street – Image courtesy Orange City Library
This trail published in collaboration with Orange City Council.
