Condobolin
Condobolin is a town in the west of the Central West region of New South Wales, Australia, on the Lachlan River. At the 2016 census, Condobolin had a population of 3,486. Prior to European settlement, the area was inhabited by the Wiradjuri people; the name Condobolin is suggested by some to have evolved from the Aboriginal word Cundabullen — shallow crossing. The crossing was located a short distance below the junction of the Lachlan River and the Goobang Creek. Others suggest that the town's name from the Wiradjuri word for'hop bush', or'hop brush'; the area was explored by Charlie Bendall in 1817 and Thomas Mitchell in 1836. The'Condoublin' run was established by 1844. There had been squatters in the district since Mitchell's 1836 exploration. Closer settlement of the area began in 1880 when the large runs were broken up into smaller holdings; the town of Condobolin was proclaimed in 1859. The railway arrived in 1898, the town's population boomed, assisted by finds in 1885 of copper north of the town and in 1896 of gold in the district, north-west of the town.
A major copper and gold mine was in operation at Condobolin from 1898 until around 1910. Agriculture is still a major influence on the town, production having expanded with the damming of the Lachlan River in 1935 by the Wyangala Dam. Wheat, canola, wool and cattle are produced in the district. In more recent years irrigation has brought cotton to the Lachlan River area; the video clip for Shannon Noll's first single What About Me? was filmed in Condobolin. Condobolin has a number of heritage-listed sites, including: McDonnell Street: All Saints' Anglican Church, Condobolin Condobolin is close to Mount Tilga, said by some to be the geographical centre of New South Wales. Geosciences Australia's Bicentennial project however suggests near the Five Ways, 33 km west north west of Tottenham as one possible centre and makes no reference to Mount Tilga. Condobolin is located at the junction of Goobang Creek, it is 463 kilometres west of Sydney. Close to Condobolin is the Overflow Station, the setting of the poem Clancy of the Overflow by Banjo Paterson.
The poem is about a Queensland drover and a sheep shearer responsible for herding large mobs of sheep long distances to market. The area features a hot semi-arid climate. At the 2016 census, Condobolin recorded a population of 3,486; the median age was 38. 22.1% of residents reported being Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander. 85.0% of respondents reported being born in Australia. 79.8% of residents reported having both parents born in Australia, compared to the national average of 47.3%. 88.8% of respondents spoke only English at home. Christianity was the largest religious group in Condobolin at 78.6% of stated responses on religion. This included the denominations of Catholic and Presbyterian and Reformed. 17.8% reported having no religion, lower than the national average of 29.6%. 10.8% of residents did not state a response to the optional question on religion. Condobolin is the home to a two-day cross country navigational rally, known as the "Condo 750". Now in its 11th year, the Condo 750 runs over a variety of private and public roads and tracks and attracts competitors from all over Australia.
It is a MA sanctioned event. The course is made up of competitive sections known as selective sections which are timed over private tracks around the various sheep and cattle stations, these range in length from 20 to 70 kilometres. Non-competitive road sections on public roads join the sections, these range from 0.2 to 30 kilometres. The total length of the course is over 750 kilometres. Condobolin railway station lies on the Broken Hill railway line; the station is served by the twice-weekly Indian Pacific train, as well as NSW TrainLink's Broken Hill Outback Xplorer train. This train heads to Sydney on Tuesdays. Kevin Gilbert, author, activist Bill Leak, cartoonist Eris O'Brien, archbishop Shannon Noll, singer Media related to Condobolin at Wikimedia Commons Condoblin - VisitNSW
Murrumbidgee River
Murrumbidgee River, a major tributary of the Murray River within the Murray–Darling basin and the second longest river in Australia. It flows through the Australian state of the Australian Capital Territory, it descends 1,500 metres as it flows 1,485 kilometres in a west-northwesterly direction from the foot of Peppercorn Hill in the Fiery Range of the Snowy Mountains towards its confluence with the Murray River near Boundary Bend. The word Murrumbidgee means "big water" in the Wiradjuri language, one of the local Aboriginal languages; the river itself flows through several traditional Indigenous Australian lands, home to various Aboriginal tribes. In the Australian Capital Territory, the river is bordered by a narrow strip of land on each side; this land includes nature reserves, eight recreation reserves, a European heritage conservation zone and rural leases. The mainstream of the river system flows for 900 kilometres; the river's headwaters arise from the wet heath and bog at the foot of Peppercorn Hill situated along Long Plain, within the Fiery Range of the Snowy Mountains.
From its headwaters it flows to its confluence with the Murray River. The river flows for 66 kilometres through the Australian Capital Territory near Canberra, picking up the important tributaries of the Gudgenby, Queanbeyan and Cotter Rivers; the Murrumbidgee drains much of southern New South Wales and all of the Australian Capital Territory, is an important source of irrigation water for the Riverina farming area. The reaches of the Murrumbidgee in the Australian Capital Territory are affected by the complete elimination of large spring snow melt flows and a reduction of average annual flows of 50%, due to Tantangara Dam. Tantangara Dam was completed in 1960 on the headwaters of Murrumbidgee River and diverts 99% of the river's flow at that point into Lake Eucumbene; this has serious effects on native fish populations and other native aquatic life and has led to serious siltation, stream contraction, fish habitat loss and other problems. The Murrumbidgee where it enters the ACT is half the river it used to be.
A study suggests a section of the upper river's channels are new in geological terms, dating from the early Miocene. It is suggested that the Upper Murrumbidgee is an anabranch of the Tumut River when geological uplift near Adaminaby diverted its flow. From Gundagai onwards the rivers flow within its ancestral channel. In June 2008 the Murray-Darling Basin Commission released a report on the condition of the Murray-Darling basin, with the Goulburn and Murrumbidgee Rivers rated in a poor condition in the Murray-Darling basin with fish stocks in both rivers were rated as poor, with only 13 of the original 22 native fish species still found in the Murrumbidgee River; the Murrumbidgee River runs through the traditional lands of the Ngarigo, Wiradjuri, Nari Nari and Muthi Muthi Aboriginal tribes. The Murrumbidgee River was known to Europeans before it was discovered by them. In 1820 the explorer Charles Throsby informed the Governor of New South Wales that he anticipated finding "a considerable river of salt water, called by the natives Mur-rum-big-gee".
In the expedition journal, Throsby wrote as a marginal note: "This river or stream is called by the natives Yeal-am-bid-gie...". The river he had stumbled upon was in fact the Molonglo River, Throsby reached the actual river in April 1821. In 1823, Brigade-Major John Ovens and Captain Mark Currie reached the upper Murrumbidgee when exploring south of Lake George. In 1829, Charles Sturt and his party rowed down the lower half of the Murrumbidgee River in a stoutly built, large row-boat, from Narrandera to the Murray River, down the Murray River to the sea, they rowed back upstream, against the current, to their starting point. Sturt's description of their passage through the junction of the Murrumbidgee and Murray Rivers is dramatic, his description of wild strong currents in the Murrumbidgee—in the middle of summer, when flows are declining and close to the seasonal summer/autumn minimum, are in contrast to the sluggish, chronically irrigation-reduced flow seen at the junction today in mid-summer: The men looked anxiously out ahead.
We were carried at a fearful rate down its gloomy and contracted banks... At 3 p.m. Hopkinson called out that we were approaching a junction, in less than a minute afterwards, we were hurried into a broad and noble river... such was the force with which we had been shot out of the Morumbidgee, that we were carried nearly to the bank opposite its embouchure, whilst we continued to gaze in silent astonishment on the capacious channel we had entered... The Murrumbidgee basin was opened to settlement in the 1830s and soon became an important farming area. Ernest Favenc, when writing on Australian exploration, commented on the tardy European discovery of the river and that the river retained a name used by Indigenous Australians: Here we may remark on the tenacity with which the Murrumbidgee River long eluded the eye of the white man, it is scarcely probable that Meehan and Hume, who on this occasion were within comparatively easy reach of the head waters, could have seen a new inland river at that time without mentioning the fact, but there is no record traceable anywhere as to the date of its discovery, or the name of its find
Parapet
A parapet is a barrier, an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes from the Italian parapetto; the German equivalent Brüstung has the same meaning. Where extending above a roof, a parapet may be the portion of an exterior wall that continues above the edge line of the roof surface, or may be a continuation of a vertical feature beneath the roof such as a fire wall or party wall. Parapets were used to defend buildings from military attack, but today they are used as guard rails and to prevent the spread of fires. Parapets may be plain, perforated or panelled, which are not mutually exclusive terms. Plain parapets are upward extensions of the wall, sometimes with a coping at the top and corbel below. Embattled parapets may be panelled, but are pierced, if not purely as stylistic device, for the discharge of defensive projectiles. Perforated parapets are pierced in various designs such as trefoils, or quatrefoils. Panelled parapets are ornamented by a series of panels, either oblong or square, more or less enriched, but not perforated.
These are common in the Perpendicular periods. The teachings of Moses prescribed parapets on roof edges for newly constructed houses as a safety measure; the Mirror Wall at Sigiriya, Sri Lanka built between 477 and 495 AD is one of the few surviving protective parapet walls from antiquity. Built onto the side of Sigiriya Rock it ran for a distance of 250 meters and provided protection from inclement weather. Only about one hundred meters of this wall exists today, but brick debris and grooves on the rock face along the western side of the rock show where the rest of this wall once stood. Parapets surrounding roofs are common in London; this dates from the Building Act of 1707 which banned projecting wooden eaves in the cities of Westminster and London as a fire risk. Instead an 18-inch brick parapet was required, with the roof set behind; this was continued in many Georgian houses, as it gave the appearance of a flat roof which accorded with the desire for classical proportions. Many firewalls are required to have a portion of the wall extending above the roof.
The parapet is required to be as fire resistant as the lower wall, extend a distance prescribed by building code. Parapets on bridges and other highway structures prevent users from falling off where there is a drop, they may be meant to restrict views, to prevent rubbish passing below, to act as noise barriers. Bridge parapets may be made from any material, but structural steel, aluminium and reinforced concrete are common, they may be of framed construction. In European standards, parapets are defined as a sub-category of "vehicle restraint systems" or "pedestrian restraint systems". In terms of fortification, a parapet is a wall of stone, wood or earth on the outer edge of a defensive wall or trench, which shelters the defenders. In medieval castles, they were crenellated. In artillery forts, parapets tend to be higher and thicker, they could be provided with embrasures for the fort's guns to fire through, a banquette or fire-step so that defending infantry could shoot over the top. The top of the parapet slopes towards the enemy to enable the defenders to shoot downwards.
In śilpaśāstra, the ancient Indian science of sculpture, a parapet is known as hāra. It is optionally added while constructing a temple; the hāra can be decorated according to the Kāmikāgama. Attic style Breastwork Merlon Redoubt Senani Ponnamperuma; the Story of Sigiriya, Panique Pty Ltd, 2013 pp 124–127, 179. ISBN 978-0987345141. Victorian Forts glossary Parapet What is a Parapet
Hydroelectricity
Hydroelectricity is electricity produced from hydropower. In 2015, hydropower generated 16.6% of the world's total electricity and 70% of all renewable electricity, was expected to increase about 3.1% each year for the next 25 years. Hydropower is produced in 150 countries, with the Asia-Pacific region generating 33 percent of global hydropower in 2013. China is the largest hydroelectricity producer, with 920 TWh of production in 2013, representing 16.9 percent of domestic electricity use. The cost of hydroelectricity is low, making it a competitive source of renewable electricity; the hydro station consumes no water, unlike gas plants. The average cost of electricity from a hydro station larger than 10 megawatts is 3 to 5 U. S. cents per kilowatt hour. With a dam and reservoir it is a flexible source of electricity since the amount produced by the station can be varied up or down rapidly to adapt to changing energy demands. Once a hydroelectric complex is constructed, the project produces no direct waste, in many cases, has a lower output level of greenhouse gases than fossil fuel powered energy plants.
Hydropower has been used since ancient times to perform other tasks. In the mid-1770s, French engineer Bernard Forest de Bélidor published Architecture Hydraulique which described vertical- and horizontal-axis hydraulic machines. By the late 19th century, the electrical generator was developed and could now be coupled with hydraulics; the growing demand for the Industrial Revolution would drive development as well. In 1878 the world's first hydroelectric power scheme was developed at Cragside in Northumberland, England by William Armstrong, it was used to power a single arc lamp in his art gallery. The old Schoelkopf Power Station No. 1 near Niagara Falls in the U. S. side began to produce electricity in 1881. The first Edison hydroelectric power station, the Vulcan Street Plant, began operating September 30, 1882, in Appleton, with an output of about 12.5 kilowatts. By 1886 there were 45 hydroelectric power stations in the U. S. and Canada. By 1889 there were 200 in the U. S. alone. At the beginning of the 20th century, many small hydroelectric power stations were being constructed by commercial companies in mountains near metropolitan areas.
Grenoble, France held the International Exhibition of Hydropower and Tourism with over one million visitors. By 1920 as 40% of the power produced in the United States was hydroelectric, the Federal Power Act was enacted into law; the Act created the Federal Power Commission to regulate hydroelectric power stations on federal land and water. As the power stations became larger, their associated dams developed additional purposes to include flood control and navigation. Federal funding became necessary for large-scale development and federally owned corporations, such as the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Bonneville Power Administration were created. Additionally, the Bureau of Reclamation which had begun a series of western U. S. irrigation projects in the early 20th century was now constructing large hydroelectric projects such as the 1928 Hoover Dam. The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers was involved in hydroelectric development, completing the Bonneville Dam in 1937 and being recognized by the Flood Control Act of 1936 as the premier federal flood control agency.
Hydroelectric power stations continued to become larger throughout the 20th century. Hydropower was referred to as white coal for its plenty. Hoover Dam's initial 1,345 MW power station was the world's largest hydroelectric power station in 1936; the Itaipu Dam opened in 1984 in South America as the largest, producing 14,000 MW but was surpassed in 2008 by the Three Gorges Dam in China at 22,500 MW. Hydroelectricity would supply some countries, including Norway, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Brazil, with over 85% of their electricity; the United States has over 2,000 hydroelectric power stations that supply 6.4% of its total electrical production output, 49% of its renewable electricity. The technical potential for hydropower development around the world is much greater than the actual production: the percent of potential hydropower capacity that has not been developed is 71% in Europe, 75% in North America, 79% in South America, 95% in Africa, 95% in the Middle East, 82% in Asia-Pacific.
The political realities of new reservoirs in western countries, economic limitations in the third world and the lack of a transmission system in undeveloped areas result in the possibility of developing 25% of the remaining technically exploitable potential before 2050, with the bulk of that being in the Asia-Pacific area. Some countries have developed their hydropower potential and have little room for growth: Switzerland produces 88% of its potential and Mexico 80%. Most hydroelectric power comes from the potential energy of dammed water driving a water turbine and generator; the power extracted from the water depends on the volume and on the difference in height between the source and the water's outflow. This height difference is called the head. A large pipe delivers water from the reservoir to the turbine; this method produces electricity to supply high peak demands by moving water between reservoirs at different elevations. At times of low electrical demand, the excess generation capacity is used to pump water into the higher reservoir.
When the demand becomes greater, water is released back into the lower reservoir through a turbine. Pumped-storage schemes provide the most commercially important means of large-scale grid energy storage and improve the daily capacity factor of the generation system. Pumped storag
Australian pound
The Australian pound was the currency of Australia from 1910 until 14 February 1966, when it was replaced by the Australian dollar. As with other £ sd currencies, it was subdivided into each of 12 pence; the first European settlement of Australia took place on 26 January 1788 at Port Jackson. The colony of New South Wales survived its first years and was neglected for much of the following quarter-century while the British government was preoccupied until 1815 with the Napoleonic Wars. One important British oversight during this period was the provision of adequate coinage for the new colony and, because of the shortage of any sort of money, the real means of exchange during the first 25 years of settlement was rum, the access to, controlled by the officers of the New South Wales Corps, who benefited most from access to land and imported goods. Though it did not solve the problem arising from the lack of coins, but in an attempt to put some order into the economy, in 1800, Governor Philip Gidley King issued a proclamation setting the value of a variety of foreign coins in the colony.
During this period, to protect the lucrative access to the imported rum, as well as other grievances, the officers, who came to be known as the "Rum Corps", deposed the governor in a standoff in 1808, referred to as the "Rum Rebellion". The New South Wales Corps was recalled soon after. Otherwise, the shortage of coinage persisted; the first coinage issued by the colony took place in 1813, was effected by punching the middle out of Spanish dollars. This process created two parts: a small coin, called the dump, a ring, called a holey dollar. One holey dollar was worth five shillings, one dump was worth one shilling and three pence; this was done in order to keep the coins in New South Wales. From 1817, when the first bank, the Bank of New South Wales, was established, private banks issued paper money denominated in pounds. Acceptance of private bank notes was not made compulsory by legal tender laws but they were used and accepted. In 1825, an Imperial order-in-council was issued with the purpose of introducing sterling coinage to all the British colonies.
This was due to the introduction of the gold standard in the UK in 1816, a decline in the supply of Spanish dollars, due to the revolutions taking place in Spanish South American colonies. Most of the dollars used had been minted in Lima, Mexico City, Potosí, which had become part of new Latin American republics, independent from Spain. In 1852, the Government Assay Office in Adelaide issued gold pound coins; these weighed more than sovereigns. From 1855, the Sydney mint issued half sovereigns and sovereigns, with the Melbourne mint beginning production in 1872. Many of the sovereigns minted in Australia were for use in India as part of a plan that the gold sovereign should become the imperial coin; as it turned out, India was too entrenched in the Rupee system, the gold sovereigns obtained by the treasury in India never left the vaults. Thus, in the lead-up to Federation, the currency used in the Australian colonies consisted of British silver and copper coins, Australian minted gold sovereigns and half sovereigns, locally minted copper trade tokens and private bank notes.
In addition, the Queensland government issued treasury notes and banknotes which were legal tender in Queensland. After Federation in 1901, the Australian government assumed power over currency matters and began overprinting the private issues that were in circulation, in preparation for the issue of a domestic currency. In 1910 the federal government passed the "Australian Notes Act" which prohibited the circulation of State notes and gave control over the issue of Australian notes to the Commonwealth Treasury. Passed in that year was the "Bank Notes Tax Act" which imposed a tax of 10% per annum on "all bank notes issued or re-issued by any bank in the Commonwealth after the commencement of this Act, not redeemed". In September 1910, the Labor Government of Prime Minister Andrew Fisher introduced a national currency, the Australian pound, with the passing of the Australian Notes Act 1910; the Act gave control over the issue of Australian notes to the Commonwealth Treasury and prohibited the circulation of state notes and withdrew their status as legal tender.
For the next three years, some of the earlier private banknotes were overprinted by the Treasury as a temporary measure and circulated as Australian banknotes until new designs were ready for Australia's first federal government-issued banknotes, which commenced in 1913. Blank note forms of 16 banks were supplied to the Australian Government in 1911 to be overprinted as redeemable in gold and issued as the first Commonwealth notes; the Commonwealth Bank Act 1920 gave note issuing authority to the Commonwealth Bank. In 1960, responsibility for note printing passed to the Reserve Bank of Australia; the new national currency was called the Australian pound, consisting of 20 shillings, each consisting of 12 pence. Monetary policy ensured; as such Australia was on the gold standard so long as Britain was. In 1914, the pound sterling was removed from the gold standard; when it was returned to the gold standard in 1925, the sudden increase in its value unleashed crushing deflationary pressures. Both the initial 1914 inflation and the subsequent 1926 deflation had far-reaching economic effect
Confluence
In geography, a confluence occurs where two or more flowing bodies of water join together to form a single channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river. Confluences are studied in a variety of sciences. Hydrology studies the characteristic flow patterns of confluences and how they give rise to patterns of erosion and scour pools; the water flows and their consequences are studied with mathematical models. Confluences are relevant to the distribution of living organisms as well; the United States Geological Survey gives an example: "chemical changes occur when a stream contaminated with acid mine drainage combines with a stream with near-neutral pH water. According to Lynch, "the color of each river is determined by many things: type and amount of vegetation in the watershed, geological properties, dissolved chemicals and biologic content – algae." Lynch notes that color differences can persist for miles downstream before they blend completely.
Hydrodynamic behaviour of flow in a confluence can be divided into six distinct features which are called confluence flow zones. These include Stagnation zone Flow deflection zone Flow separation zone / recirculation zone Maximum velocity zone Flow recovery zone Shear layers Since rivers serve as political boundaries, confluences sometimes demarcate three abutting political entities, such as nations, states, or provinces, forming a tripoint. Various examples are found in the list below. A number of major cities, such as Chongqing, St. Louis, Khartoum, arose at confluences. Within a city, a confluence forms a visually prominent point, so that confluences are sometimes chosen as the site of prominent public buildings or monuments, as in Koblenz and Winnipeg. Cities often build parks at confluences, sometimes as projects of municipal improvement, as at Portland and Pittsburgh. In other cases, a confluence is an industrial site, as in Mannheim. A confluence lies in the shared floodplain of the two rivers and nothing is built on it, for example at Manaus, described below.
One other way that confluences may be employed by humans is as a sacred place in a religion. Rogers suggests that for the ancient peoples of the Iron Age in northwest Europe, watery locations were sacred sources and confluences. Pre-Christian Slavic peoples chose confluences as the sites for fortified triangular temples, where they practiced human sacrifice and other sacred rites. In Hinduism, the confluence of two sacred rivers is a pilgrimage site for ritual bathing. In Pittsburgh, a number of adherents to Mayanism consider their city's confluence to be sacred. At Lokoja, the Benue River flows into the Niger. At Kazungula in Zambia, the Chobe River flows into the Zambezi; the confluence defines the tripoint of Zambia and Namibia. The land border between Botswana and Zimbabwe to the east reaches the Zambezi at this confluence, so there is a second tripoint only 150 meters downstream from the first. See Kazungula and Quadripoint, Gallery below for image; the Sudanese capital of Khartoum is located at the confluence of the White Nile and the Blue Nile, the beginning of the Nile.
82 km north of Basra in Iraq at the town of Al-Qurnah is the confluence of the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, forming the Shatt al-Arab. At Devprayag in India, the Ganges River originates at the confluence of the Bhagirathi and the Alaknanda. Near Allahabad, the Yamuna flows into the Ganges. In Hinduism, this is a pilgrimage site for ritual bathing. In Hindu belief the site is held to be a triple confluence, the third river being the metaphysical Sarasvati. Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, is where the Gombak River flows into the Klang River at the site of the Jamek Mosque; the Kolam Biru, a pool with elaborate fountains, has been installed at the apex of the confluence. The Nam Khan River flows into the Mekong at Luang Prabang in Laos; the Jialing flows into the Yangtze at Chongqing in China. The confluence forms a focal point in the city, marked by Chaotianmen Square, built in 1998. In the Far East, the Amur forms the international boundary between Russia; the Ussuri, which demarcates the border, flows into the Amur at a point midway between Fuyuan in China and Khabarovsk in Russia.
The apex of the confluence is located in a rural area, part of China, where a commemorative park, Dongji Square, has been built.
Cowra
Cowra is a small town in the Central West region of New South Wales, Australia. It is the largest population centre and the council seat for the Cowra Shire, with a population of 10,063. Cowra is located 310 m above sea level, on the banks of the Lachlan River, in the Lachlan Valley. By road it is 310 km south-west of the state capital, 189 km north of the nation's capital, Canberra; the town is situated at the intersection of three state highways: the Mid-Western Highway, Olympic Highway, the Lachlan Valley Way. Cowra is included in the rainfall records and weather forecast region for the Central West Slopes and Plains division of the Bureau of Meteorology forecasts; the Wiradjuri people Wiradjuri southern dialect pronunciation ) are a group of indigenous Australian Aboriginal people that were united by a common language, strong ties of kinship and survived as skilled hunter–fisher–gatherers in family groups or clans scattered throughout central New South Wales. The first European explorer to the area, George William Evans, entered the Lachlan Valley in 1815.
He named the area the Oxley Plains after his superior John Oxley. In 1817 he deemed the area "unfit for settlement". A military depot was established not long after at Soldiers Flat near present-day Billimari. Arthur Ranken and James Sloan, from Bathurst, were amongst the first white settlers on the Lachlan, they moved to the area in 1831. The township of "Coura Rocks" had its beginnings in 1844. Around 1847, the township site became known as Cowra, in 1849, was proclaimed a village. In the 1850s many gold prospectors passed through headed for gold fields at Lambing Flat and Grenfell; the first school was established in 1857. The first bridge over the Lachlan River was built in 1870. Gold was discovered at Mount McDonald in the 1880s; the rail head, from Sydney, reached Cowra in 1886. Local government was granted in 1888; the first telephone exchange was established in 1901. The town water supply was established in 1909, the gasworks in 1912 and town supplied electricity was introduced in 1924. Cowra hosts an annual Festival of International Understanding, featuring a parade, balloons for the kids and events showcasing a particular foreign culture.
During World War II, Cowra was the site of a prisoner of war camp. Most of the detainees were captured Italian military personnel. However, in July 1942, Indonesian political prisoners from the Dutch Tanahmerah prison on the Digul river, in West Papua, were transported as "prisoners-of-war" to the Cowra prison camp, at the behest of Netherlands East Indies government in exile; these Indonesian prisoners arrived in mid 1942 and were released on 7 December 1943, subsequent to their release, played an important role in the black bans which frustrated the Dutch reimposition of colonial rule in the Indies.) On 5 August 1944, at least 545 Japanese POWs attempted a mass breakout from the camp. Other Japanese prisoners committed suicide, or were killed by their countrymen, inside the camp; the actions of the POWs in storming machine gun posts, armed only with improvised weapons, showed what Prime Minister John Curtin described as a "suicidal disregard of life". During the breakout and subsequent recapture of POWs, four Australian guards and 231 Japanese died, 108 prisoners were wounded.
The dead Japanese were buried in Cowra in the specially created Japanese War Cemetery. This is the only such cemetery in Australia, holds some of the dead from the World War II air raids on Darwin. An Avenue of Honour commemorates those who died in World War I. Cowra has a number of heritage-listed sites, including: Blayney-Harden railway: Lachlan River railway bridge, Cowra Blayney-Harden railway: Cowra railway station Evans Street: Cowra Prisoner of War Camp Site According to the 2016 census of Population, there were 10,063 people in Cowra. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 8.5% of the population. 85.2% of people were born in Australia. The next most common country of birth was England at 1.4%. 89.0% of people spoke only English at home. The most common responses for religion were Catholic 29.7%, Anglican 26.0% and No Religion 16.0%. Cowra has a temperate climate, with average maximum temperatures ranging from 32 °C in summer to 14 °C in winter, while minimums range from 16 °C to 2 °C.
Under the Köppen climate classification, Cowra has a borderline semi-arid and humid subtropical climate. Cowra sits on the border zone between the cool, wet highlands of the Great Dividing Range and the hot, dry plains of Western New South Wales; as a result, Cowra experiences climate characteristics of both regions, with cold sub-zero temperatures, frequent frost and occasional snow in winter, frequent 40+ °C temperatures in summer. Other towns that experience this'border' climate are Gunnedah and Mudgee further north and Gundagai further south, Wangaratta in Victoria and Dalby in Queensland. Rainfall is mild and distributed evenly all year round, however it peaks in summer with thunderstorms and again in winter with cold fronts; the average annual rainfall is 598.3 mm, while Cowra's wettest month on record was January 1984, with 371.0 mm recorded. Extreme temperatures have ranged from 46.6 °C to −8.0 °C. Cowra has 145.8 clear days on an annual basis. Primary schoolsCowra Public Mulyan Public School Holman Place Public School St Raphael's Catholic School Secondary schoolsCowra High School St Raphael's Catholic School Cowra has a campus of the Western Institute of TAFE.
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