BATHURST  , a

city of Bathurst county, New South Wales, Australia, 144 M. by rail W.N.W. of Sydney on the Great Western railway . Pop . (19o1) 9223 . It is situated on the south bank of the Macquarie river, at an elevation of 2153 ft., in a fertile undulating plain on the west side of the Blue Mountains . Bathurst has broad streets, crossing one another at right angles, with a handsome park in the centre of the town, while many of the public buildings, specially the town hall, government buildings, and Anglican and Roman Catholic cathedrals, are notenorthy . Bathurst is the centre of the chief wheat-growing district of New South :Wales, while gold, copper and silver are extensively mined in its vicinity . There are railway works, coach factories, tanneries, breweries, flour-mills and manufactures of boots and shoes and other commodities . The town was founded in 1815 by Governor Macquarie, taking its name from the 3rd Earl Bathurst, then secretary of state for the colonies, and it has been a municipality since 1862 .