Riverina town made famous by the expression "Hay and Hell and Booligal" This hot and dusty sheep and cattle town on the Lachlan River is situated in a claypan, known as the 'Devil's Claypan', where the occasional coolibah tree offers the only shade. Indeed so occasional is the shade that the inn halfway between Hay and Booligal is called the One Tree Hotel as it was erected near the only tree to be seen for miles in what is remarkably flat country.
The town was immortalized in 'Banjo' Paterson's humorous poetic damnation "Hay and Hell and Booligal", a phrase then known "far and wide along the Riverina side" according to the poem which presents a visit tothe town as a fate worse than hell, possibly a reference to the property of 'Hell's Gate' which lies between Hay and Balranald, or to One Tree Plain on which the hotel is located. Heat, dust, flies, rabbits, mosquitoes, snakes, drought, lack of facilities and unpopularity with shearers and drovers appear to be the major complaints.
Situated in an area once occupied by the Nari-nari Aborigines, Booligal is 704 km west of Sydney via the Great and Mid Western Highways and77 km north of Hay. The name comes from an indigenous word thought tomean 'a windy place'. In town is a memorial to explorer and surveyor John Oxley in the form of a giant theodolite (the surveyor's primary tool) set in stone. He was the first known European to sight the plainsbeyond the Lachlan River. By 1890 Booligal was a town with some 500 people, two hotels, a courthouse, post office and other infrastructure.It was a staging post on the Cobb & Co. mail and passenger run from Hay to Wilcannia which closed in 1914.
Things to see:
The Giant Theodolite - In town is a memorial to explorer and surveyor John Oxley in the formof a giant theodolite (the surveyor's primary tool) set in stone. He was the first known European to sight the plains beyond the Lachlan River.
Goonawarra Nature Reserve - 19 km south is Goonawarra Nature Reserve fronting the river near the 'Quandong' property. The terrain on this alluvial flood plain is typically flat. Waterfowls inhabit the billabongs, watercourses and lignum swamps and there are galahs and the occasional wedge-tailed eagle to be seen. Kangaroos and emus are to be found on the plains while the Lachlan River is full of Murray cod, yellow-belly, redfin and yabbies.
The One Tree Hotel - The One Tree Hotel is 39 km south on land that was originally a pastoral holding. It was built in 1862 as Finch's Inn and served as a staging post on the Cobb & Co. mail and passenger run between Hay and Wilcannia until that service ended in 1914. Here the passengers would disembark for lunch and a rest while the horse team was changed. William Clark bought the hotel off Alexander Finch and he leased the huge government tank nearby which watered up to 12 000 sheep at a time. Horse andbullock teams of up to a thousand in number were watered at the charge of a penny per head. The inn was purchased by the McQuade family inthe 1880s who still own it. Although the original structure burned down in 1901 the insurance claim stated that recompense could only be made if the building was rebuilt exactly as it had been so the current hotel is a replica. The license lapsed in the 1940s when it became a private residence. It is currently derelict but this lovely old buildingis well worth a look. One Tree was proclaimed a village in 1885 though it never grew and the old building is a lone sentinel on the plainstoday.