Apsley

Apsley River, a perennial stream of the Macleay River catchment, is located in the Northern Tablelands district of New South Wales, Australia.

Apsley River, a perennial stream of the Macleay River catchment, is located in the Northern Tablelands district of New South Wales, Australia.

The traditional custodians of the land surrounding the Apsley River are the Aboriginal people of the Ngayaywana and Dyangadi nations. Archaeological evidence of Aboriginal camp sites have been found on the upper terraces of the Apsley and Macleay Rivers.

In 1818 explorer, John Oxley, camped beside the Apsley River very near the present townsite en route to the coast. A cairn now marks his campsite alongside the Apsley River, which Oxley named after The Lord Apsley, Secretary of State for Colonies. He recorded the event in his diary that day:

"We halted in a fine and spacious valley ... watered by a fine brook, and at a distance of a mile we saw several fires at which appeared many natives."

Australian red cedar (Toona ciliata) cutters were active in the area's rainforests before 1860. Some red cedar trees may still be seen in the more remote tributaries of the river.

The deep "Mill Hole" in the Apsley River, above the Fitzroy Street bridge, was used as the local swimming hole until the Walcha and District War Memorial Baths were completed in October 1970.

In 1981 the Electricity Commission of New South Wales (Elcom) proposed to build a large pumped storage scheme on the Apsley River to supply electricity for peak energy demand periods. During late 1981 Elcom improved the Cicolini Trail to the Apsley River and installed a river gauging station. The project was shelved following a land use study recommending a major national park be established. In 1986 the park was gazetted to foster nature conservation, cultural heritage and tourism on the Northern Tablelands.The Lower Apsley River Landcare Group was formed in 1993 to improve the health of the riparian zone of the Apsley River. This landcare group encompasses an area of approximately 300 square kilometres (120 sq mi) between Walcha and the Oxley Wild Rivers National Park. Since its establishment, the group has planted 320,000 trees across 140 sites, most of which were thriving as at 2008.In 2007, the old single lane wooden bridge over the Apsley River in Walcha was replaced with the two-lane bridge, with a pedestrian pathway, located on Middle Street.