Merriwa is a town in the far west of the Hunter Valley

Hunter Valley

The Hunter Region, more commonly known as the Hunter Valley, is a region of New South Wales, Australia, extending from approximately to north of Sydney with an approximate population of 645,395 people. Most of the population of the Hunter Region lives within of the coast, with 55% of the entire...

 in New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, in Upper Hunter Shire. It is located on the Golden Highway

Golden Highway

The Golden Highway is a highway in New South Wales, Australia.Designated as State Highway 84, it runs eastwards from Dubbo towards Newcastle on the coast and enables road transport to avoid travelling over the Blue Mountains to Sydney....

, 273 kilometres northwest of Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

 and about half way between Newcastle

Newcastle, New South Wales

The Newcastle metropolitan area is the second most populated area in the Australian state of New South Wales and includes most of the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie Local Government Areas...

 and Dubbo. At the 2006 census

Census in Australia

The Australian census is administered once every five years by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The most recent census was conducted on 9 August 2011; the next will be conducted in 2016. Prior to the introduction of regular censuses in 1961, they had also been run in 1901, 1911, 1921, 1933,...

, Merriwa had a population of 946 people.

Merriwa is host to the Festival Of The Fleeces every year, although in 2007 floods caused the festival to be stopped.

Merriwa had its own local council until 2004, when it was merged with nearby Scone

Scone, New South Wales

Scone is a town in the Upper Hunter Shire in the Hunter Valley region of New South Wales, Australia. At the 2006 census, Scone had a population of 4,624 people. It is located on the New England Highway north of Muswellbrook about 270 kilometres north of Sydney, and is part of the Hunter and Upper...

 and Murrurundi

Murrurundi, New South Wales

Murrurundi is a rural town in Upper Hunter Shire, located in the Upper Hunter Valley of New South Wales. Murrurundi, which is 193 km by road from Newcastle and 309 km from Sydney, has a population of 1,330 people...

to form the Upper Hunter Council.