Stuart Town, formerly known as Ironbark, is a small town on the Central Western Slopes of 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 Wellington Council

Wellington Council

Wellington Council is a local government area in the Orana region of New South Wales, Australia. It is on the Macquarie River and the Mitchell Highway....

. It is located 317 kilometres (197 mi) north-west of the state capital, 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...

. 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,...

, Stuart Town had a population of 104.

The area around the town is rich in cattle farming and orchards, so the town serves as a service centre to that area. The town was established in 1879 with the arrival of the railway from Sydney after reports of gold being found in the area, but was not fully established until the construction of the nearby Lake Burrendong

Lake Burrendong

Lake Burrendong is the name of the impoundment created by Burrendong Dam on the Macquarie River in the central west of New South Wales.The water of the Macquarie River and the Cudgegong River flow into the lake, which, when full, has a capacity of approximately 1,189,000 megalitres...

. The town was formerly called Ironbark and so is the feature of the Banjo Patterson poem, "The Man from Ironbark

The Man from Ironbark

"The Man From Ironbark" is a famous poem by Australian bush poet Banjo Paterson.It was first published in The Bulletin on 17 December 1892. The poem relates the experiences of a naïve man from the Bush, who reacts badly to a practical joke sprung on him by a mischievous barber in Sydney...

".

It is the birthplace of the former New South Wales Premier Sir Robert Askin

Robert Askin

Sir Robert William Askin GCMG, was an Australian politician and the 32nd Premier of New South Wales from 1965 to 1975, the first representing the Liberal Party of Australia. He was born in 1907 as Robin William Askin, but always disliked his first name and changed it by deed poll in 1971...

.

Transport

The town is presently served by the daily Countrylink

CountryLink

CountryLink is the operator of passenger rail services in country New South Wales, Australia and into Queensland and Victoria. It is an operating brand of the Rail Corporation New South Wales, a government-owned entity...

 XPT service which runs between Sydney and Dubbo at 12:35pm and a return service to Sydney at 3:11pm.