The village of Wollar was declared in March 1885. Wollar is an aboriginal word meaning 'a flat near a creek' and is situated about 45 kms from Mudgee in NSW, in between Bylong and Mudgee, not far from the Goulburn River National Park. Wollar has been a thriving rural village, supported by the many farming families from properties such as Tichular, Wandoona, Barrigan, Wollara and Derowen, just to n
ame a few. It once had a police station, post office, hotel, butter factory, butcher shop and bakery. It still has a primary school and general store but the majority of the property in and around Wollar has in recent years been purchased by American energy company Peabody Energy for the operations of the Wilpinjong open cut coal mine. The community of Wollar has been decimated, with Peabody promising the world but then proceeding to remove as much life from the village as they could. Locals were told that there would be minimal impacts from noise and dust and zero impact from spontaneous combustion. Instead the remaining community have had to endure all of the above, not to mention the speeding mine traffic, stranded assets (no one wants to buy in Wollar, only the mine) and the buildings owned by the mine are deteriorating every day with asbestos present in most poorly secured dwellings. The purpose of the Wollar Progress Association is to create some awareness of a number of issues:
1- Even though there was a so-called wake in 2012, we're very much still here with a strong, passionate core group determined to have a voice.
2- There is a strong sense of community for those that remain and we want to promote and enjoy events such as the August fundraiser.
3- This mine has been unable to live up to what they promised and any further expansion must not be approved. The remaining community also don't want to dwell on just anti-mining sentiment; we want to enjoy what we have while we have it and strive to hang on to the strong sense of community Wollar has enjoyed in spades for 130 years.
