Milbrodale, New South Wales

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Milbrodale is a small rural village in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia, within Singleton Council. It sits about 23 kilometres south of Singleton. To the north is Darkey Creek, to the east is Wollombi Brook, and to the west lies the rugged Wollemi National Park, one of the largest parks in New South Wales. Milbrodale is roughly 78 kilometres from Newcastle.

The village began in 1832 when Reverend Richard Hill came from England to help in Sydney’s churches. He was given 1,200 acres in the Hunter Valley and built a stone house at the junction of Wollombi Brook and Parsons Creek. He named his property Milbro Dale after his mother’s name, Marlborough (often shortened to Milbro). Hill died in 1836, and his wife Phoebe Sapphira later sold the farm and returned to Sydney. The property changed hands many times and was finally demolished in 1978.

As Milbrodale grew, local children had to travel to the nearby village of Bulga for school, a service subsidised by the government. A public school opened in Milbrodale in 1921 on a five-acre government-granted site.

One of Milbrodale’s most important features is an eighty-hectare area of rock shelters that show signs of Aboriginal occupation. Excavations by the Australian Museum found evidence of the early “Small Tool Phase” of Aboriginal history. A key site, Baiame Cave, contains a group of Aboriginal paintings with a central figure that may represent Baiame, the Sky Father. Baiame Cave is on private land and is listed on the New South Wales Heritage Register.