Cobar is a small town in the state of New South Wales , Australia, about 710 km northwest of Sydney . Since the 1860s, the city was characterized by the cattle and wool farms in the surrounding area. Copper was discovered in the 1870s. Today the most important employer is a large mine that has been mining copper since 1960. There has also been another mine since 1983 producing silver and zinc. At peak times there were other mines and the population grew to over 10,000. In 1920, however, a mine was closed and the population fell back to 3,748 today (as of 2016).
Many old buildings have been preserved from the glory days of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and give Cobar a historically beautiful city center on the main street, the Barrier Highway . The Great Western Hotel was also known in the past and now houses a museum about the history of mines and farmers, but also an exhibition about the Aborigines.
Cobar open pit copper mine
Cobar has a small airport and is on the Barrier Highway . The city is also the terminus of the Dubbo - Nyngan -Cobar branch line.
