Coonabarabran

Coonabarabran is a town in Warrumbungle Shire that sits on the divide between the Central West and North West Slopes regions of New South Wales, Australia. At the 2016 census, the town had a population of 2,537,and as of 2021, the population of Coonabarabran and its surrounding area is 3,477. Local and district residents refer to the town as 'Coona'. Coonabarabran is the gateway to the Warrumbungle National Park and the Pilliga Forest. Etymology The origin of the name Coonabarabran is unconfirmed. It may derive from a person's name or from the Kamilaroi language word 'gunbaraaybaa' meaning 'excrement', translated earlier as meaning, 'peculiar odour', this is possibly a bowdlerisation. Another possible meaning is derived from the Wiradjuri word for an inquisitive person, ‘gunabaraburan’. 'Coolabarabran' was the name of a station owned by James Weston in 1848. History The area around Coonabarabran and the Warrumbungles has been occupied by the Kamilaroi people for approximately 7,500 years. In 1818, the area was opened up for European settlement, when the surveyor-general for the Colony of New South Wales, John Oxley, made an expedition through the north-west areas of the colony. Oxley surveyed the area around the Warrumbungles mountain range, which he named the "Arbuthnot Range".