Glen Davis, New South Wales

The Wiradjuri people are the original inhabitants of the Capertee Valley[10][11] and the location now known as Glen Davis. The valley is in the north-eastern corner of the traditional lands of the Wiradjiri, near the boundary with the Darkinyung lands.[12]

European settlers took over land in the valley, beginning in the 1820s, and progressively cleared the land on the valley floor for grazing and agriculture.

In 1865, oil shale was found in the Capertee Valley, on both the northern and southern sides. It was first mined there in 1881, including from a adit in the southern side of the valley, known as 'MP1', which would many years later be the site of the Glen Davis shale mine.[13]

During the early 20th-Century, a small settlement known as North Newnes existed in the Capertee Valley close to the portal of a tunnel that was being driven to connect the valley with the oil shale operations in the Wolgan Valley at Newnes (then also known as South Newnes).[14][15] The two settlements were connected by a bridle track between the two valleys.[16] The tunnel, known as 'Lang's Tunnel'—begun first in the 1890s—lay west of the later oil shale mine; it had a length of 4,300-foot (1,300 m),[17] by the time that work on it was abandoned in September 1906.[18] The miners had left the site by November 1908.[19] The site of North Newnes was probably on higher ground above the future site Glen Davis township.[17] Shale mining took place in the valley as late as 1923.[13]

None of these early ventures produced significant amounts of shale, as getting the shale out of the remote valley for processing was not economic.

From 1938, the area adjacent to the site of Glen Davis became the centre of a revival of the oil shale industry. The town was established under an Act of the N.S.W. Parliament in December 1939.[20] It was named after George Francis Davis.[21] Glen Davis was notable because it was the first time that there had been an attempt in N.S.W. to create a completely new town based on town planning principles.[22][23]

Construction of the Glen Davis Oil Shale Works began in 1938, before the town existed,[24] and the earliest workers had to live in tents or otherwise make their own housing. This shanty housing often made use of white-washed hessian bagging and other inexpensive materials that were to hand,[25] and the area became known at the 'Bag Town'. It was not within the neat planned township but on the opposite side of the Capertee River, on river flats prone to flooding.[26][27] The settlement known as 'Glen Davis' thus came to consist of the planned town of Glen Davis, on the southern side of the river, the 'Bag Town' on the northern side, and a little to the east—between the town centre and the works, on land owned by National Oil Proprietary Limited—an area of staff and employee housing. There was also a planned industrial area to the north-west of the town centre.[28]

The Glen Davis Oil Shale Works first made shale oil in January 1940.[29] The post office for the town opened on 1 March 1939.[30] The school opened in January 1940.[31] Land sales in the town occurred in March 1940 but none of the residential sites were sold at the time.[32] Conditions of sale for residential blocks were relaxed later in 1940.[33] Houses later built there were financed and constructed under a cooperative building scheme, under which no deposit was required but equity was allocated based on the value of rental payments made.[34][35]

In 1947, Glen Davis had a population of approximately 1,600, who were accommodated as follows: 11 substantial brick houses for staff; a staff hostel made of brick accommodating 30 junior staff; 100 permanent and 50 'war-type' individually-owned residences; a group of barracks with accommodation and boarding for 300 single men; a commercial hotel with 25 rooms; and a 'Bag Town' of 250 mostly sub-standard dwellings. The school had 260 pupils and 7 teachers. There was a post office, a bank and a police station. The town had a doctor, a pharmacist, three churches, a community centre, golf course, bowling green, children's playground and tennis courts. There were few commercial outlets; two general stores; a pharmacy; a garage; a 'saloon' (a bar separate from the hotel); a barber shop; and the hotel. There was also a motion-picture theatre in the 'Bag Town' section.[34]

Driven by government policy and a shortage of labour for the shale oil operations, post-war migrants settled in the town from around 1948, facing hostility from some workers and residents.[36][37]

At its peak, the population reached approximately 2000. There was an ambulance station, with two ambulances, that had been funded by the people of the town.[38] There was also a bakery.[39] From 1949, the town had a reticulated water supply. The water was piped over 105 km from the Oberon Dam on the Fish River,[40] a rare instance of water from the Murray-Darling catchment being supplied to a location that is east of the Great Dividing Range.

The works and the associated shale and coal mines were closed and abandoned, in May 1952, because the works was unprofitable and accumulated losses were approaching the value of the capital and advances involved.[41] By late 1952, there were 50 vacant houses in the town.[42] Home owners received some compensation from the Commonwealth Government.[43][44] Equipment in the plant was auctioned off in early 1953, by which time the ambulance station had closed, the town was taking on a forlorn unkempt appearance, and the population had fallen to 460.[45] There was some work available in dismantling parts of the shale oil works during 1953. By mid-1954, the population had fallen to 320, there were 80 empty houses, only three shops were left open— general merchant, butcher and newsagent— and the town had lost its doctor, police station and clergymen. What was left uninhabited was subject to damage by vandals and thieves from outside the town [46] The population had dwindled to 195, by late 1954.[39] The skeleton of a town survived in the form of some properties, a hotel, a post office, and a shop or two that operated intermittently. Many houses and other building in the town were either relocated or demolished; some others just decayed away over time. The school closed in February 1962.[31] The post office closed on 1 October 1986.[47]