Louth, New South Wales

Louth is a village on the eastern side of the Darling River in New South Wales, Australia. The village is in Bourke Shire, 99 kilometres south west of Bourke and 132 kilometres north west of Cobar. The town is made famous by the Louth Races which are held in August each year, attracting crowds of nearly five thousand.[2] At the 2016 census, Louth and the surrounding region had a population of 43.[1]

Louth New South Wales
Louth
Coordinates	30°32′0″S 145°07′0″E
Population	43 (2016 census)[1]
Postcode(s)	2840
Elevation	100 m (328 ft)
Location	830 km (516 mi) NW of Sydney 428 km (266 mi) NW of Dubbo 132 km (82 mi) NW of Cobar 99 km (62 mi) SW of Bourke
LGA(s)	Bourke Shire
County	Yanda County
Parish	Dunlop Parish
State electorate(s)	Barwon
Federal division(s)	Parkes

The community has a pub (which serves as a cafe and store), school, tennis club and turf club.

The town was established in 1859 when Thomas Andrew Mathews, an Irish immigrant from County Louth, built a pub to serve the passing trade along the then busy Darling River. At one stage the town grew to have three hotels, a cordial factory, three bakeries, two butchers, a post office, three churches, a Chinese garden, a general store and a police station.[2] The post office still remains and has been beautifully restored.

When T.A. Mathew's first wife, Mary Mathews, died in 1886, he had a unique headstone built that is now an Australian National Monument. At dusk each night, the cross reflects the setting sun across the town acting as a beacon of light that on the anniversary of her death lights up the doorstep of where her family home once stood.[2]

In 1888 the first mechanised shearing of sheep, in the world, took place at Sir Samuel McCaughey's Dunlop Station, a property located within the Louth district.[3]