NSWMining
Mittagong
Australia’s first iron works grew a town on the Great Southern Road.
1848Iron mine opens at Ironstone Bridge
WHAT STARTED IT
Ironstone was found beside the Great Southern Road at Ironstone Bridge, and in 1848 Neale’s Fitz Roy iron mine began smelting there. A workers’ village called Nattai, later New Sheffield, grew around the works.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
The Fitzroy works changed owners repeatedly and never ran profitably for long, despite a hot-blast furnace that made pig-iron in the 1860s. The Great Southern Railway reached ‘Nattai’ in 1867, and the station took the name Mittagong, which spread to the whole town.
TURNING POINTS
1848Neale’s iron mine at Ironstone Bridge exhibits manufactured iron in Sydney.
1865A visitor describes the works’ new hot-blast furnace smelting local ore.
1867The Great Southern Railway is officially opened to Nattai on 28 February.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A Southern Highlands town on the old main road south, with shops, antique dealers and commuters to Sydney. Remains of the iron works are on show beside the town’s shopping centre.