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Research dossier · Places & Architecture

Cumnock, New South Wales

town in New South Wales, Australia

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionDec 8, 2025
Entity authorityQ2657818 ↗
Source-derived summary

Cumnock is a small town in New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the now closed cross-country railway line from Molong to Dubbo. The town is located in Cabonne Shire. At the 2011 census, Cumnock had a population of 275 people. In the 2021 census the "Suburbs and Localities" of Cumnock had a population of 491.

Cumnock is named after the Scottish town in Ayrshire, the home of an early settler named Straborn.

The Cumnock community pioneered a farmhouse rental program designed to attract new families to the area by making farmhouses available for rent for $1. This program has since spread to a number of other rural communities.

Cumnock is located at the epicentre of the Central Western NSW's food-and-wine triangle, i.e., Orange, Dubbo, and Mudgee.

The town is also known for its participation in the 120-kilometre Animals on Bikes 'Paddock Art' sculpture tourist trail which extends between Molong and the Dubbo Zoo, via Cumnock and Yeoval.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Cumnock, New South Wales” is town in New South Wales, Australia. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Cumnock, South and Wales, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA valuable geographic starting point for tracing changing names, boundaries, uses and administrative responsibility. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2011, 2021—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Cumnock, South and Wales is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “town in New South Wales, Australia” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 8, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q2657818. Authority coordinates are -32.930, 148.754. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2011 and 2021.

Critical limits

Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Cumnock, New South Wales”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Cumnock, New South Wales primary sources, Cumnock, New South Wales archive and Cumnock research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Cumnock, New South Wales”?
  2. Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
  3. What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Cumnock, New South Wales” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.