Baan Baa, pronounced "barn-bar", is a village located in northern inland New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 in Narrabri Shire Local Government Area and Pottinger County. It is approximately 38 kilometres south-east of Narrabri and 58 km north-west of Gunnedah on the Kamilaroi Highway

Kamilaroi Highway

Kamilaroi Highway is a state highway in New South Wales. It has been given the national route number 37. Its status as a highway is fairly new....

. In the 2006 census, Baan Baa had a population of 211.

History

Baan Baa is named after a local property of the same name, and is aboriginal for "swim away". The railway line between Boggabri and Narrabri South Junction (which included the future township of Baan Baa) was opened on 1 October 1882. The railway station at Baan Baa opened in 1883. The Baan Baa Post Office opened on 9 February 1885 and closed on 11 March 1988.
The Baan Baa Literary Institute building which constructed of local cypress pine timber, was erected in 1923, and is now the local community hall. Baan Baa was once a bustling railway village, which once had its own bakery, butchery and service station. The village now serves primarily a grain

GRAIN

GRAIN is a small international non-profit organisation that works to support small farmers and social movements in their struggles for community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems. Our support takes the form of independent research and analysis, networking at local, regional and...

 rail terminal. Baan Baa once had the longest railway platform in country New South Wales.

Industry

It is a central delivery point for wheat

Wheat

Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...

 and barley

Barley

Barley is a major cereal grain, a member of the grass family. It serves as a major animal fodder, as a base malt for beer and certain distilled beverages, and as a component of various health foods...

 grown in the surrounding districts including Harparary, Maules Creek, and Turrawan.
Beef cattle

Cattle

Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...

 and prime lamb raising together with cotton

Cotton

Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....

 growing are other important agricultural products of the district. Coal

Coal

Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...

 mining is becoming a major industry in the Baan Baa area, with gas exploration also expanding in the nearby Pilliga Scrub

Pilliga forest

The State Forests of The Pilliga, commonly known as the Pilliga Scrub , constitute some 3000 km2 of semi-arid woodland in temperate north-central New South Wales, Australia...

.

Recreation

The town has a strong tradition of sport, fielding a strong combined team with Maules Creek in the Boggabri

Boggabri, New South Wales

Boggabri is a small town on the Kamilaroi Highway in north-western New South Wales, Australia in Narrabri Shire, between Gunnedah and Narrabri. In 2006, the town had a population of 901 people....

 Cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

 Competition and also tennis

Tennis

Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

competitions.

A focal point of the community is the Railway Hotel, particularly during the harvest period in November and December each year. Church services are regularly conducted in the local church.