Woodford is a village in the Blue Mountains in 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...

, approximately 90 kilometres west of Sydney. Its elevation is 609 metres (1,998 ft) above sea level

Above mean sea level

The term above mean sea level refers to the elevation or altitude of any object, relative to the average sea level datum. AMSL is used extensively in radio by engineers to determine the coverage area a station will be able to reach...

. It is situated on the Great Western Highway

Great Western Highway

The Great Western Highway is a highway in New South Wales, Australia. It runs 210 km from Sydney to Bathurst.Starting as Broadway at the intersection of City Road near the fringe of the Sydney CBD, and becoming Parramatta Road to Parramatta itself, the Great Western Highway heads due west from...

 and has a railway station (opened in 1868 as Buss's Platform) on the Main Western railway line

Main Western railway line, New South Wales

The Main Western Railway is a major railway in New South Wales, Australia. It runs through the Blue Mountains, Central West, North West Slopes and the Far West regions.- Description of route :...

 served by CityRail

CityRail

CityRail is an operating brand of RailCorp, a corporation owned by the state government of New South Wales, Australia. It is responsible for providing commuter rail services, and some coach services, in and around Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong, the three largest cities of New South Wales. It is...

's Blue Mountains services. At the 2006 census

Census in Australia

The Australian census is administered once every five years by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The most recent census was conducted on 9 August 2011; the next will be conducted in 2016. Prior to the introduction of regular censuses in 1961, they had also been run in 1901, 1911, 1921, 1933,...

, Woodford had a population of 1,967.

History and description

The site was originally known as Twenty Mile Hollow, or the Bends because of the road passing through it killing more than 200 people per year. In the 1830s an inn called The Woodman was built there. Ten years later the inn became known as the King's Arms, later popularly known as Buss's Inn after 1855. Sydney businessman Alfred Fairfax converted the building into a private home some time later and renamed it Woodford House. The railway station adopted the name Woodford in 1871. Woodford House later became Woodford Academy, a private boys' school and is now a heritage-listed building.

A centenary time capsule was buried at Woodford Railway Station on 14 December 2002 to be opened in a hundred years.

Sports

Woodford is well known to mountain bike riders and walkers as the start point for the renowned Oaks and St Helena tracks. It is also the finish point for Andersons and Ingar fire trails, also popular with mountain bike riders and walkers. Each June or July, Careflight International

CareFlight International Air Ambulance

CareFlight International Air Ambulance is an Australian registered charity that operates air ambulances and specialist medical teams to patients anywhere in the world. The organisation was incorporated in 1986 when its first helicopter, a Squirrel AS350B was commissioned...

 raises money by conducting the Woodford to Glenbrook

Glenbrook, New South Wales

Glenbrook is a suburb of the Lower Blue Mountains of New South Wales, Australia. It is located 70 kilometres west of Sydney in the local government area of the City of Blue Mountains. At the 2006 census, Glenbrook had a population of 5,138 people....

Classic, a cycling and running race from Woodford railway station to Euroka picnic area at Glenbrook in the Blue Mountains National Park. The Classic follows the Oaks and Bennetts Ridge fire trails, and is 25 km in length.

Tourism

The area also presents opportunities for bushwalking and photography in places like Murphys Glen and Wilson Glen (on the south side) and Mabel Falls Reserve (on the north side).