Woodford

Woodford is a village in the Blue Mountains in New South Wales, Australia, approximately 90 kilometres west of Sydney. Its elevation is 609 metres (1,998 ft) above sea level. It is situated on the Great Western Highway and has a railway station (opened in 1868 as Buss's Platform) on the Main Western railway line served by NSW TrainLink's Blue Mountains services. At the 2006 census, 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 by Chris Parr, Woodford's station master at the time. He collected items from the locals which went into the capsule to be opened in a hundred years.