Winmalee, New South Wales

Winmalee is a town in New South Wales, Australia. Winmalee is located 80 kilometres west of Sydney, in the local government area of the City of Blue Mountains. At the 2011 census, Winmalee had a population of 6,593.

Originally known as North Springwood, Winmalee was officially established in 1972. Springwood is historically significant as the first settlement in the Blue Mountains. Winmalee is surrounded by Blue Mountains National Park. This National Park is on the World Heritage List and is known as the Greater Blue Mountains Area World Heritage Site. The Blue Mountains area is unofficially known as "The City Within a World Heritage National Park". Winmalee extends north from Linksview Road and Birdwood Avenue to Coramandel Avenue and east to a point part-way along Singles Ridge Road.

History

It is commonly believed that Winmalee is an Aboriginal word for north. But, as Aboriginal cultures did not use north, south, east or west, this is doubtful. It is more likely a corruption of the world Wimlah, the name of one of the Three Sisters, a rock formation 35 km to the west. The name was coined by a 14-year-old, who won a competition to find a name for North Springwood when the Geographical Names Board wanted to remove the compass prefixes from the names of towns and suburbs of New South Wales. The local community had a lot of public meetings about the name change.