Rankins Springs

Rankins Springs is a village in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia in Carrathool Shire and on the Mid-Western Highway. At the 2011 census, Rankins Springs had a population of 299 residents living in 145 private dwellings. This dropped to 174 in 2016, but rebounded to 208 in 2021. The settlement is strung out along the Mid-Western Highway and adjacent railway line. The main agricultural activities of the district around Rankins Springs are the growing of crops such as wheat and oats, and beef-cattle .

The history of Rankins Springs is a story of two settlements 10 kilometres (6 miles) apart. The earlier locality was situated near a water source at the junction of several roads and operated essentially as a hotel, store and post-office, with adjoining paddocks on freehold land. The later village of Rankins Springs developed around the terminus of a railway branch line completed in 1923.

The site of the original township is 10 km (6 mi) north-east of its current location, off the Rankins Springs Road near a narrow gap in the Conapaira Range.  The name of the locality probably refers to Arthur Ranken, a pastoralist with extensive holdings in New South Wales, including the “Cunimbla” run south of the Lachlan River (in the vicinity of present-day Forbes) which he had occupied by the late 1840s.  or the Rankin Brothers that owned the nearby Ballandry Station. In common with other Riverina pastoralists, Ranken supplied stock to the Victorian market (a trade that escalated from the mid-1850s as the population increased in the wake of the Victorian gold-rushes). The “Rankin’s Springs” location probably got its name as a place where water could be reliably found on a stock-route across the dry country between the Lachlan and Murrumbidgee rivers.  The location of the springs at the foot of the Conapaira Range is nearby to a break in the hills, an ideal place for stock and vehicles to cross the rocky range.

Permanent settlement at the Rankin's Springs locality was established in 1869.This was a period of increased population and consolidation of Riverina townships as the New South Wales government sought to encourage closer settlement in the inland regions. By the late 1860s the large pastoral runs held by leasehold were beginning to be broken up under legislation that allowed “free selection before survey” of crown land. The location of Rankin's Springs at the convergence of district roads and its proximity to a supply of water, provided an opportunity to provide amenities to the travelling public and residents of the district.

In the early 1870s a hotel was constructed at Rankin's Springs. The hotel stood on freehold land comprising 104 acres, excised from the “Naradhan” pastoral run, that was sold in several lots in about 1871 and May 1872.In April 1872 a publican's licence was issued to John Dwyer for the Rankins Springs Hotel. In November 1873 the licence was transferred to William Blood, who held it only briefly.  In July 1874 the publican's licence was transferred to James Graham who held the licence during the next fourteen years until June 1888 (apart from a period from March 1881 to October 1882 when the licence was transferred to Graham's brother-in-law John King).

A post-office was established at Rankins Springs on 1 September 1875 with James Graham as postmaster.Weekly mail services were established linking Rankins Springs post-office with Narrandera (via Barellan) and with Wollongough (modern Ungarie).  The post-office was located in a separate building that functioned as a store.

On 12 February 1887 the mail coach travelling from Cudgelligo (Lake Cargelligo) to Whitton stopped at Rankins Springs to collect mail, before proceeding on its way. Soon after leaving Rankins Springs the driver “pulled up to open the gate at the Four Mile” when “a masked man appeared with a rifle, stuck him up, and asked him for the mail bags, pointing the gun at him at the same time”. After the robbery was reported two policemen from Darlington Point and Whitton arrived to investigate the crime. After gathering material and circumstantial evidence the constables arrested John King, a resident of Rankin's Springs and brother-in-law of the publican and postmaster, James Graham. King was taken in custody to Hay. He was tried at the Hay Quarter Sessions in March where he was found guilty by a jury and sentenced to “ten years penal servitude”.

In June 1888 the publican's licence for the Rankins Springs Hotel was transferred to Alfred Marshall, who held the licence for the next five years.  The “permanent spring of fresh water” on the freehold land adjoining the hotel maintained its flow during the 1888–89 drought that devastated the Riverina region.  In early 1892 there was a fire at the Rankins Springs Hotel “which destroyed the premises”.In an advertisement for a future lease of the hotel the owner (Alex. Smith of Roto) stated he intended “to erect new and suitable premises (consisting of stone hotel and kitchen, also store and post office of stone, three detached bedrooms, of timber, also commodious stable of timber, and necessary out-offices)”. The building of the stone-built hotel premises was expected to be completed in early 1893.