Coonamble
| Coonamble New South Wales | |||||||||
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Castlereagh St, the main street of Coonamble | |||||||||
| Coordinates | 30°57′0″S 148°24′0″E / 30.95000°S 148.40000°E | ||||||||
| Population | 2,750 (2016 census) | ||||||||
| Postcode(s) | 2829 | ||||||||
| Elevation | 180 m (591 ft) | ||||||||
| Location |
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| LGA(s) | Coonamble | ||||||||
| Region | Orana | ||||||||
| County | Leichhardt | ||||||||
| State electorate(s) | Barwon | ||||||||
| Federal division(s) | Parkes | ||||||||
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Coonamble is a town on the central-western plains of New South Wales, Australia. It lies on the Castlereagh Highway north-west of Gilgandra. At the 2016 census, Coonamble had a population of 2,750. It is the regional hub for wheat growing and sheep and wool. The name for the town is taken from the Gamilaraay word guna (faeces) and -bil (having much).
Brigidine nuns from Ireland established a school in 1883. Their architecturally distinguished convent was dismantled in 1990 and transported 600 km (373 mi) to Pokolbin, where it now houses The Convent resort.
Although Coonamble had been a major sheep industry region in the 1980s to 2000, there has recently been an increasing interest in cattle rearing. The summers can have temperatures reaching up to 40 °C (104 °F) and in winter, there are nights as cold as 0 °C (32 °F). Most recently Coonamble has gained media coverage due to their mass floods over Christmas 2009.