Bargo

History

The name Bargo may be derived from the local Aboriginal language name Barago, meaning cripple, thick scrub, or brushwood. The earliest reference to Barago was noted as by George Caley in a letter to Sir Joseph Banks on 25 September 1807. The Aboriginal people, called the Bargo area Narregarang, meaning that the soil was not firm – a shaky place. Caley's Aboriginal guide Mowatiin referred to the area's name as meaning "place of cliffs" or "thick shrubs". Early explorers and convicts found getting through the Bargo area a difficult experience due to the thick scrub, explorers dubbing the tricky bush the "Bargo Brush". In early colonial times, Bargo Brush became notorious among travellers for harbouring convicts who had escaped from captivity and become bushrangers. Bayley quotes William Riley, who passed through Bargo Brush on horseback in 1830: Bargo is noted as being where the first recorded sightings of the lyrebird, koala and wombat took place by European settlers. Bargo is also near the site of an infamous massacre in 1816, when settlers forced local Aborigines to walk off a big cliff and shot them if they refused. Bargo Police Station, now abandoned, is currently used as a doctors' surgery. The lock-ups remain behind the building. The patrol area of the Bargo Police Station included Pheasants Nest, Bargo, parts of Tahmoor and Yanderra.

Most-observed species

• koala

  Phascolarctos cinereus (Goldfuss, 1817) · Mammalia
  12,468
• Epacris purpurascens R.Br.

  Epacris purpurascens R.Br. · Magnoliopsida
  5,066
• Persoonia glaucescens Schult. & J.H.Schult.

  Persoonia glaucescens Schult. & J.H.Schult. · Magnoliopsida
  2,409
• Australian Magpie

  Gymnorhina tibicen (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  1,407
• Sulphur-crested Cockatoo

  Cacatua galerita (Latham, 1790) · Aves
  1,397
• Noisy Miner

  Manorina melanocephala (Latham, 1801) · Aves
  1,095
• Crimson Rosella

  Platycercus elegans (Gmelin, 1788) · Aves
  1,055
• Superb Fairywren

  Malurus cyaneus (Ellis, 1782) · Aves
  984

Most recent

• M 3.6 — 2025-05-28
  3 km WNW of Cobbitty, Australia
• M 3.5 — 2024-03-08
  14 km SSW of Woodford, Australia
• M 3 — 2020-11-20
  27 km S of Oberon, Australia
• M 3 — 2007-08-22
  24 km W of Oakdale, Australia
• M 3.2 — 2007-08-18
  10 km NW of Mittagong, Australia
• M 2.6 — 2007-08-18
  11 km NW of Mittagong, Australia