Sofala is a colourful old goldmining village nestling in the steep hills of the Turon valley approximately 250km north-west of Sydney, New South Wales, within Bathurst Regional Council. Australia's oldest surviving gold town, Sofala burst into life as a direct result of the goldrush which had been spurred on when Edward Hargraves and his partners, John Lister and William Tom junior discovered gold at Summerhill Creek on 12th February, 1851.
Others soon found gold in the Turon River with regularity and the publicity led to a number of diggers travelling to the area to test their skills. By the middle of June the area was being swamped with gold seekers and the rush was on in earnest. On a small patch of ground a small township began to grow. It was one of the few areas where buildings could be erected along the Turon's steep banks, and this small township was soon called Sofala, after an area in Mozambique, identified as the legendary land of Ophir where King Solomon gained his wealth. The population in the region was soon well past 2,000. Both the Royal Hotel and a General Store were built in 1851 to handle the increased demand. The Turon Hills became Australia's second biggest goldfield.

The Turon diggings in late 1851 were a flourishing and spectacular place to be. Sofala with its twin main streets were so popular they were named Pitt and George Streets, after well-known main streets in Sydney town. The gold being wrought from the ground was in spectacular proportions. At Golden Point it was possible to wash 10 buckets of wash dirt and gain 4 ounces of gold. In one week a party of 6 recovered 157 oz. Similar stories abounded in this location. Many diggers found that digging into the sides of the creek banks recovered more than sufficient paying gold, with one group finding a 32 oz nugget in this manner.
One fabulous story from this era, relates to a miner who upon finding the water from the river too dirty to drink, sunk his shovel into the ground to seek a fresh pool and showered his boots with gold flecks that were sitting just below the surface of the dirt. Another told of a man whose horse slipped on a slippery slope and threw the rider dislodging a large rock that concealed a large nugget that weighed 74 pounds. Gold dust was so plentiful in some locations that small children would follow wheelbarrows and when they hit a rut of stone and spilt some of the wash dirt the children would collect the dirt and wash it themselves making a handsome living from this practice.
Another party considered his claim to be washed out and sold it for 600 pounds only to find that the experienced purchasers gained 50 oz on their first day of operations. Many similar stories drench the recorded history of this location. The Turon was a treacherous place to work. It was not always a peaceful running stream, with flash floods and drowning a common occurrence. Like most goldfields life was harsh.
The Turon during those early days was constantly flooding and by April 1852 almost 70% of the diggers had moved away from the area to the more reliable Tambaroura diggings, where water was not so plentiful but the ground was easily worked. By the end of 1852 large numbers of diggers had moved onto the Beechworth diggings in Victoria.
Seemingly locked in a 19th century time warp, Sofala is today embued with an authentic old world charm, quaint timber buildings dominate the village's two main streets. Of an original 40 business houses in the village centre itself, the Royal hotel is the only one that remains. Vehicles are somewhat out of place here, and with a little imagination it is easy to reconstruct what this old gold town looked like 150 years ago, as essentially the town is strikingly similar, with old buildings abounding in their ad-hoc manner of location and construction. The permanent population is about 200.
Small time gold prospectors still pass the time here using metal detectors, gold pans, and sluice boxes to recover small quantities of gold dust. Being so picturesque and authentic it is a favourite spot for artists. The 1974 Peter Weir film The Cars That Ate Paris was filmed in the town. Village scenes in the 1994 John Duigan film Sirens were also filmed in Sofala.

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