History
From 1938, the town became the centre of an oil shale industry. The post office for the town opened on 1 March 1939. The township was abandoned in 1952 because shale oil was not viable in a non-war, non-government supported economic environment. After the closure of the oil shale mine, the skeleton of a town survived in the form of some properties, a post office and a shop or two that survived intermittently. The creation of the Wollemi National Park brought a degree of tourism to the area.