Frontier Justice

One of the first settlements west of the Blue Mountains was the township of Little Hartley, situated along the Great Western Highway on the way to Bathurst. In 1837 this substantial looking Greek revival style Georgian courthouse was constructed to mete out justice to all manner of escaped convicts, petty thieves, bush rangers and assorted drunks of the district.

In 1887 (fifty years later), hearings were transferred to the present Lithgow Courthouse and this building (along with the village which surrounded it) fell into disuse. In 1952 it was restored as a museum and has been maintained by the National Parks & Wildlife people ever since.