Scone, New South Wales
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Scone is a town in the Upper Hunter Shire in the Hunter Valley region of New South Wales, Australia.
Scone was named after Scone, Perth and Kinross, Scotland, by Scottish emigrants (see Category:Scottish-Australians). The area was settled by European settlers in the 1840s.
Scone is in a farming area and is particularly noted for breeding racehorses, and is regarded as the Horse Capital of Australia. 'Scone Horse Festival' is celebrated during May and includes all manner of activities, including wine tours, Open Days across the numerous Horse Studs in the area, the annual Scone Grammar School Fete and Antiques Fair, The Scone Rodeo, The Scone School Horse Sports competition, the Black Tie Ball, a parade in Kelly Street, and the main event, a three day horse racing carnival featuring the Scone Cup.
Scone is located on the New England Highway north of Muswellbrook, about 270 kilometres north of Sydney.
It is part of the Gwydir (federal) and Upper Hunter (state) electorates.
Scone has two primary schools (Scone Public School and St Mary's Primary Scone), one government high school (Scone High School), and one independent K-12 school (Scone Grammar School).
Scone Shire Council was merged into the Upper Hunter Shire in 2004, integrating parts of the former Murrurundi and Merriwa shire councils.
Scone has its own local newspaper, The Scone Advocate, and is served by a number of local radio stations, Muswellbrook's 2NM 981 AM, Power FM 98.1 FM, as well as ABC Upper Hunter 1044 AM. Local television news is provided by NBN Television, with limited services provided by Prime Television and Southern Cross Ten. ABC and SBS also have relays in the area.
The town celebrates its links with the horse industry with the Scone Horse Festival, held each year, culminating with the running of the Scone Cup, one of the richest horse races in regional Australia.
