NEXT year marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his profound work On The Origin Of Species .
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As the world reflects on the life of the great naturalist and his theory of evolution explaining life on Earth by natural selection, people will ask: "Where the hell is Wallerawang?"
These days Wallerawang, west of Lithgow, is a coalmining community of about 2000 people, but in 1836, when Darwin visited, it was a sheep station.
On his epic voyage of discovery on board the Beagle, Darwin saw some wondrous things and his journey inland from Sydney proved no different.
He witnessed animals that were strange but similar to animals in his native England. At Wallerawang he saw platypuses in the Coxs River and noted that while they were a "most extraordinary animal", they were like the water rats of Kenneth Grahame's The Wind In The Willows .
Thus, at Wallerawang, he wrote in his diary a famous entry:
Early in the evening I had been lying on a sunny bank & was reflecting on the strange character of the Animals of this country as compared to the rest of the World. A Disbeliever in everything beyond his own reason might exclaim, 'Surely two distinct Creators must have been [at] work; their object however has been the same & certainly in each case the end is complete.' Would any two workmen ever hit on so beautiful, so simple & yet so artificial a contrivance? I cannot think so. The one hand has worked over the whole world. A Geologist perhaps would suggest that the periods of Creation have been distinct & remote, the one from the other; That the Creator rested in His labor.
In their book, Charles Darwin In Australia , Frank and Jan Nicholas write: "On an isolated property in inland Australia, Darwin had been confronted by … clear illustrations of the fact that similar environments in completely different parts of the world seemed to be inhabited by animals having similar adaptations but obviously belonging to different species."
The authors point out that Darwin's ambiguous "one hand" could be God, but if it meant "the universal force of natural selection, then this is one of the earliest glimpses we have, if not the earliest glimpse, of the theory that he was to use much later to explain the mechanism of evolution … a rather subtle attempt to introduce a far-reaching and revolutionary idea: that under the single guiding hand of natural forces, different species have been 'created' at different times … in response to environmental conditions".
Danny Whitty's family has clearly adapted to life in Wallerawang. They have been there since 1824 and Whitty has his fingers in most local pies: National Trust, War Memorial Restoration Committee, Neighbourhood Watch, cricket associations, tourism board, Tidy Towns Committee, Friends of St John's Church …
"I'm on 22 committees around the district. The only thing I'm not in around here is the CWA."
Whitty is particularly proud of the beautiful St John's, built in 1881, where a service is held every second Sunday.
But dominating the skyline of Wallerawang are the massive chimneys and cooling towers of Wallerawang Power Station, built in 1957.
Lake Wallace was created to provide its cooling water.
The lake has drowned the banks of the Coxs but, in 2006, Whitty organised a monument near the lake shore to finally acknowledge Darwin's visit.
Lake Wallace is popular for sailing and picnics. There's also abundant bird life and great trout fishing.
And for those who want to do a Darwin pilgrimage, Whitty says platypuses can still be spotted frolicking there, too.
