Local historian Bill Speirs explains the origin of the name Ariah Park...
John Richard Hardy leased ‘Ariah’ run on 30th April 1850. ‘Ariah’ is a Wiradjuri word which means hot and dry. A ‘run’, during the pastoral era, was considered to comprise sufficient land to depasture 4000 sheep or 762 cattle. A lessee could hold more than one run.
When the NSW Land Laws were changed in the early 1880s, the physical boundaries of pastoral leases were surveyed and defined. Ariah, Bungambil and Warri runs were combined to form Ariah Pastoral Holding (Ariah Station).
On 11th October 1883, Samuel Harrison selected a property in the extreme south east corner of Ariah Station and named it Ariah Park.
When agitation to build a railway line from Temora to Barellan finally succeeded, Sam Harrison built a hotel on his property at the point where the rail survey met the travelling stock route. A rail siding was subsequently sited on the stock route and given the name of the neighbouring property, Ariah Park.
The name was extended to the village which was subsequently established in association with the railway siding.
