The School of Arts building dates back to 1890 and is still used by the locals.
* Prior to European settlement Rockley was part of the vast lands of the Wiradjuri people who spread from Nyngan to Albury and Bathurst to Hay.
* The first European into the Rockley district was Surveyor George Evans who crossed the Blue Mountains in 1813.
* By 1818 land was granted to William Lawson - one of the trio, along with William Charles Wentworth and Charles Blaxland, who crossed the Blue Mountains in 1813.
* The townsite was held as a stock reserve until the 21 February, 1829 when Governor Darling granted it as part of a parcel of 1,920 acres, to Captain Watson Augustus Steel who named it 'Rockley'.
* Copper was found south of the town and the Summer Hill Copper Mine was opened in 1848. It had closed by the end of the 19th century.
* The town of Rockley was officially gazetted in 1851.
* The discovery of gold in the area in the late 1840s drew prospectors and by the 1860s the town had a population of around 3,000 people. This prosperity is reflected in the churches and public buildings.
* On 24 October 1863 the bushranger Ben Hall and his gang arrived at the home of Harry Keightley at Dunn's Plain near Rockley. Keightley did not surrender and in the gun battle that followed one of Hall's gang members, Mickey Burke, was killed. Keightley was captured by Hall who forced Keightley's wife to ride to Bathurst and claim the £500 reward for killing Burke.
* Around the turn of the century the copper mine closed and the population of the town declined. The result is near-perfect preservation which has resulted in the whole village being listed by the National Trust.
- See more at: http://www.aussietowns.com.au/town/rockley-nsw#sthash.mDaRyQ5X.dpuf
Congratulations FTF Teragraml and littleme_gonewei
