Mount Hope (elevation 223 m) is a settlement in western New South Wales, Australia. It is situated on the Kidman Way, 95 kilometres north of Hillston and 160 km south of Cobar. A government township called 'Nombinnie' was surveyed in the mid-1880s but that name was rarely used. At the 2016 census, Mount Hope and surrounding area had a population of 19 people living in 9 private dwellings, with a median age of 31 years. The only remaining business at Mount Hope is the Royal Hotel (commonly referred to as the 'Mount Hope Pub') which offers food, beverages and accommodation (though fuel is no longer available). History Indigenous origins The Mount Hope region is within the traditional lands of the Wangaaypuwan dialect speakers (also known as Wangaibon) of the Ngiyampaa people. 'Coan Downs' station 'Coan Downs' was a consolidated pastoral holding in Blaxland county (Western Division) made up of the previous Bundure, Coree, Gonn, Gooan, Killeen, Wagga, Yara and Yara Block B runs. Located about 40 miles north of the Lachlan River, the ‘Coan Downs’ pastoral run was leased by the Desailly brothers (Francis and George) in the late 1860s. By the early 1870s the station was under the management of the Melbourne Banking Company. In 1873 a shepherd on ‘Coan Downs’ station, Alexander Fisher, investigated "an unusual hill" on the pastoral run and "found copper mineralisation" and withered and yellowed vegetation on the site. The location of Fisher's discovery of copper ore was about ten miles south-east of the 'Coan Downs' station homestead and about three miles north-east of Mount Hope, a 300 feet high landmark "standing out in bold relief from the surrounding hills". Mount Hope Copper Mining Company A group of businessmen from Hay soon became involved in the discovery of copper ore at Mount Hope. In October 1873 Henry C. Viviain, a Hay auctioneer, arrived at Booligal with “some very rich specimens of copper ore brought from Mount Hope”. Viviain claimed that “the mountain is formed entirely… of this ore”. The copper ore was sent to Melbourne and assayed at a reported yield of 60 percent. The first shipment of ore from Mount Hope, weighing 10 tons, arrived at Hay in December 1873 on a dray “decorated with flags”. From Hay it was conveyed by water to Adelaide on the Cumberoona steamer. An advertisement in late December in the Riverine Grazier, lodged by Thomas Blewett and