Capertee pronounced ( ) is a village 46 km north of Lithgow, New South Wales, Australia. It is on an elevated site (808 metres) above the Capertee Valley. In 2016, the township had a population of 145 people. The Castlereagh Highway (previously known as the Mudgee Road) links Capertee with Lithgow to the south and Mudgee to the north. The township is surrounded by National Parks and grazing land. Principal employment is in coal mining, farming and tourism-related services. The Capertee Valley forms a part of the catchment area of the Hawkesbury River, but the village lies very close to the Great Divide watershed, with the Turon River catchment nearby to its west. History Prior to European settlement, the Capertee district was occupied by the Wiradjuri people. Early European explorers through the region were James Blackman in 1821, followed later the same year by William Lawson, seeking a practicable pass through the ranges to the pastoral lands to the north-west. By the early 1830s Sir John Jamison, a wealthy colonial landholder, had established a pastoral run of about 18,000 acres in the Capertee Valley. Jamison's cattle station was named ‘Capita’ or 'Capertee' and was operated using convict labour. In March 1834 the stationing of a constable at Capertee was described by a correspondent as “a most inefficient and useless appointment” due to the isolation of the district. By the 1840s land in the Capertee Valley was opened up for sale and occupation leases, leading to the establishment of a number sheep stations in the valley. After Jamison's death in 1844 the ‘Capertee’ run was briefly leased to Benjamin Boyd (another landholder with extensive colonial holdings). In September 1846 the 'Capertee' leasehold was advertised for sale by auction. In the late 1840s a Mr. Stewart raised horses at Capertee; his ‘Capertee Stud’ was claimed to be “the largest and most perfect horse establishment in the colony”. In June 1853 a thirty-acre portion of Crown Land was proclaimed to be set aside “near Blackman’s Crown, Mudgee Road” (in Roxburgh county) as a potential town lot. In April 1856 a letter to the editor claimed “that a promising Gold Field has lately been discovered on the Capertee River”. The writer advised that Capertee “is only accessible in two places, to drays and other vehicles – the one by Dabee [now Rylstone] and the other by the Peak”. Reports of gold discoveries in the