Parkes Hotels

Parkes is a town in New South Wales, Australia. It is the main settlement in the Local Government Area of Parkes Shire. Parkes is located on the Australian transcontinental railway line, and the Newell Highway linking Victoria to Queensland. At the 2006 census, Parkes had a population of 9,826. Parkes was originally founded in 1853 as the settlement Currajong, named for the abundance of kurrajong trees in the local area by the settlers, but was then known as Bushman's (from the local mine named Bushman's Lead). In 1873 the town was renamed to Parkes in honour of Sir Henry Parkes, otherwise known as the "Father of the Federation". (Sir Henry Parkes is recognised in Australia as having played an instrumental role in Australia becoming a unified country.) Parkes attracted significant attention during the gold rush of the 1870s onwards, and even to this day modern mining companies still have sites in the nearby region. Parkes typically has a reasonably dry climate, with winter temperatures rarely lower than 0 degrees Celsius overnight. During summer however daytime temperatures can soar to as high as 40 to 45 degrees Celsius, although temperatures in the low to mid-30s can be considered more the norm. With the presence of the nearby Parkes Observatory, Parkes has had an important role in the scientific community. In addition to local research conducted at the radio telescope, Parkes scientists have assisted NASA for several missions as a Southern Hemisphere relay and communications station. (The movie The Dish was based somewhat loosely on the role the telescope played during the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing.)