Greenethorpe is a purpose-built town, established in 1908 to house sharefarmers who worked on Iandra, the nearby pastoral station owned by George Henry Greene. The village, built adjacent to a rail siding on the Grenfell railway line, was originally named Iandra Siding but to avoid confusion between the pastoral station and the train station, the Post Office agreed to change the name to Greenthorpe. Shortly after, the spelling was again changed, this time to Greenethorpe from the Greene family name. Greenethorpe Public School was first established in 1903 as a Provisional School and named Iandra Siding. The school was renamed in 1909. Iandra Siding Post Office opened on 20 January 1908 and was renamed Greenethorpein September that year. The village itself was based on the English manorial system, with tenant farms—generally each—distributed around the central homestead. The sharefarming system began in 1892 and a rail siding constructed in 1903. In the early years of the twentieth century, Iandra set a record for the largest ever yield of wheat from a single property, and by 1911 there were fifty sharefarmers working over there—the farmers supplying the machinery and labour and Greene providing seed and clearing ground suitable for ploughing. Around 1914, the property began to be broken up and most tenants were offered an option to purchase the land they had farmed. The main dwelling in the Iandra homestead is an ornate mansion built from reinforced concrete in the Federation Romanesque style with Tudor influences. Consisting of 57 rooms on two storeys, it is referred to locally as "The Castle" in reference to its striking design and its semi-feudal role in the community. The homestead, built by pioneering engineer, Edward Giles Stone, also includes a blacksmith, manager's residence, stables, and a small Gothic chapel.
Heritage listings
Greenethorpe has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:
Facilities in the town include a general store cum post office, a hotel, a public school and a police station. The town is also home to an art gallery. The town does not have a mail delivery service; mail must be collected from the post office. The post office also carries a small collection of books from the Weddin Shire library service. Greenethorpe Public School still uses the existing 1903 building for two classrooms, a library and a computer laboratory with the art room, kitchen and the administration located in adjacent buildings. The school is fully air-conditioned. To address problems related to a declining population—including declining school enrolments—in 2009 the Greenethorpe community adapted a farmhouse rental scheme used earlier at nearby Cumnock. The scheme entails offering farmhouses for rent at $1 per week to attract families to move to the area. The first two families attracted by the offer moved into the town soon after. Since 1991, the Grenfell rail line—carrying grain only—has terminated in Greenethorpe. In November 2008, the New South Wales government announced that it was considering closing the branch line to Greenethorpe, leading to protest meetings in the town. However grain was still being freighted by rail from Greenethorpe in June 2009.
