town, north coastal New South Wales, Australia, 12 miles (19 km) above the mouth of the Hastings River, just west of Port Macquarie. Named after a Captain Wauch, an early settler, the town serves a district of mixed farming including the raising of beef cattle and pigs, dairying, and beekeeping. Local forests supply timber to boatyards and to factories manufacturing sawmills, plywood, veneer, and boxes. Arsenic, tin, manganese, copper, and gold deposits are worked in the area. Wauchope is on the Oxley Highway near the Pacific Highway junction and connected to Sydney, 193 miles (311 km) southwest, and Brisbane by rail. Pop. (2006) 6,002.