New England travel wish list: visiting Comboyne

 

I have never been to Comboyne or its surrounding plateau. Many years ago after my father retired he took mum on a series of road trips including three days on the Comboyne Plateau. He came back praising its beauty. 

I was reminded of all this by  a story on ABC Comboyne locals rally to revitalise their mountain-top town after trifecta of drought, bushfires, floods. It's a story of recovery in the face of isolation and natural disaster. 

Comboyne lies to the south west of Port Macquarie, north west of Taree. It's a bit over three hours from Armidale by road. Definitely time for me to visit!  

The Glen Innes tartan

Did you know Glen Innes has its very own tartan? I did not until the Glen Innes Highlands Facebook page told me so.

The five colours represent:

• Light blue, the clear day time skies of the New England.
• Royal blue, for our famous sapphires.
• Dark blue, our clear night skies.
• Red, the Celtic blood links to Glen Innes people. 
• White, fidelity with Celtic pasts and traditions. 

Glen Innes is very proud of its Scottish heritage and has been turning it into a considerable attraction.

The tartan is available to buy in many forms at the Visitor Information Centre.

Cultural Tourism: telling the story of New England's Aboriginal past

I have long been frustrated about what I see as neglect of the opportunities offered by Aboriginal cultural tourism in Northern NSW, the broader New England that I write about. 

A number of things contributed to that sense of frustration. One was the absence of material and supporting infrastructure to attract, interest and hold visitors, A second was the way that Aboriginal cultural and historical tourism in the broader New England was fragmented and submerged by tourism promotion that focused on the Sydney basin. Essentially, you had Sydney and a then series of small dot points scattered across the rest of the state. A third frustration lay in the way that disputes and disagreements in and between Aboriginal communities made it difficult to tell stories and to take action.

I accept that there has been great improvement since I first looked at the matter when I was chair of Tourism Armidale in the mid nineties. Historical research has provided more information. Aboriginal communities have begun to organise, collecting material and making that and their stories accessible to a broader audience. However, problems of fragmentation remain. 

Against this background, I was pleased to see a story by Steve Evans in the Glen Innes Examiner ( Tourists want to see Aboriginal cultural sites so more skilled people needed) that TAFE colleges in Armidale, Glen Innes and Inverell have launched a course on Aboriginal cultural tourism to upskill local Aboriginal people. I was also pleased to read this quote from Tom Briggs, CEO Armidale Local Aboriginal Land Council:  “There are many spectacular tourism sites and traditional walking trails across the Northern Tablelands that we as Aboriginals want to explore and make available for our Members and the broader community.”  

Problems of fragmentation remain. The remarkable story of Aboriginal New England is not just localities or even language groups, but of a complex pattern of cultural, economic and political interactions over space and time. This story has still to be properly told and integrated into tourism. Once this is done, both locals and visitors will then be able to properly appreciate and enjoy the story of Aboriginal New England. In the meantime, the new course is a small step forward.  

How new platforms such as Airbnb and Stayz might support New England development part 1

Inverell. 1904 heritage listed house available for short term stays via Airbnb

I tend to be something of a technology lagger. I have long used the web to source accommodation, but I hadn't used Airbnb or Stayz  to source accommodation until a European trip in 2015 inspired by the Rugby World Cup. Then I used Airbnb sourced accommodation because eldest was doing the bookings.

This trip was an economy daddy-daughter venture, the first joint holiday we had had since well before eldest moved to Copenhagen. For that reason, we shared a room in private homes that the owners had place on Airbnb  I was quite cautious about this, but it worked well. The interactions with the owners proved to be one of the fun parts of the trip.

Twelve months later, eldest and her partner put their own place in Copenhagen onto Airbnb. Now I was watching the process from the other side, getting a feel for what was involved in really making it work if you wanted to be an Airbnb host. It's not just a question of taking some photos, placing it on Airbnb and waiting for the bookings to roll in. A fair bit of work is required to both attract guests and then make them welcome.

Marsh House, Armidale. Built in 1863, this was the first house constructed in Armidale's historic Brown Street precinct.  

While I was now familiar with Airbnb and Stayz, I hadn't used these types of services in Northern NSW, the broader New England, until last year. Then visiting Armidale with a friend, we booked into Marsh House.

This decision proved to be a huge success. With approval from owners Hugh and Janey Fraser, were were even able to use the place to hold drinks for some of my local friends, something I had wanted to do as a way of catching up with multiple people on what was a short visit.

Glen Innes, the Bank Guesthouse c1874 available via Airbnb

Since coming back from Armidale I have spent enjoyable hours trawling through Airbnb and Stayz looking for places I might want to stay across New England from Newcastle to the border. I know that I am strange, but it has been fun

My first thought was the way it has widened accommodation choices in terms of price range, location and the nature of the dwellings themselves.

It used to be the case that you were limited to motel, hotel or a B&B. Now you can take a room in the family home or rent an entire historic house. You can accommodate one or sixteen. You can fish or use the vegetable garden while visiting local attractions. Your accommodation has become an experience in its own right. .

Walden Woods twelve minutes drive from Armidale CBD. You can access the well maintained home vegetable garden or go fishing for your supper. 

I recognise that these new accommodation platforms have created their own problems.

In popular tourist areas they have attracted properties to the holiday let market place creating rental pressures for those who live there. There are complaints from neighbours who object to the use of private homes or apartments for commercial purposes. Local moteliers can also experience difficulties.

I am more attracted by the opportunities.Too many of the new technologies have actually drained jobs and income from the North because they totally focus on economies of scope and scale, on cost reduction. The big get bigger, the rest are left out.

This has been a particular problem in inland New England. These new platforms such as Airbnb and Stayz provide a potentially potent weapon for fighting back, for the encouragement of economic development, for the small to develop their own niches.

In my next post in the series, I will look at how this might be done.

NERAM's Centenary of Beersheba exhibition

This Friday, 29 September 2017, three new exhibitions open at the New England Regional Art Museum (NERAM)..

The first is the opening of a Centenary of Beersheba exhibition. This post focuses on the first.

A century ago young men from the New England region found themselves on the other side of the world fighting against the Ottoman Turkish army from Egypt to Lebanon.

The new exhibition, Horse Power: Light Horse in Palestine – to Beersheba and beyond, provides an opportunity  o look at the day to day life of these soldiers through their own words. The exhibition will be opened by Max Tavener, President of the Armidale RSL Sub Branch at NERAM at 6pm on Friday 29 September 2017.

“After the Great War commenced in August 1914 there was a rush of enthusiastic volunteers who joined up from communities around our region,” said Robert Heather, Art Museum Director. “Young men from towns like Armidale, Tamworth, Tenterfield, Walcha and Glen Innes were fighting a determined enemy in the rugged, biblical landscape of Jericho, Jerusalem, Megiddo and of course Beersheba. We can only imagine the impact that these experiences had on them at the time and for the rest of their lives.”

“One hundred years later these are locations straight out of today’s headlines as well,” he said. “In 1918 Australian troops were the first to enter the ancient Syrian city of Damascus and were welcomed by the inhabitants of Aleppo as liberators.”

The New England Regional Art Museum has been working with Guest Curator Bill Oates, University Archivist at the University of New England who has been researching and curating the exhibition which will launch the program for the commemorations of the Centenary of the Battle for Beersheba in the New England region, where many of the soldiers in the 4th Australian Light Horse Brigade came from.

“Most Australians would have heard about the Battle of Beersheba in October 1917 and the historic charge of the Australian Light Horse one evening to capture the water so desperately needed by the horses and men,” said Bill Oates, exhibition curator. “Fewer people know about the long preparation leading to that moment and the additional year of successful campaigning that followed that day.”

“Many New Englanders served in this campaign and their recollections and collections provide us with detail of the logistics and effort required to reshape the region as the Ottoman Empire was defeated.”

Horse Power draws upon historical collections including the UNE Archive, the 12/16 Hunter River Lancers History Room and loans from the Australian War Memorial, including a painted portrait of Australia leader General Sir Henry Chauvel and a sketchbook by war artist George Lambert, whose painting The Charge of the Australian Light Horse at Beersheba, 1917, became an iconic image of World War One.

The exhibition will include never before exhibited photographs, diaries and memorabilia from local private and family collections which will help tell the story of the deployment to Palestine, the campaign and the historic Battle of Beersheba from a number of perspectives.

The exhibition has been developed as a partnership project between the New England Regional Art Museum and the University of New England and will be on display from 29 September 2017 until Sunday 11 February 2018.

Postscipt

NERAM's Robert Heather has kindly provided the fuller program for the Centenary of Battle of Beersheba public events starting in Armidale this weekend.

Official Centenary of Battle of Beersheba public events in the New England region include:

• 6.00pm Friday 29 September 2017

Exhibition opening Horse Power: Light Horse in Palestine – to Beersheba and beyond , To be opened by Max Tavener, President, Armidale RSL Sub Branch. New England Regional Art Museum, Kentucky Street, Armidale

• 10.30am Saturday 7 October 2017

Exhibition tour with curator Bill Oates in Horse Power: Light Horse in Palestine – to Beersheba and beyond, New England Regional Art Museum, Kentucky Street, Armidale

• 7.00pm Tuesday 31 October 2017

Commemoration Ceremony, A Squadron 12/16 Hunter River Lancers (open to public)

Gaza Training Depot, Allingham Street, Armidale

• 12.00pm Saturday 4 November 2017

12/16 Hunter River Lancers Church Service

St Peter’s Cathedral, 122 Rusden Street, Armidale

• 2.00pm Saturday 4 November 2017

Free Public Lecture by UNE Archivist Bill Oates “The road to Beersheba and Damascus”

University of New England and Regional Archives, CB Newling Campus, Kentucky Street, Armidale

Image Provided:

Artist unknown,  Member of the 2nd Remount Unit AIF, training a new horse for Light Horse Units,

Postcard HRL Light Horse Museum Collection

Media enquiries:

Robert Heather, Art Museum Director, New England Regional Art Museum

Tel: 02 6772 5255      Email: director@neram.com.au

Centenary of Beersheba program enquiries:

WO1 Doug Lennox OAM (RTD), History Room Manager, 12/16 Hunter River Lancers

Mob: 0413 492 572   Email: champbe@aapt.net.au

Warialda's new historical museum

2 September 2017. Opening of the new Warialda Museum

2 September 2017 saw the opening of a new historical museum in Warialda. Supported by the Gwydir Shire Council who provided Masonic Centre for refurbishment,  the museum was developed by the Warialda Historical Museum & Society

The local history and museum movements in New England have long histories.

The last decades of the nineteenth century saw a burgeoning interest in Australian history. Australia as a nation did not yet exist, but each of the colonies wished to promote their own achievements, while there was an evolving sense of national identity.

In 1880, for example, the text books introduced into NSW schools contained a segment on Australian history. That same year saw the founding of the Bulletin magazine. In 1901, the Royal Australian Historical Society was established, publishing its own journal from 1908.

This growing interest spread to the North with local papers playing a key role in promoting the history of their own areas, while settler reminiscences began to appear. In the Clarence Valley, for example, Thomas Bawden, as President of the School of Arts, gave three lectures in 1886 on the early history of Grafton. His collection of newspaper clippings and personal notes eventually filled 63 volumes. By 1906, the Grafton Daily Examiner was calling for the establishment of a local museum.

Display, Warialda Historical Museum

The establishment of the Armidale Teachers’ College in 1928 marked a major step forward. It was to include a museum that Education Minister David Drummond hoped would represent the North to students from the North. To this end, he peppered his Department with minutes demanding that they find the best possible exhibits.

Down in the Clarence in 1931, Sir Earle Page suggested the establishment of a historical records museum, which was named the Clarence River Historical Society with R. C. Law as Secretary. In 1935 the society affiliated with the Royal Australian Historical Society, the first country historical society to do so.

In 1933, Drummond opened the Armidale Municipal Museum, proclaimed as 'the first municipally controlled museum' in the state.

Display Warialda Historical Museum

The museum, Drummond suggested, should be more than just a repository of specimens. To his mind, a country museum should firstly be a place for objects that are 'intimately bound up with the history of the district'; and secondly a place for things 'closely associated with the industries of the district'. He warned that, above all, the museum 'must not be allowed to become a mausoleum or dumping ground for curios'.

In 1936, the Richmond River Historical Society was founded. By 1938, it was publishing its own journal.

The war set the movements back. However, from the 1950s, the growing interest in local, regional and then family history saw the establishment of new history societies and new museums. Now the Warialda Museum is added to the list.

These local museums are very important. They help preserve local history while adding to the attractions of the town for visitors.

New natural history museum adds to Armidale's attractions and diversity - but can we fix Beardy Street?

The University of New England's new natural history museum is about to open.

Announced back in June 2015, the museum is intended to be a showcase of a new $27 million Integrated Agriculture Education Project precinct. The museum features the skeleton of a carnivorous dinosaur, and a diverse collection of animals, plants, and meteorites, building on the collection previously held by the Zoology Museum.

Armidale has two main museum/cultural precincts. The first centres on Kentucky Street in the south of this city and includes the New England Regional Art Museum (photo), the Armidale and Region Aboriginal Centre and Keeping Place and the Heritage Centre. The second covers the museums and displays at UNE to the north-east of the city.

These are not Armidale's only museums and cultural centres. The Armidale Folk Museum in the centre of the city is one of the oldest and best folk museums in the country.

I still live in hope that Armidale Regional Council can revitalise the centre of the business district with its bookshops, cafes and galleries. Poor planning decisions over a long period have fragmented the small CBD, turning it from a vibrant centre to something of a desolate pedestrian absent zone dominated by relatively small shopping malls at each end.

Beardy Street is the heart of the old Victorian city that constitutes one of Armidale's architectural gems. It should be the heart of the city, providing a central point for visitors and locals alike, a starting point for all the other attractions.

Bald Rock's new signage

I have still to visit Tenterfield's Bald Rock. It's a spectacular site; 1,300 metres above sea level, Bald Rock’s water-streaked dome is 500 metres wide and 750 metres in length, and is the largest granite monolith in Australia.
 

A 3.2km loop walk takes you the summit. It can be a slightly treacherous walk; wet granite gets slippery. Now I see from the Tenterfield Times that the National Parks and Wildlife Service has installed new signage to give visitors a clearer picture of potential hazards. That strikes me as a sensible idea. 

I wondered how they might do it. You can see from the photo that it's quite rugged. Apparently they used motorised wheelbarrows! Time for me to visit. 

The craziness of NSW's latest regional tourism structures

I despair sometimes. Over the last six years on this blog I have written many posts on failures in NSW tourism promotion, at least so far as Northern NSW is concerned. Just to summarise my previous complaints:

• the subdivision of tourism branding into Sydney and NSW doesn't work because NSW is too disparate to have an identifiable tourism brand and in any case hasn't been given the money to promote it
• the constantly fluctuating boundaries of NSW regional tourism bodies, the constant chops and changes in names, structures and branding strategies, has made it impossible to develop coherent sustained local or regional tourism brands and strategies. 
• The Sydney centric focus of branding conceals a fundamental conflict between the desire to maintain Sydney as hub and the needs of other areas that are, in fact, in competition with Sydney. 
• At least so far as Northern NSW, the broader New England,is concerned,  the various strategies and chops and changes have totally destroyed any chance of creating a strong brand to rival Sydney and have fragmented cooperative marketing and product development.

The latest Sydney Government changes just continue this process. Since I am being so rude, here is the link to the explanatory statement. Please read it and tell me that I am wrong. I would be very happy to debate the issues involved.

The following map sets out the latest boundaries. Comments follow the map.

Now when you look at the map, you will find that New England is subdivided into three areas:

• Destination Sydney Surrounds North (including the Blue Mountains, Central Coast and the Hunter)
• Destination North Coast (from the Mid-Coast to Tweed Heads including Lord Howe Island)
• Destination Country and Outback NSW with everything inland from Riverina Murray as defined to the border including all of inland New England. 

While Destination North Coast at least has the advantage of an historical geographic unity, the same cannot be said for the other areas. After years of struggling to maintain a distinct identity, Newcastle and the Hunter are now classified just as Destination Sydney Surrounds North. Can you imagine the board meetings where the Hunter tells the Blue Mountains to go away because we want to attract traffic from you?

Destination Country and Outback NSW is, if anything, worse. Can you imagine just three staff even with extra board members making sensible decisions across a such a broad area lacking any community of interest? Or any sensible decisions at all? And how on earth are the New England Tablelands and Western Slopes and Plains, areas that are different in their own right but have been jammed together by previous NSW Government decisions, going to form common views in competition with the Cnetral West or Dubbo? It beggars belief. 

And how are we going to get cooperative action that will promote Northern NSW as a whole? Well, I guess that we don't exist.

As I said, I have given you the links so that you can correct me.  So far as I am concerned. this strikes me as crazy stuff. 

The story of Edward Trickett

The latest History Revisited column tells the story of Edward Trickett, a rower and Australia's first world champion. who is buried in Uralla.

Uralla's  McCrossin's Mill Museum has a display on Trickett and his life among its various exhibits.

Armidale's a day on the green

By all accounts, today's  a day on the green held at Petersen's Wines on the outskirts of Armidale was a great success. It's a beautiful venue.

Mind you, it was hot. Armidale may be known as Balmydale for several reasons, but one is definitely the normal summer climate. But this time! Not as hot as its been elsewhere during the current heatwave, mind you, but at 33c still very hot. You would definitely have needed a hat.

Promoted by Roundhouse Entertainment, a day on the green began in Victoria with a first show on Australia Day 2001. Now a day on the green runs in the summer months from October – March with around 30 concerts per season in major wine-growing regions around Australia.

Before going on, local State MP Adam Marshall was clearly enjoying himself!

In addition to the Petersen's Armidale wine gig, there are two other vineyards with New England connections, Bimbadgen Wines at Pokolbin, Sirromet Wines in the Queensland Granite Belt.

It's remarkable how few people realise that Queensland's Granite Belt is actually the most northern part of the New England Tablelands. That border really creates a very peculiar myopia!

Both Bimbadgen Wines and Sirromet Wines host more events than Petersen's for a very simple reason.

Pokolbin is about two hours from Sydney, attracting visitors from there as well as Newcastle and the Lower Hunter. Stanthorpe is about two and a half hours from Brisbane.and attracts visitors from there as well as the Darling Downs. Unlike Pokolbin which competes with Orange and Mudgee as well as Canberra area vineyards, Stanthorpe has the South East Queensland market to itself.

While smaller, the Armidale event is now drawing people from across Northern New South Wales, making for a considerable crowd.  

 

Can we have a New England civil aviation development plan? Please?

The NSW Legislative Council’s State Development Committee is presently conducting an inquiry into regional aviation services in NSW. The Inquiry was established on 13 December 2013 following receipt of terms of reference from Andrew Stoner, Deputy Premier and National Party Leader.

Just for something different, the photo shows Sunderland flying boats on the Clarence River when they were conducting a service from Grafton to Sydney.

You will find the entry page for the Committee here including terms of reference, submissions and transcripts of evidence.

  It’s all remarkably difficult. As the economics of flying shifts, fewer and fewer New England towns have access to air travel. Those that do, have to pay high prices. It affects every aspect of daily life and severely disadvantages tourism.

While there is no easy solution, if we had our own Government then we might have a chance of preparing a development plan. We could think of Newcastle and Coffs as international ports. We could look at limited selective subsidisation of services such as Tamworth or Armidale to Brisbane just to build base traffic. We could use our tourism promotion to build our traffic rather than being simply submerged in NSW.

It is unrealistic to think that we can have the services we once had, but we could do better if we didn’t have to accommodate all those NSW interests.    

Journey to the Hunter – Saturday 19 April 2014: on to Morpeth

Continuing the story from Journey to the Hunter – Saturday 19 April 2014: St Patrick’s Singleton, we drove out of Singleton in the late morning on our way to Morpeth for a late lunch. I hadn’t been to Morpeth before, and had been wanting to go for years.

The first part of our journey took us along the newly opened Hunter Expressway towards Maitland. I am sure that it’s convenient, certainly it’s quicker, but it imposes its own blankness on the landscape. In fact, this was a problem for the whole trip. I knew the Hunter very well and had done so for many years. However, the new roads and the spread of the urban landscape in the Lower Hunter created a very special spatial dislocation as my mind warred between the scenes I saw now and my previous memories.

For those who don’t know the Hunter Valley, it’s 29,145 sq km (11,252.9 sq mi) in size. The population is over 620,000, of which the great bulk lives in the Lower Hunter. We left the Expressway to drive into Maitland. Founded in 1820, Maitland (more precisely West Maitland) was the second largest town in Australia until the gold rushes, acting as the main entrepot point for Northern New South Wales. Established in 1843, the Maitland Mercury is the second oldest surviving newspaper in Australia after the Sydney Morning Herald. 

Maitland has many historic buildings, but this time we couldn’t stop. I wanted to get to Morpeth. Had we stayed on the main road, the signs would have taken us there. Me being me, I decided to try to follow the river, promptly getting lost. We ended up in a place called Bulwarra with some fascinating old buildings in the midst of the more modern houses. I had never heard of it, 

Sadly my photos didn’t come out properly, but this will give you a feel. By now it was quite late, my companion wasn’t feeling well, and we needed to get to Morpeth to eat. I walked across the road and asked a woman for directions. She was very friendly. “I went to school here,” she said. “ I wanted to come back, but it took us a very long time to find a house. There just aren’t any for sale.”

She explained that the house we were looking at was indeed one of the original big houses built during the convict period. With directions, we drove on, coming into Morpeth across the river bridge.

I should now introduce Morpeth. It was founded around 1831 by Edward Close at the head of navigation on the Hunter River. Smaller craft could go on to Maitland, but Morpeth was the effective head of navigation. At the time Morpeth was established, the main connection between Sydney and the Hunter Valley lay over the difficult inland route. In 1825, convicts began building the Great North Road to provide a better connection. Finished in 1836, the road was a major engineering feat, However, by then technology had changed.

In May 1831, the Sophia Jane arrived in Sydney Harbour from England. the first working steamer to be seen in Sydney Harbour. Built by Barnes and Millar in 1826, she was 153 tons and had one engine of 50 horse power. Three years earlier in 1828, two experienced shipbuilders, William Lowe and James Marshall, had arrived in the Colony. Under the guidance of entrepreneur Sydney merchant John Hickey Grose they selected land on the bank of the Williams River at Clarence Town and by 1830 had set up a shipyard complete with a wet dock cawed from a convenient  creek. After building a few small boats to get the feel of the local wood they laid the keel of the first  Australian steamship, the 'William the Fourth, in early Feb. 1831.

These ships were small, but they transformed trade. Sailing ships has struggled to travel the sometimes narrow and winding Hunter. Now goods and people could be carried with a degree of certainty al the way up the river to Morpeth and the main population centres, Morpeth grew rapidly.

Today, it is actually hard to imagine the bustling town and its busy river port. We unpacked the picnic basket on a spot overlooking where the main wharves had been. There is still river traffic, more than I expected, but it is all leisure craft now, We were both tired, so we sat there quietly eating bread and pate, cheese, olives with a glass of wine in hand watching the other picnickers.

Packing the picnic basket, we drove back up the hill to find a place to park. The town stretches in a longish strip along the river bank, The buildings vary in age, with the usual mix of domestic and the monumental you might expect from the town’s previous importance. This is the old court house.

And this is an example of one of the older buildings.

And this will give you a feeling for the screetscape in the town centre. Cupz and Crepes is, we were told, currently the most fashionable locale in Morpeth!

Morpeth was packed with tourists there for the Easter Weekend. Feeling tired, we joined the queue to find a spot for coffee looking down towards the river. It was time to return back to Pokolbin and dinner.

The drive back gave me something of the same feeling of disconnect that I had had in the morning. I wanted to go a different way home, but found myself driving through miles of suburban sprawl.

Then came dinner at the resort. Because it was a holiday period, they added a 15 per cent price premium. Later, I saw a sign at reception advising of this, but it wasn’t on the menu  nor signed in any way at the restaurant. We wouldn’t have minded so much if the food was good, but it was the worst cooked steak I have ever eaten. It was horrid!

I was annoyed. It cast a damper over what had, in fact, been a very good day.

For those who want to follow along with the story, you will find the entry point for all the posts here.    

Journey to the Hunter – Saturday 19 April 2014: St Patrick’s Singleton

Continuing the story from Journey to the Hunter – Saturday 19 April 2014: Broke Fordwich, we left the mines behind and drove down the Putty Road to Singleton through the bright morning sun. Singleton has changed so much as a consequence of the mining boom that the very pattern of the streets seems different. Still, I knew where I wanted to go. 

Last year I read Michael Sternbeck’s history of the Catholic Church In Singleton: The Catholic Church In Singleton: an historical look at its people and progress (published by the author, c1981.) Now I wanted to visit the church complex with its church, convent and schools. 

The buildings lie on a quite narrow strip donated by John Browne. Browne, originally just Brown, was a prominent lay person whose donations helped fund much of the early development of the Church in Singleton.

The photo shows the Church. The towers themselves were added in 1920-21. The building behind dates from 1859-1860, In March 1859, Archbishop Polding laid the foundation stone. In February 1860 he returned to open the building.

Both the church and the buildings around it have grown by accretion over the years. I wandered trying to work out what was what. Actually, it wasn’t easy. I didn’t have the history with me, so wasn’t sure just which building was what. Slowly, a pattern started to form. Meantime, my friend had vanished to do her own thing.

I wandered around the corner after her, finding that most valuable of things, a a toilet. Normally shut except during services, it was open that day because the church was being prepared for Easter Services. The side door was open, so I wandered inside, finding my friend standing watching a group of women preparing flowers. 

It is a truly Beautiful church. This is the view in the old church looking towards the front door. The gallery you see was built in 1874-75 at  a cost of 366 pounds.

Looking forward in the church, you can see the flowers being prepared for the Easter Service. On the left of the photo, a later extension provides a private area where the Sisters of Mercy from the Convent can participate in services. A  quiet covered way links the extension with the Convent.  

It was peaceful, but we had to move on. Next step Morpeth, and the vibrant world of commerce in the first half of the nineteenth century.

For those who want to follow along with the story, you will find the entry point for all the posts here.  

Journey to the Hunter – Saturday 19 April 2014: Broke Fordwich

The second day of our visit to the Hunter opened bright. My friend had a bad cold, so we took our time. Our room charge included breakfast, so I took a big one: fruit and juice, followed by bacon, tomato and mushrooms.

Breakfast over. we  headed back to the little village of Broke. Given my companion’s cold, we needed to stop at the little general store for supplies and especially bottled water!

While water was being gathered, I wandered across the road to the little war memorial. Your find these in all Australian country towns, but this one was more domestic, less monumental, than most.
Broke lies on Wollombi Brook. Marked yellow on the map, Wollombi Brook rises below Mount Warrawolong in the Watagan Mountains. Starting at an elevation of 426m, it flows north-east for 118km before joining the Hunter River, dropping 378m. Our journey to the Hunter the day before (Journey to the Hunter – Friday 18 April 2014: the adventure starts) had tracked the Brook and its little villages. There is some beautiful country with many byways, although this time we were just travelling through to Pokolbin.   
I had wanted to visit the Broke Fordwich region for a number of reasons. One was the desire just to see the place, a second to see for myself the changes that were taking place, including the conflict between agricultural and industrial activities.

When I first started driving between Armidale and Sydney or Canberra, I drove the Putty Road.  That’s the red line on the top left of the map, heading south west from Singleton through Bulga and Howes Valley to Windsor on the outskirts of Sydney. Later, I discovered the Wollombi-Broke Road, the road tracing the course of Wollombi Brook. This was considerably shorter, but included long stretches of often dusty dirt/gravel roads. I grew up driving on dirt roads and liked them, leaning how to navigate the mix of potholes (go slow) and corrugations (go fast), how to manage the loose gravel or dirt that could easily cause the car to spin. Mind you, it wasn’t necessarily good for the car, with the flying gravel effectively stripping the lower paint  away.

At the time I first drove these roads, this was an area frozen in time. Its period as the main route north was long gone, quickly replaced by cheaper sea and river transport to Morpeth on the Hunter. This freezing in time effect had preserved many of the older buildings, the early historical framework, making for an interesting drive.

This was now to change. In 1963, Dr Max Lake established Lake’s Folly, the first of the new boutique wineries in the Hunter. In 1968 or 1969, I have seen both dates used, Len Evans established Rothbury Wines. In that year, Graham Kerr launched his Galloping Gourmet TV program. The age of fine dining, the extravagant four bottle business lunch of the 1970s, was dawning.

The start of the 1980s saw the explosion of what would come to be called the sea change/tree change phenomenon. As part of this, boutique wineries spread across the Hunter, finally spreading to the quiet Wollombi Valley. With this came new agricultural activities and food stuffs, including especially the now ubiquitous olives. Then came the resorts.

The scale of all this is illustrated by the photo of the Broke Fordwich tourism display. You won’t be able to read the names; the significant thing is the just the number. None of this existed when I first drove through Broke all those years ago.

The area retains its natural beauty. This is illustrated by the following photo, a pastoral scene of black Angus cattle with the Broken Back range in the background. The wineries have added further texture to this beauty.
Aeons ago, a shallow inland sea existed in what is now called the Gondwana Supercontinent. There coral and other animal or plant stuff formed deep sediments. As Gondwana was torn apart by huge geological shifts, those sediments were covered and transformed, finally forming extensive coal deposits. Today, we call this the Sydney-Gunnedah-Bowen Basin.

The next shows< think, the Warkworth open cut coal mine just to the north of Broke on the other side of the Putty Road. There are, in act, two mines. The first is the Warkworth Mine north of the Putty Road. On the other side, you have the Mount Thorley mine running down towards Broke. Both mine are run as one by Rio Tinto subsidiary Coal & Allied Industries. The little village of Bulga on the Putty Road lies between them. 

The photo shows the sheer scale of industrial activity. Those coal trucks at the bottom left of the photo are clearly big, but you only really get a feel for their size if you let your eyes stand back a little and look at them against the scale of the mine. They really are big. Further comments follow the photo.   
As a New England historian, I am interested in the role that King Coal has played in New England history. There is an untold story here of national significance that I am only just coming to grips with. That was part of the reason for this trip. As an economist. I am interested in the economic aspects of coal development. As a traveller and somewhat one-eyed New England patriot, I am interested in the current impact and what it means for the future.

Warkworth vs Bulga is a hot current story, part of the environmental wars that have swept Northern NSW, my broader New England. Should the mine be allowed to expand if it threatens, as it does, the very survival of Bulga as a village and the beautiful country around it?  That is the key issue in current court cases and political activism in the area.

I will leave the story of our trip here, continuing in the next instalment.

For those who want to follow along with the story, you will find the entry point for all the posts here.

Journey to the Hunter – Friday 18 April 2014: the adventure starts

My friend had not been well, so we agreed that I would pick her up at eleven. First, I had to pack the picnic basket with assorted goodies. I don’t often do this, the picnic basket that is, but we wanted to be able to stop where we liked.

A little after eleven, we headed north along the Pacific Highway. It was a gorgeous day, bright sun but not too hot. The expressway was crowded, so I was glad to get off that road and take the Peats Ridge Road.  As I drove, I thought of past trips along this road, something that I started to describe in Secrets of New England - along the Fossickers Way Day One back in 2006.

We stopped at Kulnura for a late lunch. The bikes were out in force.  We got out the picnic basket  with its various goodies, opened the wine.

Settlement around Kulnura is actually quite new. The Great North Road, the original road to New  England, ran further west and north. It was much later the settlers came to build their farms and, now, their metro escape havens.

From Kulnura. we drove on to the junction with the convict built Great North Road. I didn’t take photos; I need to go back to just explore and document, We drove on through Wollombi to Broke. Looking at the Wollombi entry on Wikipedia, I was stuck by the reference that suggested the Great North Road formed one part of the Greater Blue Mountains Drive. Get real, mate. This is another example of an a-historical southern takeover.

At Broke, I stood lookng up at  Yellow Rock, part of the Broken Back Range, while my friend went to the store to buy some more water.  

The Broken Back Range was to puzzle me throughout the trip. All the tourist material talks about it, but nowhere is there a decent description of its exact location! I had to try to work it out while we were driving around.

From Broke, we headed onto the Cessnock Road looking for the turnoff to Hermitage Road. Our destination, the Tuscany Wine Estate Resort lay up that road. It took us a little while to find it, but we were happy with the view from our room. There are some lovely vistas in the Hunter Valley. That’s the Broken Back Range in the background.   

Neither of us felt like doing much, so we got out the picnic basket and settled down with some wine and assorted goodies for dinner in the late afternoon sun. 

If you want to continue following the story of this trip, here are the later posts:

• Journey to the Hunter – Saturday 19 April 2014: Broke Fordwich
• Journey to the Hunter – Saturday 19 April 2014: St Patrick’s Singleton
• Journey to the Hunter – Saturday 19 April 2014: on to Morpeth

Armidale named top third Australian visitor destination

Sydney's Daily Telegraph (Armidale has beaten out some of Australia's top destinations as the place to head for holidays) was a little surprised at this one I quote: 

"For savvy holiday-makers seeking out the best Aussie destinations in 2014, Armidale is the place to be.

Seriously.

Australian Traveller, one of the nation's top-selling travel magazines, has named the historic New England town as one of the hottest places in Oz to visit this year, third behind only the Kimberley region of Western Australia and the Top End....

But, according to the Australian Traveller list, Armidale beat even the Whitsundays, the Gold Coast, Adelaide, Victoria's "foodie" region and the entire state of Tasmania, among other higher profile destinations on the list, due to its "city-esque vibe amid a country landscape".....

Editor Georgia Rickard said yesterday the list was based on domestic travel trends over the past 12 months and feedback from a recent survey of more than 1000 Australian travellers.

"Armidale is an unusual choice but, surprisingly, it kept popping up across the board," she said.

"It has a reputation of being just another country town, and not necessarily a particularly sexy one. But in fact it's a stunning place with a thriving food culture, beautiful architecture and it is so close to some gorgeous natural surrounds.""

Armidale is a beautiful place. It really is. I was interested in the comments on the story. One person wrote: " Try Newcastle. Beaches, wineries, nice people, like Sydney was 20 years ago. Oh - also has the largest salt water lake in the southern hemisphere...." Newcastle is nice and achieved a much bigger ranking - Newcastle makes Lonely Planet top ten global cities, 2011. Armidale can't quite make that!

Another commenter said: "The place closes down after 12noon on the weekend." Ouch. 

Growing New England - how do we overcome local town myopia?

At the moment, I am working on a response to the Sydney Government's draft arts and cultural strategy for NSW. Thinking about access to art and culture, I realised a funny thing about New England's urban dwellers. They are so used to shorter distances that they are won't travel unless it's a formal journey.

This is another shot of Uralla's main street. Pretty isn't it?

Uralla lies twenty minutes drive time south of Armidale. Now in Sydney where I am presently living in exile, no body would blink an eye at the thought of travelling thirty minutes one way for coffee, an hour just to go to a function, over an hour to work or to take the kids to sport, three hours to visit another place for the weekend. Yet when your normal driving time around town is less than ten minutes, twenty minutes along a main highway seems such a long way!

It's dumb really, and we lose so much. If more New Englanders consciously explored their own immediate area, then this would increase the marketplace for a whole variety of activities while also adding fun to to life.    

At present, the New England Regional Art Museum (NERAM) is presenting a number of exhibitions including Herbert Badham's Observing the Everyday. I described this in A morning at NERAM - Flora, Cobcroft and Badham's Observing the Everyday.

Badham was a realist painter of social urban life, renowned for his scenes of Sydney. The exhibition concentrates on the everyday in Sydney mainly during the 1930s, combining Badham with other paintings from the NERAM collection on the same theme. This is a large high quality exhibition that has the potential to attract visitors from a wide area including Sydney. Sadly, NERAM has neither the money for wider promotion, nor for the catalogue that would give visitors the tangible memory of their visit.

If New Englanders could overcome their local myopia, then the Badham exhibition could draw effectively from all those within a two to three hour drive of Armidale. If Armidale people were more prepared to travel and could lift their eyes above the bounds set by the city's urban boundaries, then they could enjoy the events, activities and attractions offered by other centres.

This simple shift in perceptions could actually transform the economics of local activities, allowing for growth beyond the scale dictated by local populations.  

Start of the 52nd Inverell Grafton cycling classic

I am feeling lazy tonight. I was going to add a companion post to The TAS year of 1962 - Brian Harrison remembers because I think it important for we New Englanders too know the detail of our past, of our remarkable history. It's just so rich and it is ours.  Still, I am out of time and have to answer many emails before I go to bed. So I am going to free-ride of Mark!

The following photo shows riders gathered at the start of the 52nd Inverell to Grafton Cycling classic. This is, I think, the oldest and one of the toughest cycling road races in Australia. Long may it continue!

Gibraltar Range National Park

The Gibraltar Range and Gibraltar Range National Park lie on the eastern edge of the New England Tablelands between Glen Innes (79k) and Grafton (104k).

This photo from Mark's Clarence Valley Today photo blog shows the view from the Heffron lookout.

This area was always sparsely populated, although there was considerable mining interest, especially gold and tin along the Mann River.

From the 1920s onwards, William Mulligan, grazier and mining engineer, promoted building a hydroelectric scheme using water from both branches of Dandahra Creek. He wanted to rework foothill copper deposits. Falling post-war copper prices and changing government policies were to prevent construction of his private power station.

I found the story of William Mulligan interesting because it is another example of the early interest in hydro electricity that forms a small subset of New England history. Today you can see the remains of his endeavours preserved within the Parl.