TENTERFIELD ROAD TRIP

 Tenterfield is a small town in northern NSW in the New England Region, which is a very fertile, cool, highland area. It was originally inhabited by the Bundjalung, Jukeembal and Kamilaroi people. The first European came in 1840's. Sir Stuart Donaldson, a London merchant had 18,000 sheep on a station which he named Tenterfield Station. By 1870 there were churches, a school, the School of Arts, hotels and "the Chronicle" were established and there was a population of 900. In 1886 the Great Northern Railway was opened it was originally the junction of NSW and QLD rail lines. 

In those days Australia was a collection of colonies all administered by England. Some of the population wanted all the colonies to join together and become a federation of Australia. During this campaign,  Sir Henry Parkes delivered his famous federation speech in the School of Arts in Tenterfield in 1889, which ultimately led to the federation of all Australian States in 1901. Since then Tenterfield is known as the 'Birthplace of our Nation'.

The School of Arts is now a Museum and cafe. Bill and Peter, who both have trouble walking and standing for any length of time, returned to the Bowls Club for a drink and lunch, while Val and I explored the museum and had lunch there and walked home dropping into some lovely country dress shops on the way.

The table where people came together to hear Sir Henry Parkes' speech. There is a photo of the meeting on the glass wall at the end of the table.

Earlier that morning we drove up a windy road to the Mt MacKenzie lookout where we could only just see the township through the hazy atmosphere.

In the afternoon we checked out the local parks to see the autumn colours, even though we were a bit early for the full colours. Last time we went to see the trees we were too late.

A local enjoys doing Tai Chi under the trees.

Then we found a pretty street.

with a cute old house.

This is a map of our road trip.