Where to go? On the last day of our Broken Hill trip in May '09 ( In Search of Art in the Aussie Outback ) we had a lunch stop in Tenterfield and we were smitten. Why not then start, where we finished in 2009. So it is decided; it's Tenterfield or bust.
A bit of research online. A call to make a booking at the Tenterfield Bowls Club Motel for Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. Load up the car and we are off.
The leisurely trip from Clontarf to Tenterfield takes us about 4 hours. There is an unexpected twenty minute stop on the Cunningham Gap range for road works. Main Roads are still repairing the damage done by the monster landslides caused by the big wet in January 2010.
We pop into Warwick for a lunch stop. In the food court of the main shopping centre in town we are again shocked by the food inflation in Australia. We shared a small plate of roast pork and vegies for the extortionate price of $13. It must be just us that find the prices high, because the place is crowded with locals hoeing in to their calorie laden lunches.
After a wet year the countryside across the southern Darling Downs and the northern tablelands is incredibly lush, the crops are luxuriant and the beef cattle are voluptuous. Compared to when we passed though here in 2009 , the whole region feels like it has been reborn.
Saturday morning there is a market at the old Tenterfield railway station. The money raised goes toward the maintenance of the local Railway Museum. We are, as we usually are, amongst the early birds. To fill in time we check out the Museum. As we wander amongst the well maintained and labeled exhibits a flood of nostalgia washes over us. They were "the good old days", when trains were pulled by steam engines and when the railway system was as important to the economy as the Internet is today...
Like a lot of the country rail system in Australia, the train no longer comes to Tenterfield. It hasn't since the 25th November, 1988. One day in a nation with vast distances and rising fuel prices we may rue the day the power that be ripped up the rails to places like Tenterfield and a thousand other local whistle stops across the inland...
But at least the dedicated and proud members of the Tenterfield Railway Museum will help us to remember and later generations to glimpse a bygone era...
About 15km south of Tenterfield along the New England Highway is Bluff Rock. A very striking and photogenic rocky outcrop. We find much of the scenery of this Border region sensational...
In this bush setting even a simple photo of our new car seems a teeny bit artistic...
The grandest hertiage residence in Tenterfield is "Stannum House". Built in 1888 for the "nouveau rich" tin miner John Reid. He was the Lang Hancock/Nathan Tinkler/Clive Palmer of his day. "Stannum" is Latin for tin. In the late 1800's Tenterfield was full of new wealth and new ideas. It was at the epicentre of the federation movement. It was in Tenterfield that Sir Henry Parkes gave his historic speech that lit a fire in the public imagination that forged the Nation of Australia from six British colonies that shared the one continent. Tenterfield was considered a possible national capital and John Reid hoped that "Stannum" would become Government House...
"Stannum's" architecture is in the Victorian-Italiante style. Many of the important public buildings and grand private homes in Australia from this era were built in this style. The cast iron balustrade and filigree is an Australian touch, in keeping with the style's signature of flamboyant ornamentation...
The ornate interior is classic Victorian-Italiante archtectural sytle. The 1990's restoration of the rather dilapidated carcass has restored the building to much of it's former glory. A private restoration, done by a professional "reno man". "Stannum" was about the 10th grand home he had bought as a wreck, restored and resold in his lifelong career. It is great to see his attention to detail and respect for the historical significance of the building...
This spiral staircase up to the roof top "deck" in the tower was built in England and shipped to Australia for installation...
"Stannum is now a family owned and operated B&B...
During the Second World War Tenterfield was part of the Brisbane line defence system. The main road from Sydney to Brisbane was via Tenterfield. On a section of the Mt Lindsay Highway, just north of Tenterfield, where the Highway runs through a very narrow valley, the army built a tank trap. The tank trap was designed to slow or halt the advance of the Japanese army. Designed to expose the underbelly of the tank so making it easier to destroy.The remnants of the untested tank trap remain along the side of the road. It makes us wonder what the powers to be were thinking. Did they really think that several rows of mini power poles, all be it deeply embedded in the ground, stretching a few hundred metres long across the narrow valley floor would dissuade the Japs from their malevolent march south for more than a few minutes. Or maybe it was just one of many projects designed to keep the thousands of troops stationed in the region occupied and fit until the fighting started...
The Border Ranges between Tenterfield and Stanthorpe are rugged, rocky, mountainous wilderness. There are numerous areas dedicated to National Parks and State Forests. The scenery is spectacular. In the Boonoo State Forest is the Basket Swamp Falls...
With even a modest amount of water rushing down the valley the falls are spectacular by Australian waterfall standards...
On a hot summers day these rock pools above the falls would be very inviting...
The afternoon clouded in so we decide to leave our visit to the Bald Rock National Park visit until tomorrow morning in the hope of sunny skies. Instead we head back into Tenterfield to do a bit more sight seeing. Who would have thought that Tenterfield would be the home to a Cork tree. A magnificent, 150 year old tree it is too...
It arrived from England in a jam tin.Planted in 1861. Not in a public park. Just in someone's front yard...
The cork around the trunk of tree must be feet thick...
The tree is majestic. There is no other word for it...
The bark is so textural, so sculptural...
The main public and commercial buildings reflect Tenterfield's wealth and importance in the mid to late 1800's...
On 24 October 1889, at the Tenterfield School of Arts, Parkes delivered the speech that came to be called the "Tenterfield Oration". The oration was seen as a clarion call to federalists and he called for a convention "to devise the constitution which would be necessary for bringing into existence a federal government with a federal parliament for the conduct of national undertaking"...
Perhaps the greatest legend to hail from Tenterfield is the one and only Peter Richard Woolnough. Better know around the world as Peter Allen. His song "The Tenterfield Saddler" put Tenterfield on the world map...
George Woolnough, Peter Allen's grandfather, his Tenterfield Saddler;
"The Tenterfield Saddler"
The late George Woolnough
Worked on High Street and lived on Manners
Fifty- two years he sat on his verandah
And made his saddle
And if you had questions about sheep or flowers or dogs
You just asked the saddler
He lived without sin
They're building a library for him
Chorus
Time is a traveler
Tenterfield Saddler
Turn your head
Ride again jackaroo, think I see kangaroo up ahead
The son of George Woolnough went off and got married
And had a war baby
Something went wrong
And it's easier to drink than go crazy
And if there were questions about why the end was so sad
George had no answer about why his son ever had need of a gun
Repeat chorus
The grandson of George has been all around the world
And lives no special place
He changed his last name and he married a girl
With an interesting face
He'd almost forgotten them both
Because in the life that he leads
There's nowhere for George or his library or the son with his gun
To belong, except in this song
Time is a traveller. Tenterfield Saddler turn your head
Ride again jackaroo. Think I see kangaroo up ahead
Time is a meddler, Tenterfield Saddler make your bed
Fly away cockatoo, down on the ground emu up ahead...
The architecture of Tenterfield is an intriguing and beguiling mixture...
There is a hint of clear blue in the early morning sky over the ranges to the north. Time to hit the road to Bald Rock National Park. Bald Rock is the largest granite rock in Australia. It is 750 metres long, 500 metres wide and 200 metres high...
We were not really intending to climb to the top of Bald Rock so we decide on the direct, steep route to the summit. Although we are only a few hundred metres from the base of the rock at this point we cannot see it through the dense bush...
About a third of the way up the allure of the rock becomes a magnet even though our lungs are huffing and puffing...
Great sloping fields of granite...
It is amazing what just a few hundred metres of elevation can do for the view...
Nearing the summit there is a forest of giant boulders...
And cute locals...
The striped face of rock swoops, precariously away down into the bushland below...
We made it to the top; we've got the photo to prove it...
What timeless forces of nature or the dreamtime can spawn boulders on top of this monolith of granite...
The pink and gray crystals of granite. How many kitchen bench tops could you make out of this rock...
Although it is solid rock, plants and even trees grow where they can get a toe hold. In the wet and shady areas lichen flourish on the rock surface...
The new fronds of bracken roll out a rose coloured carpet over the ground...
There are various species of wildflowers rioting in this unseasonally summer of abundance...
Stupendous orchids called Rock Lillies cling the bolders on the lower slopes of Bald Rock. What a sight this must be in spring when their large yellow flowers emerge...
The rock/boulder formations lay jumbled like giant building blocks in some greek ruin...
Just up the road from Bald Rock, on the outskirts of the tiny hamet of Liston is the "Aloomba Top" lavender farm, cum B&B, cum coffee shop. Being early summer we wonder if we can get photos of the lavander fields in flower that we missed the year we were visited Provence in France. We spend a wonderful hour or so chatting to the owners about all things lavender and the local art scene. On their recommendation we return to Tenterfield via Stanthorpe to check out a new community art gallery/school set up in an large old industrial buiding. Stanthorpe could be a good place, in summer, to hang out painting...
