Tenterfield, New South Wales

History

Tenterfield’s first inhabitants were the Jukembal people who travelled the area from near Glen Innes to Stanthorpe, Queensland.

In 1841, Sir Stuart Donaldson was running 18,000 sheep on a property that he named Tenterfield Station, after a family home in Scotland. Donaldson was the first premier of NSW and made biannual trips to Tenterfield to inspect his holdings there, which covered 100,000 acres (400 km²) of unfenced land. Tenterfield Post Office opened on 1 January 1849 and the township was gazetted in 1851 with allotments being sold in 1854. In 1858 gold was discovered at Drake (Fairfield) and shortly afterwards at Timbarra and Boonoo Boonoo. During 1859 an AJS Bank opened and an Anglican church was built the following year. In the 1860s the Tenterfield Chronicle was published, the district court was established; the building of a hospital commenced and a public school was opened. In 1870 the population was less than 900, but the town had five hotels, a school of arts and three churches. The existing Tenterfield Post Office was constructed in 1881.

During World War II, Tenterfield was earmarked as a key battleground if the Japanese should invade Australia. During 1942 thousands of soldiers were set up in emergency camps, unbeknown to the locals, to cope with such an event. Overgrown tank traps and gun emplacements can still be seen on the Travelling Stock Route near the New England Highway. The highway was until the early 1950s the only all-weather road from Sydney to Brisbane.

Railway

The railway opened to Tenterfield on 28 October 1884 and in 1886 to nearby Wallangarra on the Queensland border, connecting Sydney and Brisbane, with a break-of-gauge at Wallangarra. When the rail link to the Queensland border was completed, Sydney and Brisbane were linked by rail for the first time. The railway was subsequently bypassed by the fully standard gauge North Coast line between Sydney and Brisbane, completed in 1932. The Main North line is now closed north of Armidale and the Tenterfield railway station is now a museum.

Break of Gauge

There was considerable debate about whether the break of gauge should take place at the existing town of Tenterfield, or at a whole new town at the border at Wallangarra.

Federation Speech

Sir Henry Parkes delivered his Federation Speech in the Tenterfield School of Arts on 24 October 1889. He was travelling from Brisbane to Sydney, via the new Main North railway. The speech is credited with re-igniting the debate that ultimately led to Federation on 1 January 1901.

Heritage

The following buildings and sites are listed on the Register of the National Estate.

Industries

The main industries in the Tenterfield district are beef cattle breeding and superfine wool production through the breeding of Merino sheep. There are ten State Forests in the Tenterfield district covering 7540ha.

Media

The only commercial radio stations serving Tenterfield are Rebel Media stations, Rebel FM and The Breeze which broadcast into the area from Queensland on local FM transmitters.

Tenterfield-based community radio station Ten FM provides a more local focus, derived in part from the stringent rules controlling community radio stations. The station also broadcasts to Stanthorpe north of the border, on a separate frequency.

ABC New England North West and ABC Radio National broadcast to Tenterfield on local FM repeaters.

100.9 Triple Z FM, based in Goonellabah NSW runs radio advertisements for services that run from the coast to as far inland as Tenterfield and Glen Innes, and can be tuned into from higher elevations in Tenterfield when windy and anywhere in town on windless days.

Tenterfield's local newspaper is The Tenterfield Star, which is a weekly newspaper issued each Wednesday. The newspaper has been published for more than 170 years and was once owned by J. F. Thomas, the solicitor who defended Breaker Morant.

Tenterfield is incorporated into the Lismore television licence area and as such receives regional news bulletins on Prime7 and NBN Television along with brief local news updates on Southern Cross Ten.

Local geography

The local geography is dominated by prominent granite inselbergs and mountains, the most famous being that of Bald Rock, which sits within the Bald Rock National Park, and Bluff Rock which is located 12 minutes drive south of Tenterfield on the New England Highway.

Climate

Tenterfield has a subtropical highland climate, with cold, frosty winters and warm, wet summers. It sits at an altitude of 850 metres (2,790 ft) above sea level, meaning temperatures below freezing in winter are common, and Tenterfield averages 47 days where the minimum temperature drops below 0 °C each year. Summers are warm, but rarely hot and most of the rain falls as thunderstorms, which can be severe. Tenterfield's highest recorded temperature was 38.3 °C, which was recorded on 8 January 1994. Its coldest recorded temperature was -10.6 °C, which was recorded on 10 July 2006.

Notable residents

Sporting records