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Wright Streetdeck H45/28F new Nov 2015 , one of eight at Wells depot to replace single deck Volvos on service 376 from Bristol to Street. All eight are in this blue and gold livery with Mendip Xplorer branding and First Mendip fleetnames. This branding is being extended from 4th September 2016 when new timetables come into effect.
35163 is negotiating Glastonbury High Street on service 376
Scania N250UD / Alexander Dennis H49/28D first licensed in August 2017. First West of England have 24 of these Scanias , with a further 12 single door examples for service A1 in Bristol Airport Flyer livery.
I believe 10 of the 12 new buses for the A1 entered service in the last week of February or early March , but two of these dual door buses were working on A1 today , and were the only ones I managed to photograph. I assume this means that all of the 2010/11 Volvo B7RLEs have now gone for refurbishment.
A week or so after this photo was taken 36813 was transferred to Bath where it is on loan to Wells depot for service 376 , so it is still running into Marlborough Street. It would appear that these Scanias are to be used on Wells services 172/3/4 from April pending the refurbishment of Volvo B9TLs , which will replace the single deckers.
This did not happen but in August 2018 36813 was repainted in Grey/Orange Metrobus livery for use on M2 which finally replaces Park and Ride 903 from early September. Three Volvo B9s from the 903 are being painted in Mendip Xplorer livery for Wells.
3642 has just turned on the triangle at Moss Vale, and is waiting in the Up Refuge for the passing of the Up Canberra Xplorer service, so it can shunt back into the platform for its return journey.
On 29th March 2015, a special 'Southern Highlander' tour was ran by Heritage Express, which was done to utilize 6029 on a tour one last time before its return to Canberra.
The train was hauled by 4490 & 4520 from Sydney to Picton, from where 3642 and 6029 took over the tour down to Moss Vale, where 6029 would be detached and would couple up to another passenger train from Canberra hauled by 4403.
The Garratt would later lead the Canberra train back to Canberra later in the day, accompanied by 4403 at the rear.
Wright Streetdeck H45/28F new Nov 2015 , one of eight at Wells depot to replace single deck Volvos on service 376 from Bristol to Street. All eight are in this blue and gold livery with Mendip Xplorer branding and First Mendip fleetnames. This branding is being extended from 4th September 2016 when new timetables come into effect.
35164 is negotiating Wells High Street on service 376 from Bristol to Street.
Xplorer carriage EA2501 sits coupled to Endeavour carriage TE2813 in the middle of Platform 1 at Central. The two carriages were both due for work at the wheel lathe. 21-12-2016.
Volvo B7RLE / Wright B44F new 10/2009 , last of a batch of 14 new at Wells , in Wells bus station on service 173 to Bath .
After a brief spell at Marlborough Street it was repainted in Mendip Xplorer livery and transferred back to Wells in September 2016.
35163 SK65PWF : Wright Streetdeck H45/28F new Nov 2015 , one of eight at Wells depot to replace single deck Volvos on service 376 from Bristol to Street.
In August 2018 69448 was the first single decker to be repainted in yellow and teal livery for South Glos Lynx services from Marlborough Street depot. Volvo B9 Geminis are being painted in Mendip Xplorer livery for servies 172/3/4.
The Canberra Xplorer is seen here at Wolli Creek crossing over from the Illawarra lines to the East Hills lines.
Alexander Dennis E40D Enviro 400 H45/28F new to First Devon and Cornwall in March 2012. All nine of these were transferred to First Bristol at Hengrove around the end of 2016 and painted with orange fronts on urban livery for service 50. With the timetable changes at the beginning of September 2017 33666 and 33667 were transferred to Weston-super-Mare , and repainted in Excel livery for North Somerset X services.
Service X5 from Weston-super-Mare to Cribbs Causeway was handed over to Stagecoach West from 1st September 2019 . The Hengrove 2012 Enviros were transferred to Wells from September 2019 to replace the dreaded Streetdecks , so it made sense for 33666/7 from Weston to join them.
33666 is now in Mendip Xplorer livery and is working in Bristol on service 376 to Street.
The Ocean Xplorer research vessel is owned and operated by Ocean X, a non profit organisation founded by billionaire Ray Dalio and his son Mark Dalio. Oean X's mission is to explore the ocean and share its wonders with the world through media and scientific research.
NP44 powers through the former station of Curlewis bound for Werris Creek and the connection with NP24.
Running around four hours late, the combined Armidale-Moree Xplorer (NSW Trains NP23) arrives at Werris Creek to divide the consist. The front four cars will proceed to Armidale and the rear two cars will proceed to Moree.
Volvo B9TL / Wright H45/29F new June 2009 to First Bristol. Bristol took delivery of 124 of these vehicles ( B7TLs and B9TLs ) over 4 years with 37772 being the last.
In June/July 2018 37772 was repainted in Mendip Xplorer blue and gold livery for use at Wells.
37772 left Wells bus station on the 12.49 departure to Bath on service 173. After arriving in Bath at 14.10 it then worked the 14.20 service 172 from Bath to Paulton . Here it is working the return journey on 172 at 15.35.
Before the Xplorer railcars took over completely, the Canberra services in the early 90s were typically four-car loco-hauled services worked by 422 class units which such was the case on this day in 1993.
02-012
In the early morning, a NSW Trains Xplorer joins the Southern Line at Joppa Junction with NSW Trains SP32 from Canberra to Sydney.
Wright Streetdeck H45/28F new Oct 2015 at Hengrove depot. 10 of the batch of 12 have red fronts and route branding for service 90.
35148 had its red front repainted grey in Aug 2016 to act as a spare bus.
In November 2016 it was repainted again into Mendip Xplorer livery and transferred to First Somerset and Avon to join the 8 similar vehicles new to Wells.
The Xplorer from Griffith exits the tunnel on the lower level of the Bethungra Spiral. In a few minutes it will reappear on the track above the tunnel.
Departing Tamworth, the Xplorer train from Sydney to Armidale, with apparently, the two cars which usually run to Moree in addition to the usual three. May 2013.
An Xplorer set races through Towrang with SP31 down Canberra service while MB4 heads north on the up line.
Frame :*VELO ORANGE* neutrino Painted by COOK PAINT WORKS
Head Set :*PHILWOOD* 1 1/8 headset
Front wheel :*VELOCITY* cliffhanger rim × *VELO ORANGE* grand cru disc touring hub rear
Rear wheel :*VELOCITY* cliffhanger rim × *SON NABENDYNAMO* SON delux
Handle :*FAIRWEATHER* b903 bullmoose bar
Brake Lever : *PAUL* canti lever
Crank :*WHITE INDUSTRIES* eno
Saddle :*SDG* bel-air saddle BL special
Seat Post :*THOMSON* elite seatpost
Seat Clamp :*THOMSON*
Grip:*HERRMANS* primergo
Pedal :*MKS* allways pedal
Head light:*BUSCH+MULLER* lumotec IQ-XS
Bag:*Eerder Metaal* xplorer front bag
Volvo B7RLE / Wright B43F new Jan 2005 at Wells depot , but later at Weston super Mare. In Aug 2015 it was repainted in Badgerline "Big Badger" livery to commemorate 30 years since Badgerline started on 1st January 1986. This version of the yellow and green livery was not introduced until 1991/2. It mainly worked town service 7 whilst at Weston , but has now been transferred back to Wells depot , where all other permanent buses are in the Mendip Xplorer blue livery. It is leaving Bath bus station "Not in Service" .
66726 was repainted in Discover livery in August 2019 for use in Westbury.
ADL Enviro 400 in Paulton on the first day of operation of the re-introduced 379 between Bristol and Bath via the A37 which has replaced both the 171 and 178.
Women's Memorial (Town Square, Argent St and Chloride Streets).
The black granite women's memorial recognises the role of women in the mining history of Broken Hill, particularly in supporting mineworkers during troubled times.
An idea fully supported by the CFMEU, the memorial relates past, present and future for the people of Broken Hill in western New South Wales.
From Wikipedia;
Broken Hill is an isolated mining city in the far west of outback New South Wales, Australia. The world's largest mining company, BHP Billiton, has roots in the town.
Broken Hill is located near the border with South Australia on the crossing of the Barrier Highway (national route 32) and the Silver City Highway (national route 79), in the Barrier Range. It is 220 m (722 ft) above sea level, has an average rainfall of 235 mm (9 in) and summer temperatures that reach well over 40 °C (104 °F). The closest major city is Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, which is more than 500 km (311 mi) to the southwest. Unlike the rest of New South Wales, Broken Hill (and the surrounding region) observes Australian Central Standard Time, UTC+9:30, a time zone it shares with South Australia and the Northern Territory.
Broken Hill has been called The Silver City, the Oasis of the West, and the Capital of the Outback. Although over 1,100 km (684 mi) west of Sydney, and surrounded by semi-desert, the town still manages colourful park and garden displays, and offers a number of attractions.
Broken Hill is Australia's longest-lived mining city. In 1844, the explorer Charles Sturt saw and named the Barrier Range, and at the time referred to a "Broken Hill" in his diary. Silver ore was later discovered on this broken hill in 1883 by a boundary rider named Charles Rasp. The "broken hill" that gives its name to Broken Hill actually comprised a number of hills that appeared to have a break in them. The broken hill no longer exists, having been mined away.
The area was originally known as Willyama.
Before Charles Sturt's naming of the town, the surrounding area was referred to by natives as the "Leaping Crest".
Broken Hill's massive orebody, which formed about 1,800 million years ago, has proved to be among the world's largest silver-lead-zinc mineral deposits. The orebody is shaped like a boomerang plunging into the earth at its ends and outcropping in the centre. The protruding tip of the orebody stood out as a jagged rocky ridge amongst undulating plain country on either side. This was known as the broken hill by early pastoralists. Miners called the ore body the Line of Lode. A unique mineral recently identified from Broken Hill has been named Nyholmite after one of the city's famous sons Ron Nyholm (1917–1971).
Broken Hill has been and still is a town dominated by the mining industry. The mines founded on the Broken Hill Ore Deposit - the world's richest lead-zinc ore body - have until recently provided the majority of direct employment and indirect employment in the city. The Broken Hill Proprietary Company became Australia's largest mining company, and later became part of the world's largest mining company, BHP Billiton.
In the past, before the 1940s, mining was achieved via hand with high labor utilisation rates and included horse-drawn carts underground. The advent of diesel powered mining equipment in the late 1940s and the move toward mechanised underground mining has resulted in lower labor utilisation per tonne of ore recovered, and this has seen the workforce in the mines shrink. Another factor in the shrinking of workforce size has been the consolidation of mining leases and operators, from several dozen to just two main operators at present.
While the labor force has been in decline due to the low metal prices of the 1990s, which saw the failure of miner Pasminco Ltd, recent resurgence in metal prices has returned the sole existing operator, Perilya Limited, to profitability and prompted Consolidated Broken Hill Limited to advance development of the previously unmined Western Lodes and Centenary Lodes. This has involved creation of over 70 jobs during development and will see a second, new, milling operation built within the town. Although the mining industry is resurgent, labor utilisation will remain low.
Due to its exposure to the vagaries of the mining industry, and because of a swiftly shrinking population, similar to other rural centres, and compounded by its isolation, Broken Hill has actively encouraged its widespread artistic credentials and is promoting itself as a tourism destination in order to become less reliant upon mining as a source of employment.
In 1933 Broken Hill, with a population of 26,925, was the third largest urban incorporated area in New South Wales. Broken Hill's population peaked at around 30,000 in the early 1960's and has shrunk by one third since the heyday of the 1970s zinc boom, with the decrease attributed to migration from the closure and consolidation of mining operations. The impact on Broken Hill's economy of the shrinking mining industry and the more efficient mining rates resulted in a higher proportion of part-time employment, higher employment participation rate by females, a general reduction in overall household incomes, and an increase in the average age of people in Broken Hill as the young move away for work.
Broken Hill has always had a small indigenous community. In recent years the proportion of the population identifying as Aboriginal has increased markedly; from 0.6% in 1971 to 5.1% in 2006, partly due to the migration of non-indigenous Australians away from Broken Hill.
In the 19th and early 20th century Broken Hill was home to a community of Afghans. Afghans worked as camel drivers in many parts of outback Australia, and they made a significant contribution to economic growth at a time when transport options were limited. The camel drivers formed the first sizeable Muslim communities in Australia, and in Broken Hill they left their mark in the form of the first mosque in NSW (1891).
The earliest human settlers in the area around Broken Hill are thought to be the Wiljakali Aborigines, although this was probably only intermittent due to lack of permanent water sources. As in much of Australia, a combination of disease and aggression by white settlers drove them from their lands.
The first European to visit the area was the then Surveyor General of New South Wales, Major Thomas Mitchell, in 1841. Three years later, in 1844, the explorer Charles Sturt saw and named the Barrier Range while searching for an inland sea; the range was so named as it was a barrier to his progress north. Burke and Wills passed through the area in their famous 1860-61 expedition, setting up a base camp at nearby Menindee. Pastoralists first began settling the area in the 1850s, with the main trade route to the area along the Darling River.
Broken Hill itself was founded in 1883 by a boundary rider called Charles Rasp who patrolled the Mount Gipps fences. In 1883 he discovered what he thought was tin but when the samples came back they were instead silver and lead and the ore body they came from became the largest and richest of its kind in the world. The Broken Hill Proprietary Company (BHP) (later BHP Billiton) was founded by the Syndicate of Seven to mine the ore body of Broken Hill in 1885. However by 1915 BHP realised its ore reserves were limited and began to diversify into steel production and on 28 February 1939 mining at the BHP mines at Broken Hill had ceased.
However BHP was by no means the only miner at Broken Hill and mining continued at the southern and northern ends of the Line of Lode. Currently the southern and northern operations are run by Perilya Limited who plan to open further mines along the Line of Lode.
The Battle of Broken Hill took place on New Year's Day 1915 when two men fired upon a trainload of picnickers in a self-described attack on the British Empire. Since, at that time, Australia was preparing to attack the Ottoman Empire, those people were first speculated to be Turkish, but later identified as being from British colony of India (modern day Pakistan). They killed four and wounded six, before they were killed by a group of policemen and soldiers.
It is also known for its input into the formation of the labour movement in Australia, and has a rich trade union history. Some of the most bitter industrial disputes have been fought in Broken Hill in 1892, 1909 and 1919. The last of these led to the formation in 1923 of the Barrier Industrial Council, a group of 18 trade unions, which became one of the most influential organisations in the politics of the city.
Like many "outback" towns, Broken Hill was built on precious metals, having once had the world's richest deposits of lead, zinc and silver. Although now depleted somewhat, mining still yields around two million tonnes annually. Some mine tours are available. Sheep farming is now one of the principal industries in the area and there are considerably more sheep than people — almost 2 million Merino sheep.
On 10 January 2007, the Broken Hill City Council was dismissed by the New South Wales Minister for Local Government following a public inquiry.
Railways
The city's isolation was a big problem until the Adelaide narrow gauge railway link was finished in 1888. Since the New South Wales Government would not allow the South Australia Government to build a railway to cross the border, the last 19 miles (30 km) was built by a private company as the Silverton Tramway. The line was so named because it was originally intended to serve the mining town of Silverton, but by the time the railway reached the town it was already being eclipsed by the newer and bigger mine at Broken Hill. The main purpose of the railway was to transport concentrates and ores from the mines to the smelters and port facilities on the coast at Port Pirie, South Australia. As a backload to Broken Hill it transported supplies, principally coal for boilers at the mines and timber for the timber sets used underground in mining. The Silverton Tramway was owned by Broken Hill mining interests.
The main sidings and locomotive servicing facilities were located in Railwaytown, a suburb of Broken Hill with sidings running to the south and north to serve the mines. The main passenger station was at Sulphide Street.
From the later 1890s, Broken Hill Council campaigned for a tramway to provide public transport around the town and to the mines. Eventually the NSW Government decided to build a tramway which was officially opened on 19 March 1902. It was run by steam trams transferred from Sydney by sea and then by rail across South Australia. It was a curious operation which after World War I suffered increasingly bad losses until the New South Wales Government closed the system in December 1926.
Another curiosity was the Tarrawingee Tramway which was a narrow gauge railway line which ran north from Broken Hill for about 40 miles (64 km) to an area of limestone deposit which was quarried and transported to Broken Hill for use in the smelters at the mines. The tramway opened in 1891 but closed in 1898 as the smelters moved to Port Pirie. In 1889 the Public Works Committee of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly recommended that the Government take over the line and it subsequently became a narrow gauge part of the New South Wales Government Railways (NSWGR) run under contract by Silverton Tramway.
It was an excursion train on the Silverton Tramway that was fired on by two immigrants in 1915 (see Battle of Broken Hill).
In 1919, a 4 foot 8½ inch (1435 mm) standard gauge rail link from Broken Hill to Menindee was opened as the first stage in a planned direct route to Sydney. The terminus for the train was at Crystal Street station, some distance from the Silverton Tramway's Sulphide Street station. The railway mainly hauled water from the Darling River. The rolling stock all had to be transported by sea to South Australia and the railway was supervised by the superintendent of the Broken Hill Tramways.
In November 1927 the direct link to Sydney was completed. In September 1937 the NSWGR placed into service the Silver City Comet, an air conditioned rail car which ran between Broken Hill and Parkes.
During World War II land transportation between South Australia and Eastern Australia became important with the threat posed by submarines and mines to coastal shipping. Extensive transshipment yards were constructed at Broken Hill in 1942 to allow transshipment of munitions. However in the event the threat was never fully realised.
With the purchase of the Sulphide Corporation by the Zinc Corporation in 1948 a modern zinc smelter was constructed at Cockle Creek, south of Newcastle. This started to take lead and zinc concentrates directly from Broken Hill in the 1960s via rail marking the first major use of the rail link to NSW. This was the well known W44 Concentrate Train.
In 1970 the 3 foot 6 inch (1067 mm) gauge railway from Port Pirie to Broken Hill was converted to a 4 foot 8½ inch (1435 mm) gauge, thus completing the standard transcontinental gauge line from Sydney to Perth.
Water
Broken Hill has never had a permanent local water supply which meets the town's needs. By 1888 when the town's population had reached 5000, the state government built a series of small storage tanks.
By the 1890s, mining development had increased to the point that there was a severe water shortage and the mines and the people fought for water. Emergency water supplies where shipped by rail from the Darling River. In 1891, the Stephens Creek Reservoir was completed by a private company. The cost of water was high but not excessive and people were willing to pay because the environment was arid. Another reservoir was built at Umberumberka, however variable rainfall meant supplemental supplies by rail and rationing was still needed.
In 1952, Broken Hill's demands for a permanent water supply were met with the completion of a 24 in (61 cm) pipeline from Menindee. The pipeline can supply 1.6 megalitres of water per hour. Water storage facilities that are part of the Menindee Lakes Scheme on the Darling River, have secured water supply to Broken Hill, making it a relative oasis amid the harsh climate and topography of the Australian outback. High evaporation rates have resulted in the policy of using the local storages for supply before using the pipeline.
Electric power
By the 1920s most of the nine mines on the Line of Lode had their own steam powered electrical generators to power the surface and underground workings. As Broken Hill is in a desert with little water and virtually no fuel steam generation was an expensive option. In 1927 a plan for a central power generating facility was proposed by F. J. Mars, consulting electrical engineer with the Central Mine. The proposed powerhouse would generate electricity and compressed air. The mines agreed and formed Western New South Wales Electric Power Pty. Ltd. to construct and run the plant. The powerhouse was completed in 1931 and was diesel powered. This was one of the earliest examples of the use of diesel power generation in Australia. The plant was enlarged in 1950 to cope with increased demand from the North Mine. At the same time, a new power station run by the Southern Power Corporation (owned by Consolidated Zinc) was erected near the new Broken Hill Consolidated Mine to provide power to the southern end of the Line of Lode. Both stations were connected as a grid.
A HVDC back-to-back station with a maximum transmission rate of 40 megawatts was built at Broken Hill in 1986. It consists of 2 static inverters working with a voltage of 8.33 kV. After this station was operational the two other power stations closed and their equipment was gradually removed.
Attractions
Broken Hill and the surrounding area has many natural and man-made attractions on offer for the tourist. These include mining operations (some open to the public), a visitor's centre and lookout on top of the original Line of Lode mine, historic buildings, town history walking trails, many resident artists and galleries, the Sculpture Symposium, COBB & Co coach & wagon rides, Silverton Camel Farm, Stephen's Creek, several quarries, lakes, the Mundi-Mundi plains, and terrific sunsets.
Broken Hill is a major base for both the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia and School of the Air. The Pro Hart Gallery and Sculpture Park contains a large collection of the noted Australian artist Kevin 'Pro' Hart's paintings and sculptures, as well as many artistic works of others that Hart collected during his lifetime. The gallery also features the Rolls Royce that he painted in his unique style.
Surprisingly, for a town with such a small population, Broken Hill has a burgeoning nightlife. Many clubs exist and are open most nights of the week until late. Establishments catering to both locals and tourists include the Musician's Club and the Democratic Club.
Additionally, Broken Hill, its nearby neighbour Silverton, and the surrounding desert have served as the backdrop for shooting numerous movies, television programs, video-clips and commercials. The clear blue skies and the magic light feature in movies including Mad Max 2 (a.k.a. The Road Warrior) and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Mario's Palace, now trading as The Palace Hotel Broken Hill, had the "tack-o-rama" mural that was featured in The Adventures of Priscilla.
Visitors to the town are often fascinated by the houses built with corrugated iron walls. Although corrugated iron is widely used as a roofing material throughout Australia, it is not commonly used for walls in houses.
Because of its rich historic heritage, the City of Broken Hill has been nominated for listing on the Commonwealth National Heritage list (the highest level of heritage protection in Australia) and the nomination will be assessed in 2007 and 2008.
Transport
Broken Hill is one of the stops of the Indian Pacific passenger service, operated by the Great Southern Railway, from Sydney in New South Wales to Perth in Western Australia via Adelaide in South Australia. The popular weekly CountryLink Xplorer service between Broken Hill and Sydney, which was introduced in 2005, arrives from Sydney on Mondays at 19:33, departing Broken Hill on Tuesdays at 7:45 for the return to Sydney. Regional Express operates air services from Broken Hill Airport to and from Adelaide, Dubbo, and Sydney.
The Development of Armidale. What is so special about Armidale? Well it is a cathedral city with both Anglican and Catholic cathedrals; it is a wealthy city with a prosperous hinterland and many mansions; it is Australia’s highest city with a bracing English style climate; it is an education city with a university and several prestigious boarding schools; it was one of a number of sites considered for the Australian capital city site after Federation; it has been one of the centres wanting to secede from the rest of NSW; and it has an interesting history with a squatting phase, mining phase, agricultural phase etc. It is also a regional capital and has always been considered the “capital” of the New England region - a distinctive Australian region defined by rainfall, altitude, etc. And it has always been on the main inland route between Sydney and Brisbane but that is no longer of importance in this aviation transport era.
The origins of Armidale district go back to Henry Dumaresq when he squatted on land here and took out leaseholds on Saumarez and Tilbuster stations in 1834. He and other squatters soon displaced the local aboriginal people after a period of considerable violence. The turning point in terms of the city came in 1839 when George Macdonald was appointed Commissioner for Crown Lands for the New England District. He arrived with a small police force and he set about building a house and office headquarters. The site he chose is now Macdonald Park. NSW land regulations allowed the government to set aside reserves for future towns or to resume leasehold land for the creation of towns. Macdonald immediately surveyed the local landowners of which there were 37 in New England, giving it a population of 422 people. But this was the convict era of NSW and half of the population were assigned convicts. They provided the brawn to develop the stations, build the shepherd’s huts, dig the wells and dams, and fell the timber and clear the land. Of the original 422 people in New England only 10 were females, probably wives of shepherds or convict women who were cooks etc. Most stations had between 8 and 12 assigned convicts. Saumarez for example, had 11 convicts and 8 free male workers in 1839. In 1841 convicts still accounted for 42% of the population of New England and as they completed their seven year terms, many stayed on to become the founders of towns like Armidale. Transportation of convicts to NSW ceased around 1843 and so convict assignees gradually declined in the region, but ex-convicts remained.
Macdonald named the town site Armidale after the Armadale estate on the Isle of Skye. Macdonald had barracks built for the police men, stables, a store shed, his own house and he enclosed some paddocks for the growing of wheat and vegetables. His first years were often taken up with writing reports about Aboriginal massacres and deaths including the Bluff Rock Massacre on the Everett brothers’ run at Ollera near Guyra. Macdonald seldom investigated reports of Aboriginal deaths closely. He was a pompous little man, just 4 feet 10 inches tall with a deformed hunched back. But he was meticulous in most matters. In 1841 he was jilted just before his proposed wedding to a local woman. He remained in Armidale until 1848 overseeing the early development of the town.
By 1843 a small town had emerged with a Post Office and a Court House, blacksmith, wheelwright, hotel, general store etc. The town provided government and commercial services to the surrounding pastoral estates. But the town reserve included other lands that were sold or leased to farmers- agriculturists who grew wheat. By 1851 Armidale had two flour mills. The long transport route to Newcastle and on to Sydney meant all wheat had to be converted to flour before it was transported to the markets. The old dray route down to the coast was also used for the transport of the region’s major product- wool. The official town was surveyed and the streets laid out in 1849. Many of the early pastoralists were commemorated in street names – Beardy, Dumaresq, Dangar, Marsh, Faulkner and Rusden to name a few.
In 1851 Armidale also had local industries for the regional population- two breweries, general stores, chemist, butcher etc. In the early 1850s the churches began to erect their first buildings and the town became “civilised” with more and more women living there. Then gold discoveries near Uralla and towards the eastern escarpment boosted the town’s population and services. A newspaper was founded, a hospital was built and the population reached 858 in 1856. A gaol was built on South Hill in 1863, the town became a municipality in 1864, and the Robertson’s Land Acts (1861) were introduced throughout NSW to break up the big pastoral estates for ‘selectors” or small scale farmers on 320 acre blocks. This boosted the total population of the Armidale region but as noted elsewhere the pastoralists also used this era to buy up large lots of land freehold for themselves by the process of “dummying”- using relatives and employees to buy small parcels of land which they sold on to the large land owners. But the early years of growing wheat around Armidale collapsed in the 1870s as the wheat lands of South Australia opened up and cheap SA imports destroyed the New England wheat industry. Other forms of agriculture were then taken up in New England.
Another key factor in the growth of Armidale in the late 1870s and into the 1890s was its English style climate. In 1885 Armidale was proclaimed a city. It had a population of 3,000 residents - a remarkable achievement for a locale so far from the coast. This was of course boosted further with the arrival of the railway in Armidale in 1883. The line soon reached the Queensland border with a connection on to Brisbane. But the railway was not all good news as the city of Armidale could then receive beer and other supplies on the railway from Newcastle or Sydney and some local industries closed down with the arrival of the railway. By the 1880s the boom years were apparent as large mansions and prominent commercial buildings were erected in the growing city.
The fact that Armidale is equidistant from Sydney and Brisbane was one of the factors considered in its application to become the new Federal capital. The fact that Armidale had nearby reservoirs and a large water supply big enough for a large capital city was also an important consideration. The new Federal government was considering the site of the capital city after a long drought so access to water supplies was a major concern. As we known the site of Canberra near Yass was finally selected despite its lesser supply of water but it was closer to Sydney.