Visiting Braund Country - Armidale, New South Wales, Australia

The topography of the region is dominated by the Northern Tablelands plateau. The eastern side of the plateau is rugged, drained by numerous swift-flowing rivers with attendant gorges and waterfalls. Extensive areas are more than 900 m (2,953 ft) above sea-level. The western side is less rugged. New England lies in the temperate zone, and the climate is generally free from extremes of heat and cold. Winter frosts are common on the Northern Tablelands and winter snow is not unusual in this area. Most rain falls in late summer and early autumn with an annual average rainfall of about 800 mm (32”). The eastern escarpment has falls of around 2,000 mm (79”) on average.

Aboriginal groups have occupied the New England Tablelands region for many thousands of years, the Anaiwan (or Nganaywana) people settling around Armidale.[2]

There is a strong oral history suggesting seasonal movement of Aboriginal people through the rugged gorge system, between the coastal plains and tablelands. The tablelands were occupied during summer and autumn, communities moving either to the coast or the western river systems for winter. Trading between groups most likely involved exchanges of stone tools and local hardwood. Mammals such as kangaroo and possum provided food, clothing and decoration. 

European settlement was initiated by the explorer John Oxley in 1818 and squatters, in search of land suitable for grazing, followed in the early 1830s. This period saw the founding of Armidale.[3] In 1846, Armidale had a population of only 76 but already boasted a post office, court house, flour mill, church and several inns. The population had reached more than 500 by 1851 and became the central administrative town of the bioregion. By 1861, the population of Armidale had grown to some 4,200 people and the town grew substantially over the next 40 years. It became an established centre for education and strengthened its position as a regional capital by the 1890s. It became a municipality in 1863 and was declared a city in 1885. Gold had been found just to the south of Armidale as early as 1851 and further finds in the area attracted several thousand settlers to the region. Gold and antimony provided a substantial economic stimulation to Armidale. Cattle grazing dominated the landscape in the early years of settlement and this was supplemented significantly by the end of the nineteenth century when fencing and improved pastures encouraged sheep grazing.

Alongside the growth of industry, agriculture and population was the development of transport. Construction of the Northern Tablelands railway service commenced in the 1870s and the Main North railway line reached Armidale in 1883. Further developments in the rails service to Armidale were to occupy the attention of both Frederick and George Braund. Armidale today marks the northern-most station on the Main North railway. Before the advent of the railway, the movement of goods and people was by road. Trade to the south, primarily to the shipping port of Newcastle, was via the Great North Road (later, the New England Highway), but the great distance (some 400 km or 250 miles) and the poor condition of the road, made this journey time-consuming (and correspondingly costly). An alternative route, Major’s Line, was then considered across the mountains to Port Macquarie, following the initial route taken by Oxley. Started in 1838, the construction of this road was delayed following the weakening of the pastoral industry. Eventually, this road became known as the Oxley Highway. The Peel line, surveyed in 1832, linked the New England Tablelands with Port Stephens but was abandoned after a few years of use.

But many and varied problems faced these pioneers. As well as moulding the land for animals and crops and constructing roads and, later, railways for transporting goods and people the pioneers endured harsh living conditions, resistance from the local aboriginal people and threats from bushrangers and other delinquent elements.  Understandably, the local indigenous people resented the intrusion of the flocks and herds of the white squatters into their land. Rather than confront the settlers, many of whom had firearms, the aborigines started slaughtering the settlers’ stock and, when the opportunity arose, the shepherds and herdsmen too. Retaliation from the settlers was inevitable and many confrontations between black and white ensued, the New England area witnessing fighting between aborigines and settlers during the 1840s.[4]

Bushrangers were many during the latter half of the nineteenth century and several operated in the New England area. They were a constant danger on the early roads of New England. Notable bushrangers in New England were Thomas Gregory, John Roach (aka Hugh Duggan; aka Henry Howard, Jack Bradshaw and Riley the Bushranger. Probably the most famous (or infamous) bushranger in the Armidale area was Captain Thunderbolt (Frederick [Fred] Wordsworth Ward) who robbed properties, mail coaches and hotels. He was shot dead by Constable Walker at Kentucky Creek, some 30 km (19 miles) SW of Armidale in May 1870.[5]

[2]      Comments on the early history of the New England Tablelands are taken from

http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/bioregions/NewEnglandTableland-RegionalHistory.htm, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England_%28New_South_Wales%29, http://www.migrationheritage.nsw.gov.au/mhc-reports/DifferentSightsOnline.pdf and from a paper written by Mr. J. F. Campbell, L. S., and read before a meeting of members of the Royal Australian Historical Society, and reported in the Scone Advocate 22 September 1922, 3 October 1922 and 6 October 1922.

[3]      Armidale was named after Armadale on the Isle of Skye, the ancestral home of George McDonald, the Commissioner for Crown Lands at this time. (Wikipedia).

[4]      Wikipedia.

[5]      Fred, born in 1835, was the son of convict Michael Ward and his wife Sophia. At             http://www.thunderboltbushranger.com.au/frederick-ward-biography.html. Carol Baxter.