Glen Innes (wikipedia) is a parish and town on the Northern Tablelands, in the New England region of New South Wales, Australia. It is the centre of the Glen Innes Severn Shire Council. The town is located at the intersection of the New England Highway and the Gwydir Highway. At the 2011 census, Glen Innes had a population of 5,173.

History

The original owners of Glen Innes and surrounding areas are the Ngarabal people. The Ngarabal name of the township of Glen Innes is Gindaaydjin, meaning “plenty of big round stones on clear plains”. The arrival of European settlers saw the significant disruption of the life of Ngarabal people, with widespread loss of life through massacres, disease and poisoning. Many Ngarabal people continue to live in the Glen Innes area, still practicing many aspects of their traditional culture and way of life. In about 1838 Archibald Boyd registered the first run in the Glen Innes district. Two stockmen known as “the Beardies” because of their long beards took Boyd to this area to establish his run. ‘The Beardies’ later introduced other squatters to the best runs in the area to become known as the Land of the Beardies or Beardie Plains. Furracabad Station was suggested by John James Galloway as an alternative to Wellingrove for a new town. However Furracabad Station was sold in the 1840s depression and passed to Major Archibald Clunes Innes, then to the Bank of Australasia, then to John Major, who sold it to Archibald Mosman. The name Glen Innes is believed to be bestowed by Mosman in honour of Innes. Glen Innes was gazetted as a town in 1852 and the first lots were sold in 1854. The post office was established in August 1854 and the court in 1858 when they replaced the Wellingrove offices. In 1866 the population was about 350, with a telegraph station, lands office, police barracks, courthouse, post office and two hotels. There was still no coach service at this time, but in the 1870s a road was constructed to Grafton. Tin was first discovered at Emmaville in 1872 and Glen Innes became the centre of a mining bonanza during the late 19th century. In 1875 the population had swelled to about 1,500 and the town had a two teacher school, three churches, five hotels, two weekly newspapers, seven stores and a variety of societies and associations. On 19 August 1884 the new Main North railway from Sydney opened. The arrival of the rail service and the expansion of mining contributed a new prosperity in the town, which is reflected in some of the beautiful buildings there. The centre of the town retains some of its federation buildings and the owners have painted these buildings in the traditional colours. Many of these buildings have been placed on the Register of the National Estate. The town boasts a railway station that was once part of the Main North Line. These days the line is closed at this point so the station is not in use. The buildings have been reused.

Industries

The Glen Innes district has been a producer of wool, sheep and beef cattle since it was first settled. Sapphires are mined in the creek valleys immediately west of town, and while tin is no longer commercially mined, mineral exploration is ongoing. The town holds regular livestock sales in the local saleyards. The town contains all of the regular service industries required by the community. Notable individual businesses include a photographic processing facility, an exporter of waste material balers, a large cattle feedlot, and transport depots. Sawmilling was historically a major industry of the district, but is now only conducted on a reasonable scale by the local minimum-security prison. The conversion of State Forests into National Parks has led to tourism becoming an important employer.

Climate

Glen Innes is 1,062 metres AHD with an average annual rainfall of 857 mm. The area has one of Australia’s coldest climates outside the Snowy Mountains and Tasmania, with mild to warm summers and cold, windy winters with regular frosts and occasional snowfalls, though many snowfalls do not settle. Glen Innes’s highest recorded temperature was 36.1 °C (97.0 °F) on 4 January 2014, and its coldest was −12.8 °C (9.0 °F) on 8 July 2002. Rainfall is heaviest in late spring, owing to the effects of the surrounding mountains, causing uplift which in turn causes frequent, heavy storms during this period. 20th September, Saturday Only 90kms to Glen Innes. We stopped off at in a little town called Deep Water for breakfast. We thought that we would buy breakfast this time rather than have our pre packed usual sandwiches and coffee. The place we stopped at was an old Inn that was used for a stop over for horses and carriages in the old days. Some of the place was burned down due to an electrical fault but they are busy restoring it as it is heritage listed. I took photos but will put them up tomorrow. Glen Innes! here we are in one the coldest climates outside of the Snowy Mountains and Tasmania. Apparently the night before last was -6 degrees. I can hear you say “Why are you there”? The answer is that this is that this is some of the most beautiful and historical country side in NSW and it is also Sapphire country and we are here so Ralphy can find our fortune, ha, ha. So, lots of fossicking is going to be happening in the next few weeks, in fact we started today and found some nice small stones. Glen Innes is on the table lands of the New England region of New South Wales and is over 1000 metres high, hence the cold climate. The town is awesome, so much history going on here. It’s a very Celtic place and they are quite proud of this history. Apparently Campbell is the most common name in the town. They have Celtic flags flying from most places and tomorrow we will visit quite a few of the old places………. Sorry, more photos of old buildings ha, ha. We are in the van with the heater on………..YAAAY, for air con because it is pretty chills at the mo. This is the first time we have used the heating. Going to bed now with my Ralphy and a lovely liquor and a movie (when the footy is finished) and my socks and my extra blankets 🙂 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 21^st September, Sunday It wasn’t -6 last night, thank goodness but it was still a bit chills. We rugged up and watched TV with the heater on so we were cosy. Ralph heard someone drive in at about 11 or 11.30 last night and when we got up there was a little old caravan next to us. Next thing we knew that ambulance was there and they took the poor old fellow to hospital. I think that he has kidney problems as they asked him when last he used his dialysis machine, I think that that is probably why he came into camp because he was in trouble. He is an old boy and travelling on his own and we hope that he will be ok. This is a lovely caring country caravan park, the owners are friendly and can’t do enough to help. We have to book our car in for a service as we have done nearly 18000kms. The owner of the park has given us the number of a mechanic and offered to come and fetch Ralph when the car goes in and take him to pick it up. There is a young Japanese backpacker doing all the work here. She does everything, she cleans the chalets, the toilet blocks, does the linen for the chalets, cleans out all the bins. She works from early till late as she is the only worker here and when you talk to her (her English isn’t that great) she tries and she has a smile on her face all the time and she is so gracious – I love her and I want to take her home. We will probably invite her to Perth to stay for awhile before she goes back to Japan. I think that she would get on so well with Roxanne. I don’t think that she is exploited like on the farms as the owners speak highly of her and she has her own little chalet where she lives. We took one of the tourist drives through the country this morning and it is beautiful here. You can understand why the Scots settled here. It is cold and I think the elevation is over 1000 metres but the country side which is mainly sheep farming is stunning. It’s all hills and valleys and so green. I have never been to Scotland but this place is what I would imagine it to look like. It certainly is very Celtic and they are so proud of the fact. We drove through some little villages and they have Scottish names like, Ben Lomond, Glencoe and Maybole. There was no-one around as it was Sunday morning and these places are so tiny. We stopped at an old church and cemetery and it would seem that the church is no longer used, it’s in pretty good condition though so perhaps it’s only maintained as an Historical thing. Apparently the meat here is good as the farm sheep and Hereford cattle and you can buy the meat in the butchers in town. Of course we will go and buy some from the butchers. We bought a few bags of wash (which is bags of dirt straight from the Sapphire mine) and we found some really nice stuff. This time we think that we might have something work cutting, we shall see. We took a drive into town and I took a galzillion photos of old buildings again …….. SORRY (I can’t seem to help myself). The town is under some sort of street refurbishment so there are barriers and bollards all along the main street so my pictures are not that wonderful, which is a shame. There were 2 young girls in town each with a little pup on a lead and they saw Hugo and Ooh’s and Aah’d about him. There little pups (sisters) were so cute. The one young girl asked if she could swap her pup for Hugo, ha ha. It’s going to be another cold night so we will have dinner early, rug up and watch TV.

 

22^nd September, Monday

Not much to tell you folks for today and no pictures of anything…. You can all sigh a sigh of relief because there are no buildings today, but I will remedy that in the next town. We took a drive to a town called Inverell, it’s 65kms from Glen Innes and again a very pretty drive. Inverell is another pretty busy country town. It’s not that small as it has a Big W, Coles, Woolies etc. but it is still a country town with the conveniences. We have decided to cut our stay here a week shorter and move onto Inverell. There is more fossicking there than there is here and we think that by Friday we would have done most of what there is to do and see here so we shall move on. Ralphie is quite excited because it’s not just Sapphire you find there, there are so many other kinds of gems for him to look for. He is like a kid in a Lolly shop. Our neighbour that went to hospital is not back yet so we are a bit worried about him, so hope that he is ok. The weather is still a bit chilly but tomorrow will be sunny so Ralphie is going to go fossicking while I sit here and try to paint another master piece. I have added some pictures to the gallery above as I noticed that they weren’t added yesterday.

23^rd September, Tuesday

Today the sun is shining and Ralphie has decided that he is going fossicking. Hugo and I stayed behind and I painted another master piece…. Ha,ha. Ralpie came back really tired with a few nice gems. It is hard work as he has to dig and take all his own water with him. So folks, not a lot to tell you for today.

24^th September, Wednesday

Today the sun is shining again and we decided to take a drive to a small town called Emmaville has a museum, hotel and not much else. The museum is amazing and was right up Ralphies alley, lots and lots and lots of gem stones. I was chatting to the lady at the front counter and she said that it was nice now that the weather has warmed up. I wanted to say that she must be joking because I was wearing 3 layers. We drove back to Glen Innes and went to the Celtic memorial which depicts local clans and then to town to get a few things. So, it was another not very eventful day. Sorry folks. Xxxxx

25^th September, Thursday

It’s pouring today but we knew that it was going to happen and that’s why we booked the car in for a service today. We’ve had thunder, lightning, hail (twice), been flooded out and we had to lift the freezer and everything off the ground or it would have floated away, in fact it was such a miserable day that we spent it indoors watching TV, reading, catching up with housework, washing etc. and Thank God for the reverse cycle aircon in the van, so yet another uneventful day. We believe tomorrow is going to be sunny so we shall see what we will do. The fact is that we have seen and done most of what we want to do here so it might be another boring uneventful day. I have been able to connect to the internet in the past few days, which took ages but eventually bombed out so I’ve not been able to upload anything so hence the silence, I think it’s the weather. I’ve cooked a roast in the van so it’s all nice and toasty in here with the oven and the heating on. Night folks xxxxxxxxx

26^th September, Friday

It rained off and on last night but we didn’t have the extreme weather that we had yesterday. It’s been a cloudy day with the sun coming and going. It’s warm when the sun shines but the minute it goes behind a cloud it’s chilly again. That’s the highlands for you. Actually, it is really good experiencing all the different climates, altitudes etc. It gives you a really good perspective of what Australia is all about. Not everything that is gorgeous is on the coast, in fact some of the most gorgeous places we have been to have been inland, and it’s a shame that some of it gets bypassed by many. The owners where we are staying are amazing and I think I’m going to miss being here. This little town is so friendly and people bend over backwards to help you without wanting anything in return. We popped into town this morning to get a few things and there is the most amazing second hand book shop to be found. It’s bigger than Elizabeths (I think that’s the name) in Freo and we spent ages there. We bought a pie for lunch at the most awesome country pie shop (as you do), actually it was more breakfast. We had goodbye drinks with some of the people we had met and the owners of the caravan park, it was quite sad really because it wasn’t the same as the happy hour they have in most caravan parks, this was a bit more special. So Goodbye Glen Innes and we loved being here. xxxxxxxxx