Gwydir River - Rocky River

Photo: Rocky River School. This school, the first National School in northen New South Wales, was held in a slab hut intil 1870, when a brick classroom and attached residence (still standing) was built by Alexander Mitchell (builder of McCrossin's Mill, Uralla).

Following the introduction of compulsory education a new wooden schoolroom was built in 1885, and this, with two additions, forms the present school building. A second teacher was appointed in 1903, with enrolments peaking at 155 in 1916. Since then Rocky River has been a two-teacher school, apart from a brief period in the 1960s when a third teacher was appointed.

Downstream, Kentucky Creek becomes Rocky River. The little township is about 4 km from Uralla (2o km from Armidale) on the Bundarra Road.

Today little remains, but this was gold rush territory.

Gold was discovered at Rocky River in 1851. In September 1856 the population reached 4,500. In that year, 1856, Rocky River produced 40,000 ounces of gold, worth around $32 million at today's gold prices. This provided sometimes rich pickings for miners, storekeepers and the bushranger Captain Thunderbolt.

In my first post in the Gwydir series I mentioned that Thunderbolt had been killed at Kentucky Creek. Northeast from this spot on the New England Highway can be found Thunderbolt's Rock where Thunderbolt is reported to have watched for the gold coaches

Production declined thereafter, so that by 1866 the population had declined to 700, the majority Chinese. At this field, as with many others in New England, the Chinese were a major presence. The photo shows the interior of the Chinese Joss House, now vanished, at Rocky River in 1908.

For those who would like to visit Rocky River, please visit nearby Uralla first for an introduction to the history of the area.

Introductory post. Last post. Next post.

Road Tunnel Old Grafton Road

This photograph by Gordon Smith, Inside, looking out, shows the view towards Grafton down the old Glen Innes Grafton Road from inside the road tunnel.

It may seem hard to believe that this was the main road to Grafton for more than one hundred years.

Down this road crawled heavy drays and bullock waggons laden with wool for shipment from the busy port at Grafton. Is it any wonder that fights for better transport should form such a constant theme in New England's history?

Gordon noted that the road was built by convicts in the 1800’s, while the tunnel was cut by a contractor in the 1860s.

Photo: Gordon Smith, Great Northern Railway, New England Tablelands

Back last October I carried an introductory story on the history of New England's railways. I see that Gordon Smith is presently running a series of photos on the Great Northern Railway, the inland line that used to link Sydney and Brisbane.

The series starts here.

Greenhood orchid

This photo is by Gordon Smith. He comments:

I hadn't seen a greenhood orchid for years until we came across several patches of them in Cathedral Rock National Park. We had them on our property about 8 years ago, but, even after keeping a close eye out for them, have yet to see them again.

The photo reminds me of how little I know of New England's vegetation. I had never heard of a greenhood orchid!

Armidale's Hail Storms

Photo: Armidale after the storm, nineMSN.

Yesterday, 23 December 2006, a major hail storm hit the eastern edge of Armidale, the University city in the centre of New England's Northern Tablelands.

The twenty minute storm left a trail of destruction in its wake, with homes unroofed, windows smashed, cars damaged, trees stripped of foliage and glass from broken windows strewn about the streets.

Around 1,000 homes as well as other property including the local exhibition centre were damaged. The city has been declared a natural disaster area.

Photo: Gordon Smith, Armidale Exhibition Centre after the storm.

Hail storms are a relatively common feature of Tabeland's weather. Usually they do little damage. However, this is the second if somewhat smaller major storm to hit Armidale in the last ten years.

The story that follows is largely drawn from Peter Burr's story on Australia's severe weather. I have put in the link here, although I notice that there are problems in accessing it. I appear to be drawing from a cache copy.

On the afternoon of 29 September 1996 most Armidale residents were in doors, many watching the Rugby League grand final.

A storm had been building to the south west. By lunch time the sky became darker with storm clouds building to the sound of distant rumbling thunder. Just before 2pm an initial storm arrived with rain and small hailstones - around 10 millimetres diameter. The rain stopped at 2.30pm but intermittent thunder continued.

While no Armidale residents knew it, there had been no storm warning, a huge cumulonimbus storm cloud or a supercell had been building.

Inside this cloud massive updraughts were sweeping tiny particles of dust and ice up into the higher reaches where supercooled droplets of water were waiting to freeze onto them upon impact creating small hailstones. These hailstones were then falling to the lower levels before again being caught in the updraughts.

At 3pm this supercell approached the city from the south-west - a dark menacing cloud with an unusual colour described by many said later as orange or pink. The thunder increased and light rain started falling.

At 3.23pm the first of the hailstones fell on the city. At this stage the stones were 10 to 20 mm in diameter. They fell for about two minutes, then stopped briefly.

A roaring sound was then heard from the south-west. Unfortunately for Armidale, after making many trips up and down the hailstones circulating in the giant cloud had become bigger than golf balls and, too heavy to remain aloft, had started plummetting to the ground.

The huge hailstones made a deafening sound on roofs, and as they hit roads and hard surfaces they bounced several metres back into the sky. The wind started gusting from the south-west which was devastating for thousands of south and west facing windows - the sound of breaking glass accompanied the roaring of the hail. At 3.30pm it was all over.

The city had been extremely unlucky. Thunder storms are not unusual - the city averages 56 such storms annually - but severe hail is unusual. In this case, nearly all the major hail was dropped directly on the city itself.

The damage was astonishing. Eighty per cent of city buildings had been damaged, many severely, while some 3,000 cars received hail damage, creating a damage bill of over $A200 million, making it in insurance terms the third largest disaster in Australia's history.

In the longer term the effects were not all bad. The need to repair the damage created a building boom that lasted several years, leaving the city (always attractive) with a refurbished feel.

Photo: Gordon Smith, after the storm. This photo shows the scene in Armidale after the last storm as the combination of warm ground with the cold air and water creates mist. As Gordon notes, the scene now looks very pretty and peaceful, but the mist hides the storm damage.