Our Local History – Glen Innes News

May

29

2026

Our Local History – The Brickworks

Local NewsLand of the Beardies Museum, Our Local History

The original brickworks in Glen Innes were started by John Falconer Willis and W Newman in about 1872 at Bell Rock, on what was formerly known as the Common, where they quarried with shovels, and pugged and moulded the bricks by hand. ‘Commons’ on the outskirts of towns were originally set aside in the 19th and 20th centuries so that people who lived in a town had somewhere to graze their stock -mostly milking cows, and horses for transport. It is great news that the New England Heritage Traction Club Inc has been appointed Crown Land Managers of the Heritage…

Apr

02

2026

By Eve Chappell

Our local History – Severn origin of the name.

Local NewsLand of the Beardies Museum, Our Local History

The former Severn Shire offices in Bourke Street are soon to be occupied by a School of Arts and Music. How many people would know the name Severn is very significant in our history and goes back even further than the name of the town? Oswald Bloxsome took up Rangers Valley in 1838 and named the river running through his New England property after the River Severn (pronounced Seven) which passed through his former property in Shropshire. It is the longest river in the UK and rises in the Cambrian mountains in Wales. EC Sommerlad wrote in ‘The Land of…

Jan

08

2026

By Newsroom

Our Local History: Excerpts from Archibald Windeyer’s Diary

Local NewsLand of the Beardies Museum, Our Local History

Are you keeping a diary this year? Archibald Windeyer’s Deepwater Diary is a stark reminder of our early history - when bullock wagons travelling about 12 miles a day were the transport. Archibald and his family had sailed from Plymouth, landing in Sydney on 11th December 1838. ‘On 20th December 1838. William Collins left Sydney to take up property in New England having taken the steam boat to Williams River (i.e. Morpeth the head of navigation.) 13th July 1839. Collins returned from New England Sheep Station for supplies, another dray and bullocks, plough, harrows, seed etc., and to take up…

Dec

19

2025

By Eve Chappell

Our Local History : Christmas Past

Local NewsLand of the Beardies Museum, Our Local History

This huge, beautiful popup Nativity scene Christmas card was given to young Dorothy Kneipp by Percy Sing Young of Kwong Sing and Co about 1907. Dorothy married Royal Hartmann in 1926, and their daughter Helen gave the card to the museum and Harvey Young very kindly made a display case for it. This card was but one of the presents Kwong Sings gave to their customers, particularly at Christmas time. (For wedding presents, it was a pair of beautiful vases.) One hundred years ago The Glen Innes Examiner of Saturday 19 December 1925 advertised the type of merchandise being promoted…

Nov

03

2025

By Eve Chappell

Our Local History: Red Range early days

Local News, RuralLand of the Beardies Museum, Our Local History

Excerpts from a long article by the Examiner Special Correspondent, March 1,1920.... ‘As far back as 1878 Red Range consisted of a small store and dwelling, owner by Mr Trotter. A few settlers had come here on the properties once included in Shannon Vale Station - amongst them being Messrs D Pogson, Jno Marshall, J Taylor, Cheney and J Heaney. A large lagoon, now on Mr J Ryall’s property was the boundary dividing Red Range from Shannon Vale. On 1870 the school was transferred from a building on Mr J Taylor’s to a new schoolhouse built by Mr Ruming and…

Sep

23

2025

By Newsroom

WOW – that’s an experience that must be preserved!

Council, Local NewsGlen Innes Severn Council, Land of the Beardies Museum, Our Local History

🌧️ Rain couldn’t stop the crowds! Despite the rolling scuds of rain, Glen Innes locals — joined by curious visitors — streamed into the Old Glen Innes Power Station on Saturday. By 9:30am, the building was alive with a fantastic turnout, all eager to marvel at the technology that once powered our town through the 1930s, 40s and 50s. The undisputed stars of the show? Two enormous engines, still as impressive today as they were nearly a century ago. Guests were handed a vintage brochure from the History House, written and edited by Ivan March, recounting the story of the…

Sep

22

2025

By Eve Chappell

Our Local History: Polio and the Iron Lung

Local NewsGlen Innes Hospital, Land of the Beardies Museum, Our Local History

Seventy years ago, in April 1955 after his invention developed from killed polio virus had been tested in one of the largest clinical trials in history, American virologist Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine was officially declared ‘safe, effective and potent’. It was an unprecedented scientific breakthrough in the control of the spread of one of the most dreaded diseases of the 20th century. Polio, or Poliomyelitis, also known as Infantile Paralysis, is a highly infectious viral disease primarily affecting the nervous system, with flu-like symptoms, brain inflammation, and in severe cases, paralysis. In 1964 Albert Sabin’s oral polio vaccine administered as…

Aug

31

2025

By Eve Chappell

Our Local History – Shearing

Local NewsDaniel McIntyre, Deepwater, Graham Robertson Cunningham, John Edward Dean, Land of the Beardies Museum, Our Local History

Local shearing sheds are again echoing to the scuttling sound of hooves on boards, whirr of the electric gear and clank of presses – a far cry from the days of the sheds echoing to the click of the blades (hand shears) as the shearer took the full length of the blade for the cut and the ‘knockers’ met. The record for a day’s blade shearing is 321 merinos in seven hours 40 minutes by Jackie Howe at ‘Alice Downs’, Blackall in Queensland in 1892. However, in 1907 Deepwater local gun shearer John Edward Dean shore 274 sheep in a…

Aug

20

2025

By Eve Chappell

Our Local History – Ben Lomond

Local NewsBen Lomond, Our Local History

For the centenary of the Ben Lomond school in 1985 a committee of Tony Judge, Bill & Kate Every, Rose Coward, Sedge & Leonie Ormerod, and Patsy Fulloon compiled an excellent history of the area. Earliest pioneers up there were Thomas Perry who took up Ben Lomond station and Andrew Wauchope - Moredun. In the early 1880s a huge workforce of railway workers lived in tents along the route of the railway construction. They toiled to lay lines, carve out cuttings and raise embankments with only basic equipment for this track from Armidale that was completed to Glen Innes in…

Aug

09

2025

By Eve Chappell

Our Local History – Tattersalls Hotel

Local NewsOur Local History, Tattersalls Hotel

Glen Innes’ Tattersalls Hotel once “saw the patronage of vice-regal parties and dignitaries from all parts of the world”. On 1 July 1905 ‘The Queenslander’ ran an effusive article on the recent modernisation undertaken by licensee CC Finney. Armidale builder G F Nott worked to the specifications of architect J F O’Connor and G B Clark was the painter. “…the hotel accommodation to be obtained in Glen Innes is equal to the best outside the metropolis and Tattersalls Hotel which has justly earned the appellation ‘a home from home’ provides all the comforts and convenience to be obtained in the…