On another of our "No Destination Weekends" we were heading north through Coffs Harbour and I remember seeing a sign Tenterfield Town, just the name itself caught my eye, it sounded like this would be a charming little town to visit, I have a thing about visiting small towns for the reasons, they always have a bunch of friendly people which, I find comfortable been around and there is always lot's of history to be seen and learnt in these small towns always makes me curious how theses small towns came to be,Tenterfield is a small regional town in New South Wales of Australia, it was about a 8 hour drive from Sydney, heading inland of the Pacific Highway to the New England Tablelands highway.
We can remember driving into this charming town it was late afternoon on a winter day the trees were bare the streets were quiet and very clean, the sky was still blue, but the sunset was upon us, we could feel the vibes of this small town been very welcoming with only a population of just over 4,000 people, is what made this laid backed town so peaceful and charming.
We needed to find a lodge to rest up so we could be up early morning to start discovering the sites of this little town, booking into the Jumbuck Motor Inn was no problem they had the log fire going, in the dinning room been a cool winter night, after us both having a nice steak and vegetable dinner we then retired to our room.
The night sky was still glowing as we were having a coffee on the balcony before settling down for the night.
Next morning we were up fresh and early, after having a great filling breakfast, it was time to go and explore, seeing the town in daylight you could imagine this historic town in the rolling New England region, most old hotels, pubs and sandstone houses still standing from the early years of the 1800 era. History tells that Tenterfield Town was made famous by a Australia born in this town called Sir Henry Parkes who delivered a crucial speech in 1889 calling for Australia's federation which led to the establishment of Australia as a nation in 1901 putting this town on the history map.
Tenterfield town is situated in a shallow valley 882 meters above sea level and is surrounded by rugged mountains and many impressive national parks, we decided to take a drive out to Thunderbolt's Hideout which was about 12km out of town, Thunderbolt's Hideout was were the notorious bush-ranger Frederick Ward, known as Captain Thunderbolt, he used these caves as his hide out, it was the perfect location offering him ideal vantage point overlooking the town to see if anyone was coming for him.
Frederick Ward (Captain Thunderbolt) and his three associates one of them been a 16 year old boy by the name of John Thomson, carried out many armed robberies around the northern areas of NSW, robbing mailmen, travelers, hotel inns, stations and stores. Frederick Ward was also known as the Robin Hood style figure he would rob the rich to give to the poor he never used violence he was nicknamed as the gentleman bush ranger, eventually they were all surrounded by police near Uralla in northern NSW and all shot dead by the police including the 16 year old boy John Thomson.
After climbing though these huge granite boulders and caves seeing Frederick Ward, hide outs we hiked through Boonoo Boonoo National Park for a bit, before eventually heading back into Tenderfield Town for a scrub up and dinner.
Tenterfield Town is also well known for it's sheep farming providing some of the best wool including the best of sheep and lamb meats.
The next day we decided to spend the day exploring Tenderfield town as we had seen the outskirts of Tenderfield town, we just drove around town admiring all the old cottage houses and museums like the Centenary Cottage and Museum, Henry Parkes Museum, Sir Henry Parkes Memorial School of Arts and the Tenterfield Saddler, all these places told us who first settled in this town and how it came to be, Tenderfield Town, the very first people that were here on this land were the Australia Jukembal Aborigines till the English and Europeans arrived building the town to what it is today.
Tenderfield town, itself was very beautifully laid out every street was spotless with nicely manicured flower gardens down every main street and the shops all had there own characteristics, anything you needed was here, was definitely a creative beautiful town to be living in, it had charm written all over this extraordinary town.
I was surprised to know that even Peter Allen was born in Tenderfield town he was a great Australia entertainer, songwriter and singer born in 1944 and died in 1992 and still has a hotel in his name in this town. We have certainly had some great history and memories coming out of this gorgeous little town, was definitely worth the visit not only for the beauty of the town but the many national parks and waterfalls in this region were there are many hiking trails and lookout points to be seen which we didn't have the time to do all that but worth going back to see more of this regional area maybe another time.
