New England's History - most popular posts 1

Looking at the latest 100 visitors, the five most popular posts on this blog have been:

• How fast do horses travel?
• Geography of New England - Introduction
• New England's Aborigines - Reference Page
• Emma Jane Callaghan (1884-1979) - Aboriginal nurse and midwife
• High Lean County - the story of the New England Tablelands

Notes on New England historiography - entry page

I have established this page to provide a single point of access to my musings about New England historiography.

Historiographical Posts

• 26 November 2006, Towards a New England History - introductory post
• 3 December 2006, On Travel Time and Our Sense of Space
• 23 June 2007, Towards a Course on the History of New England - the Twentieth Century
• 25 June 2007, Towards a Course on the History of New England- The Colonial Period.
• 6 July 2007, Towards a Course on the History of New England - Introduction
• 4 January 2008, High Lean County - the story of the New England Tablelands
• 10 March 2008, Musings about method and directions
• 15 July 2008, Book review - John Ferry's "Colonial Armidale"
• 6 August 2008, Notes on New England Historiography - the importance of geography 1

History of New England's National Parks

At one level, New England's national parks are a major asset. At a second level they are an historical topic in their own right.

The New England National Park, the first, was established as a result of local pressure. More recently, national parks have been largely imposed.

I have established this page to provide an entry point for future posts on the history of New England's national parks.

Posts

• 15 Augts 2008, History of New England's National Parks - the Warrumbungles
• 19 August 2008, History of New England's National Parks - Mount Kaputah

Book review - John Ferry's "Colonial Armidale"

Tidying up, I realised that I had failed to cross-reference John Ferry's "Colonial Armidale", a review of one of the best local histories in Australia.

Inverell's history

Short post simply to record that Inverell On-line has a useful section on Inverell's history including some time lines. The site also includes photos of Inverell and Ashford.

Sapphires in New England - historical notes

The following material is drawn from Aussie Sapphire:

"Sapphires were first discovered in Australia as early as 1851 when they were found at the Cudgegong and Macquarie Rivers during the Gold Rush period. Sapphire was found alongside gold and tin in many highland regions during prospecting and mining activity.

The largest and most economic sapphire deposits are in the New England region of New South Wales (NSW) around Inverell and Glen Innes, and central Queensland around Anakie and Rubyvale (with a smaller deposit further north at Lava Plains). The New England gemfield is said to produce Australia’s finest blue sapphire with Queensland sapphire renowned for their range of colour (including yellow, green and parti sapphire).

Sapphire was not mined commercially in NSW until 1919 when a rich area on Frazers Creek near Inverell was worked by CL Smith. This encouraged more mining in much of the sapphire bearing area of Glen Innes and Inverell which continued for 10 years until the Great Depression. Large scale commercial mining did not resume until 1959 when prices for rough increased due to a shortage from the traditional sources in South East Asia.

At the height of the sapphire boom in the 1970’s, there were well over 100 mining plants operating in the New England region (Mumme, 1988). There was some consolidation of the industry during the 1980’s in response to lower prices and exhaustion of some of the very rich alluvial sources in the area. Market conditions have continued to be difficult resulting in a decline in mining activity within the region there are now only a very small number of commercial miners still operating.

Within the New England gemfield, sapphires typically occur in Quaternary and Tertiary alluvial deposits in both present day watercourses and fossil drainage systems. The sapphire-bearing gravel layer (or wash) varies in thickness and depth but may be up to a few metres thick in some palaeo-alluvial channel systems. It is thought that most of the sapphire was derived from the weathering and erosion of volcanic ash deposits (volcaniclastic rocks) that were erupted onto the earth’s surface during early explosive phases of volcanic activity (Facer & Stewart, 1995). These deposits were then distributed and concentrated along drainage channels.

Within the New England region, these processes have combined to create major sapphire deposits along Reddestone Creek, Wellingrove Creek, Kings Plains Creek, Horse Gully, Frasers Creek and Swanbrook. In these areas, sapphire is commonly found in association with pleonaste (Black Spinel MgAl2O4) and zircon. Australian sapphires are typical of corundum formed in iron-rich alkali basalt terrains and they have similar gemmological properties to those from other such deposits found in Thailand, China and Cambodia. The colour is quite saturated compared to sapphires found in some other resources, for example the Geuda sapphire of Sri Lanka which is extremely pale before heat treatment to intensify colour. Colour zoning is also common in Australian sapphire and may appear as hexagonal crystal growth patterns or parallel to the prism (Mumme, 1988; Sutherland and Webb, 2000)."

Mining in New England - working bibliography

I have established this post simply to record some of the references on mining in New England.

Belshaw, J P and Jackson, L, Gold mining around Armidale, Regional research monograph (New England University College) ; no. 1, Armidale 1950. Access

Belshaw, J P and Jackson L, Mining for diamonds, sapphires and emeralds in northern New South Wales, Regional research monograph (New England University College) ; no. 2, Armidale, 1950 Access

Belshaw J P and Jackson L, Gold mining around Walcha, Regional research monograph (New England University College) ; no. 3, Armidale, 1950. Access

Belshaw, J P, Mining for alum, antimony, arsenic and asbestos in northern New South Wales, , Regional research monograph (New England University College) ; no. 4, Armidale, 1950 Access

Belshaw, J P and Kerr, M, Gold mining around Glen Innes, Regional research monograph (New England University College) ; no. 5, Armidale 1950. Access

Facer, R and Stewart, R, Sapphires in New South Wales. Department of Mineral Resources, Sydney 1995.

Mumme, I, The World of Sapphires, Mumme Publications. Port Hacking, 1988.

Sutherland, FL and Webb G, Gemstones & Minerals of Australia. New Holland Publishers, Sydney, 2000.

Sutherland, FL, et al, The Tumbarumba Basaltic Gem Field, New South Wales: In Relation to Sapphire-Ruby Deposits of Eastern Australia. Records of the Australian Museum 54: 215-248, 2002