The railway gave but took away - Armidale's manufacturing decline

In this Armidale panoramic view in 1922 some of Armidale's major buildings can be seen, but the main growth period lies ahead. This is the fourth in a series exploring the rise, fall and slow recovery of the city of Armidale.  

Without the coming of the railway to Armidale in 1883, the city could not have maintained its developing position as an educational centre. The railway also became a major local employer. But while the railway gave it also took away.

It is hard now to think of Armidale as a manufacturing centre, but by the coming of the railway it had developed its own small industrial base spreading to the west near the junction of Martin’s Gully and Dumaresq Creek and then along Dumaresq Creek towards the centre of the city. In all cases, access to water was central.

Industries included tanning, boot manufacturing, soap making, blacksmithing, brewing and flour milling. To the south and west of Armidale lay a belt of farming territory that fed grains to the local mills.

The railway gave local industry the chance to export product to broader markets, but also exposed local producers to outside competition. One by one, local manufacture shut down.

In brewing, the railways brought mass produced beer from Sydney along the railways spreading out from that city, closing the many locally produced beers across Northern NSW.

The railways also brought milled flour from as far away as South Australia. Neither local wheat growers nor local millers could compete. Similar things happened with other locally manufactured products.

Armidale had been a much bigger centre than Tamworth where the Australian Agricultural Company’s large land holdings had prevented growth. As the land opened up and farming grew, so did Tamworth.

By 1901, Tamworth’s population exceeded Armidale’s by 1,550 people. At the 1911 census, that gap had grown to 2,407 people.

Inverell had been growing from the combination of farming expansion and industrial activities servicing the tin and other mines on the Western side of the Tablelands. In 1901, its population was 956 less than Armidale’s. At the 1911 census, that gap had closed to 189 people.

Glen Innes, too, had grown quite rapidly. At the 1901 census, its population was 1,331 less than Armidale’s. At the 1911 census, Glen Innes was only 189 people behind.

Armidale’s problem lay in its small economic catchment area compared to other regional centres. Effectively, the city’s only sources of income were as a rural service centre serving the grazing industries of part of Southern New England combined with its role as a religious, administrative and educational centre.

By 1922, the city had some of the grand buildings that would later form part of its visitor attractions but was effectively in stagnation. Now came events that would put it on a growth path that would last to the 1980s.

Note to readers: This post was prepared as a column for the on-line edition of the Armidale Express. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015,  here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018, here 2019, here 2020, here 2021 

Armidale's education base established

Founded in 1894, TAS was part of the education growth of Armidale. The photo shows Dorm 2 in 1913. Conditions were Spartan by today’s standards! This is the third in a series exploring the rise, fall and slow recovery of the city of Armidale  

The last decades of the nineteenth and first decades of the twentieth century saw the establishment of the educational base that would determine Armidale’s future. 

By 1923, Armidale had established an articulated school structure that was remarkable for its time and would be familiar to Armidale residents for the next fifty years.  

In public education, there were three primary schools:

• Armidale Superior Public School (1865) later Armidale Demonstration School, later still Armidale City Public School
• West End (1890), later West Armidale Public School, later still Drummond Memorial School
• North Armidale (1900) late Ben Venue (1914).

These primary schools, along with those in the surrounding districts, fed into the newly established Armidale High School (from 1920, buildings completed 1923). With time, a number of Church hostels would be established to provide boarding accommodation for those attending Armidale High.

The Roman Catholic school system covered what is now St Mary’s Primary School (from 1848), St Ursula’s College (1882) and De La Salle College (1906). Both St Ursula’s and De La Salle provided boarding facilities.

The two Anglican boarding schools were the Armidale School (1894) and the New England Girls’ School (1895). In addition, the New England Ladies College had been established in 1887. Later this would become the Hilton School, later still the Presbyterian Ladies College.

Armidale also had its first tertiary institution, St John’s Theological College, established in 1898 to provide training to prospective Anglican clergy. This college would move to Morpeth in 1926.

These developments brought considerable economic and cultural benefits to the still small city. Boarders and the staff required to teach them brought economic benefits, as did construction associated with new school buildings.

The growth in the city’s educated class would feed into cultural and community activities and later into moves to bring new educational facilities to the city.

The developments could not have happened without the combination of the city’s role as a religious and administrative centre with the railway that made it easier for people to get to Armidale. But what the railway gave, it also took away.

I will look at this in my next column on the story of the rise, fall and slow recovery of Armidale. 

Note to readers: This post was prepared as a column for the on-line edition of the Armidale Express. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015,  here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018, here 2019, here 2020, here 2021 

Greater wealth came to Armidale

Mallam House is Armidale's best surviving example of a mid-Victorian fashionable house. Built in 1870 for Henry Guy Mallam to service the high end rental market, its first tenant was Bishop Timothy OMahony, Armidale's first Catholic Bishop.This is the second in a series exploring the rise, fall and slow recovery of the city of Armidale 

Four things contributed to Armidale’s growth over the second half of the nineteenth century: mining, agriculture, the coming of the railway and the city’s role as an administrative, religious and educational centre.

The first gold discovery came in 1851 at Swamp Oak Creek near Tamworth, followed by multiple rushes across the New England. Then came tin from 1871-72, diamonds (1875), copper (1876) and silver (1878)

From an Armidale perspective, the most important rushes were Rocky River (from 1852) and Hillgrove (from 1881), although there were a series of smaller rushes near Armidale.

Mining created demand for beef and other agricultural products and increased wages. Local demand increased. As it did, towns grew including Armidale and Uralla. 

Fortunes were won and lost in mining, more lost than won, but the extra capital generated by mining helped fund new building. Armidale’s Imperial Hotel (1890) was built from Hillgrove profits.

The Great Northern Railway reached Armidale in 1883.

The original plans for the railway had bypassed Armidale. The town and district (Armidale did not become a city until 1885) had sufficient political influence to redirect the line through Armidale.

It was a critical decision. Apart from direct jobs, the railways became Armidale’s biggest single employer, the north-south rail connection reinforced the new city’s position as an educational and administrative centre. Armidale as we know it could not have developed without the railway.

Construction of the line triggered a building boom that began in advance of the arrival of the line and continued for a decade after.

West End (now West Armidale) had already emerged as an industrial area, but now expanded near the new line as cottages were built to house railway and other workers.

Elsewhere in the city, greater wealth led to the construction of new homes, schools and commercial and official buildings. The Victorian city that still forms the architectural heart of the old city was in creation.

At the 1901 census, Armidale’s population had reached 4,249, rising to 4,736 at the 1911 census. There was great civic pride in the city’s progress. However, Armidale had begun to fall behind in relative terms.

Armidale had been the second largest town outside the Lower Hunter. Grafton as the main Northern port after Morpeth had then passed it. By 1901, Armidale had fallen to fifth in population rankings, to sixth in 1911. 

Armidale’s greatest growth lay ahead, but that growth would come not from the city’s local or regional marketplace, but from the city’s role as an educational centre.

Note to readers: This post was prepared as a column for the on-line edition of the Armidale Express. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015,  here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018, here 2019, here 2020, here 2021