Two Wednesdays ago in 'Stepping Back in Time' we looked at some locations of interest shown on a 1910 map of Tamworth. Today we go further back for nearly 40 years to show some of the things that existed then in the early 1870s in and around our town. The features numbered are as follows:
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(1) The Brisbane St Lagoon, where ducks were occasionally shot, which extended from the river where Hands of Fame Park is now situated, opposite the Olympic Pool. Low ground originally extended through to the present Peel/Brisbane St corner, considerably lower than today's traffic thoroughfare. In 1860 the land at the Peel/Brisbane St intersection was drained and filled with gravel.
(2) The original Cemetery, dating back to the 1840s, behind today's Ibis Styles Motel. Burials there had ceased by the late 1860s. Moves are afoot to have this hopefully recognised as a Heritage Site.
(3) The Cricket Ground. A 2.2 hectare area occupying a section of today's Bicentennial Park, eventually fenced around 1877.
(4) The 'Up the River Road'. Over the years this was the roadway developed from Tamworth through the Nemingha Flat", the name given to the land between the Peel River and the original course of the Cockburn River, now served by King George Avenue.
(5) The original Court House. In use from 1844 until a 2nd Court House was built in Darling St in 1861. Remnants of the foundations could still be seen many decades after its closure, actually intervening onto the roadway on Ebsworth Street at the Gipps St corner.
(6) The Great Northern Road - today's New England Highway after renaming in 1933. The Great Northern Road became The Great Northern Highway from 1928 to 1933. Prior to 1859 the Great Northern Road had turned right from Brisbane St into Peel St, but was then rerouted to turn right into Marius St.
(7) This area later became known as "King's Hill", the elevated land where Philip Gidley King 's 1875 "Calala" town-house was built, now the "Calala Cottage" home of Tamworth Historical Society. King became Tamworth's first Mayor in 1876.
(8) The original horse/bullock/wagon transport route until 1857, travelling north from the Hunter Valley through Currabubula, then via Belgamba Gap south of Duri. This road would have entered West Tamworth as shown through today's Bridge/Crown St corner, then on to the Darling St river-crossing before traffic bridges were established. Note - today's Bridge St was previously Peel St, and Crown St was previously Fitzroy St, these names changing in 1938.
(9) The location of the soon to be established 1878 Tamworth Railway Station in West Tamworth. Further extension then took place with the newly-constructed Viaduct, leading to the opening of the Railway Station in East Tamworth in 1882.
(10) The edge of the flood plain, well established by the significant 1864 and 1874 floods.
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(11) The old Goonoo Goonoo Creek Channel, still now a minor water channel between the Riverside 4 and 6 cricket fields. It was during the 1874 flood that Goonoo Goonoo Creek broke its banks and redirected much of its flow to join the Peel a little upstream of the present Footbridge.
(12) The original loop in the Peel River channel at the foot of Darling St, which was straightened by Tamworth Municipal Council, commencing in 1912, to avoid a repetition of the 1910 flood damage, being in close proximity to the 1861- 1939 Court House.
(13) The future 'Viaduct Park'. In the original 1849 Thomas Mitchell/John Gorman 'Town Survey of Tamworth', which gave us our original official streetscape, the double block bounded by Carthage, O'Connell, Peel & Macquarie St was marked as a "Reserved Square". The name Viaduct Park eventually became viable after the completion of the Railway Viaduct in 1881.
(14) The site of the 2nd Court House, opened in 1861 and serving until 1939. The judgements on the five hanging sentences incurred in Tamworth were all given in this building. Now the location of the PCYC.
(15) The grounds of the National School, Tamworth's first government public school, which opened with 38 pupils on April 13, 1855, operating until 1877 when replaced by the present Tamworth Public School. Now the location of the Tamworth Community Centre.
Surveyor General Thomas Mitchell's 1849 Town Plan named 19 streets east of the river on the 'Government Side', with the first land sales commencing in 1850. Land sales across the river from 1851 by the Australian Agricultural Company on their Peel River Estate enabled streets to be surveyed in West Tamworth, as shown on this map around 20 odd years later.
The arrival of the railway in West Tamworth not very long after this map was constructed brought significant changes to Tamworth, including some increased population, expansion and prosperity.
