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 Tamworth is located on the Peel River, 412
km north of Sydney at the intersection of the New England and Oxley
Highways and has a population of about 40,000, that swells rapidly
during the country music festival and the NCHA Futurity Show and
Sale. The area was originally occupied by the Kamilaroi people who
knew it as Calala, which is thought to mean place of battle. It
was in 1818 that John Oxley crossed the Peel River Valley,
north-west of the present town site, on route to the coast,
recording the river crossing in his journal, noting that
it would be impossible to find a finer or more
luxuriant country than its waters...no place in this world can
afford more advantages to the industrious settler than this
extensive vale.
Although squatters began to arrive in 1830, the Australian
Agricultural Company (AAC) was awarded a huge land grant. The land
was selected by Henry Dangar, with the first 6,000 sheep arriving in
1834. The grant was allocated in two separate parcels, of which the
larger being Goonoo Goonoo, located on the southern bank of the Peel
River. In 1841, this became the company headquarters. By the late
1830s a private village had developed on the western bank of the
Peel River, with a some huts and stores on the eastern bank catering
for teamsters who crossed the river at that point. By 1840 a lock-up
was established and a postmaster employed. In 1849 a survey for a
town site was carried out and Tamworth was gazetted in 1850 with a
population of 254 recorded the following year when its first school
was set up. Tamworth comes from the name of a town in Staffordshire,
England, represented in the British parliament by Robert Peel.
 1851 proved a boon time for the town with the gold finds at Nundle.
In 1859 the first newspaper was established and the following year,
the first proper bridge was built over the Peel River. The 1860s saw
Tamworth become a major coaching station and milling centre, with
the population increasing to about 3,000 by 1876, when it was
declared a municipality. The railway from Newcastle was extended to
West Tamworth in In 1878. It was in 1888 that Tamworth became
the first town in the Southern Hemisphere to have a
municipally-operated electric street lighting, earning itself the
nickname of The City of Light. During the 1920s, Tamworth
became the centre of the New England New State Movement, which
wanted to create a separate state. The movement resurfaced in the
1960s. During World War II the showgrounds were used as an
army-training camp and an RAAF flying school was set up at the
aerodrome that had opened in 1932. Declared a city in 1946,
Tamworth saw significant growth through the 1960s and 1970s. It
was during the late 1960s that local radio station 2TM saw the
potential scale of the country music audience when it began
broadcasting its programme Hoedown. Tamworth capitalised on the
success of country music by establishing the Country Music Awards in
1973. The Australasian Country Music Festival is now a major event
of ten days of entertainment, which attracts people from all over
the world. Check out our listing of
Tamworth
accommodation. In addition to our listed online travel guide information,
contact the local tourism visitor centre for your destination for more
attractions, tours, local maps and other information. |
