3 March, 2011 - Highlander Van Village, Armidale, NSW

Thunder is rolling all about us yet again. It seems to be a feature of this location, here up on the New England Tablelands. Fortunately the torrential rain stayed away this morning so we were able to enjoy our three hour tour, courtesy of the town. It did not work out entirely free, although could have had we been tight fisted and not made donations when suggested at the Aboriginal Cultural Centre, the Railway Museum where we were given a cuppa, and the tour bus. Despite all that, it was a morning well spent. The highlight came at the end when we visited the magnificent Booloominbah, the residence of one Frederick White and his family, designed by John Horbury Hunt and built from 1883 to 1888. This 45 room mansion is now part of the University of New England.

The University (labelled UNE which I initially thought was a misspelling of Uni) is just one of the many educational institutions in this city. During summer holidays the population of 25,000 drops by 10,000. Obviously there are that number of students and teachers. There are three private schools here in town, along with all the other regular state schools. One could assume therefore that a great part of the town’s income comes from these educational facilities, together with the beef and sheep farming in the district.

Booloominbah

After lunch up at the Arboretum which in itself was disappointingly named so, but was still a very pleasant park with trees, we visited the New England Regional Art Museum, home of the famous Howard Hinton and Chandler Coventry collections. Both are regarded as the best collections of Australian art between the periods 1880 to 1948 and are considered “jewels in the NERAM crown”. Obviously this had great write ups in all the literature we had read up on, and we were not disappointed.

The rain started for real as we entered the gallery, paused long enough for us to get back in to the vehicle and drive back here. I do believe however that it is now set in for the night. Tomorrow’s weather will have some bearing on where and when from here.