History

Where the spirit of the pioneer lives on..........

Stockmen…part of the romance of Celtic Country

They were stockmen with long, flowing beards and they roamed the untamed, vast plains of New England when Australia was young. The stockmen were John Duval and William Chandler and today their names are perpetuated in the annual celebration of Glen Innes' foundation, spring's the Land of the Beardies Festival, Glen Innes' folk museum, one of Australia's finest, Land of the Beardies History House, Beardy Waters, the town's water supply and on county maps in Beardy Plains parish.

Duval and Chandler were very much part of the romance of Glen Innes, for they guided Glen Innes' first settler, Scottish barrister Archibald Boyd to the district.

Cambridge-educated Boyd migrated to New South Wales in 1838 and took up Boyd's Plains, at the source of Beardy Waters, and two other NSW properties. But he was ruined in the 1840s Depression and returned to Scotland to inherit the family estate, ending his days writing flamboyant, historical romances.

With Duval and Chandler, Archibald Boyd is remembered as part of Glen Innes' rich history, a history reflected in its charming, colonial main street, lined with more than 30 Heritage-listed buildings, including the beautiful stone courthouse, built before they hanged Ned Kelly, an 1860 pub that was serving drinks when Burke and Wills crossed the continent and, on the tourist drive, the Uniting Church honouring a pioneering minister who was robbed by Thunderbolt, St Joseph's Convent on the site where Australia's first saint Mary MacKillop signed the deeds for the original convent.

That history is reflected, too, in the district's tranquil rural villages like Deepwater and Emmaville, the kind that inspired poets like Lawson and Paterson. Boyd was one of many Scottish settlers who were part of Glen Innes's proud heritage, immortalised in the Australian Standing Stones, the man-made, megalithic array, unique in the southern hemisphere that has become the official national monument to all Australia's Celtic pioneers.

The stockmen Duval and Chandler? Their spirit lives on as part of the heritage of Glen Innes.

A Heritage CBD...and a great place to shop

You step back in time when you walk the Glen Innes CBD and gaze at the historic buildings. Like, at the northern extremity, the beautiful basalt stone courthouse built in 1873…near the centre, the imposing Town Hall, reflecting all the grandeur of the Victorian era…a few doors away, the Westpac Bank, with its ionic columns and stables at the rear, built even earlier in 1884. .

Charm? Heritage? That's not all - Grey Street and its side streets are a great place to shop. You can not only expect a warm, country welcome, but excellence in customer service.

The business houses compete for cash prizes for the best window displays during festivals and at Christmas. And throughout the year their performance is evaluated for the honour of taking out the Mayoral Shield.

A detailed brochure on the Heritage Buildings Walk is available from the Visitor Centre.

 Grey Street's northern end:

Royal Hotel: Two-storey Victorian brick, built 1860, the town's oldest licensed hotel. Main facade reflects the development stages and removal of verandahs which fronted Grey and Ferguson Streets.

Courthouse: Colonial style in basalt with granite dressings and galvanised iron roof. Built in 1873, replacing the original building completed in 1858.

Glen Innes Post Office: Designed by NSW Colonial Architect, Walter Liberty Vernon, completed in 1896. Queen Anne influenced, two-storey masonry building with slate roof, terracotta ridges, hips and wide eaves.

Old Police Station, Residence and Sheriff's Cottage: Dating from 1876, simple late Victorian cottage with offices and residence. Rendered brick, iron roofed cottage with brick chimneys.

Great Central Hotel: Built c1874, two-storey rendered masonry with parapet obscuring iron roof, verandahs added later.

Central Buildings: Built 1912, handsome single-storey Edwardian shops/offices with art nouveau influence in parapet design.

Westpac Bank: Built 1884-1885, formerly the Australian Joint Stock Bank, Australian Bank of Commerce, and Bank of NSW. Victorian Italianate with seven-bay elevation, ionic columns, slate roof. Brick stables at rear.

Town Hall: One of the most distinctive in NSW, the foundation stone was laid by Sir Henry Parkes. Completed during Australia's centenary year 1887-1888, a high Victorian grand town hall complex built in hybrid boom period French renaissance Italianate style.

 Left into Bourke Street:

NSW Rural Fire Service: Former Severn Shire Council offices, built 1910, brick with decorative render work, pitched roof, elaborate parapet with global finials, tall chimneys, leadlight windows.

Eastmon Business Centre: Three-storey brick with two-storey skillion extension, built 1882, formerly Utz Mill and Sunlight Flour Mill. The town's third mill using the stone gristing system.

Back into Grey Street: Mackenzie's Building: Rendered brick two-storey, built 1885 on site of first European occupation of the town area. Additions made in the same style in major refurbishment in 1999. Acquired by Mackenzies in 1913, in 1984 became Shoeys after internal redevelopment to arcade of tenancies.

Club Hotel: Built 1906 and still with the same family. Fine example of Edwardian hotel with rendered parapet, bullnose corrugated iron roof to verandah with cast-iron decoration.

Kwong Sing and Co: Town's oldest retail business with original family ownership. Built 1886, fine example of late Victorian Italianate style general store.

Fayles Group: Built around c1878, formerly a blacksmith's and saddlery, Fayles pharmacy. Rendered brick shopfront typical of era.

National Australia Bank: Built around 1890, Italianate style, includes iron palisade fence to frontage, stables/coachouse at rear.

Left into Bourke Street's western end: Centrelink: Built 1883, two-storey brick, formerly J.F. Chaffey and Son, coach builders. .

Glen Innes Examiner: Late Victorian single-storey rendered brick with parapet, built 1874. The newspaper has had an historic association with the town from 1874 and continuing without a break to today.

Back into Grey Street: School of Arts: Built 1887 to Italianate style, rendered brick with balustrade parapet and modern layout of shops.

ANZ Bank: Rendered masonry, tiled hipped roof, tall chimneys, pediment classical porch, small cast-iron balconies. Built 1877, formerly Bank of NSW.

Imperial Hotel: Built 1901, rendered brick and southern post-supported verandah which formerly continued around the corner.

Rural Lands Protection Board: Single storey Edwardian, high parapet, central pediment decorated with urns, built around 1900.