Explore Tenterfield

Tenterfield ~ New South Wales

Tenterfield is a lovely historic town in the New England region of New South Wales, 668 kilometres north of Sydney.

It is surrounded by six National parks and is known as the “Birthplace of our Nation” due to Sir Henry Parkes' famous federation speech in 1889.

When we visited Tenterfield, we explored the history of Tenterfield at Sir Henry Parkes Memorial School of Arts and The Saddler. We wandered around town admiring the heritage buildings and visited the Railway Museum. We explored the Bald Rock National Park and Captain Thunderbolt’s Hideout.

The Sir Henry Parkes Memorial School of Arts is Tenterfield's most famous landmark.  This building is now a museum and features the Banquet Hall, where Sir Henry Parkes delivered his famous speech in 1889, which led to Australia’s federation formation in 1901. 

Next, we visited the Tenterfield Saddler, a 19th-century saddlery made famous by Peter Allen’s iconic song "Tenterfield Saddler.” The Tenterfield Saddler operated for over 100 years and was owned by George Woolnough, Peter Allens's grandfather, from 1908 until he retired in 1960.

Today, you can visit this iconic location Wednesday to Sunday from 9.00 am to 12.30 pm. The saddlery is in its original condition and houses memorabilia and leather goods.

Along the Tenterfield Heritage walk, we saw grand heritage-listed Federation buildings.

• Opposite the Tenterfield Saddler is The Royal Hotel, which was formerly the George Inn. It was built in 1849 and was Tenterfield’s first licensed premises.

  
  

• The Post Office was built in 1881 and is an elegant two-storey, Victorian Classical building with a clock tower.

  
  

• The Tenterfield Courthouse was built in 1885 and is still in use today.

  
  

• Behind the Courthouse is the heritage-listed Police Station that was built in 1870.

  
  

• The Tenterfield and District Soldiers Memorial Hall was erected in 1924 to honour the soldiers who died in the First World War.

  
  

• The current St Mary’s Catholic Church was built in 1940. The original church, built in 1867, is now used as the church hall.

  
  

• Stannum House is a grand Victorian mansion built in 1888 by mining magnate John Holmes Reid. 

  
  

• St Stephen’s Presbyterian Church is in Logan Street, and on the 8th of April 1903, Banjo Patterson married his wife Alice here.

  
  

• Located on Wood Street is a huge cork tree. It was brought from England by Edward Parker and planted in 1861. It is still growing and is said to be the largest cork tree in Australia.

The Tenterfield Railway Museum is located at the Tenterfield Railway Station and is open Wednesday to Sunday from 9.00 am to 4.00 pm.

The Tenterfield Railway Station opened in 1886, and the last train departed in 1988. Now, this beautifully preserved nineteenth-century railway precinct houses a historic railway museum. The museum is run by volunteers who are dedicated to conserving rail heritage for future generations.

The museum showcases vintage locomotives, carriages, and railway memorabilia, offering a glimpse into the golden age of train travel in regional Australia.

Tilly the Tank Engine was built in 1912 and used for nearly 50 years; now, you can climb aboard and explore this lovely train.

You can walk through the Diesel Rail Motor, these trains travelled on country lines from 1960 to 2007. There are also lots of sheds and other displays in the museum grounds.

The Bald Rock National Park is 30 kilometres north of Tenterfield. The day use area has plenty of parking, picnic tables, BBQs and toilets.

We wandered along the easy, short 450 metre track over the bridge and through old growth forest to the base of Bald Rock. If you walk quietly, you could see wallabies, kangaroos and lyrebirds along the way. 

Bald Rock is the largest granite monolith in the Southern Hemisphere, and it towers 260 metres above the surrounding bushland.

When you reach the base, you will see interesting colours and patterns on the water-streaked rock face. There are also two walking tracks to the top of Bald Rock if you're feeling energetic.

Thunderbolt’s Hideout is 12 kilometres north of Tenterfield, along the road to Bald Rock National Park.

Stop at the signpost and walk 150 metres into the bush to see a huge granite rock formation that Captain Thunderbolt used to hide out.

Fred Ward, better known as Captain Thunderbolt, was the longest roaming bushranger in Australia’s history.