New England, Tamworth, Australia.

New England Overview

New England is the region west of Coffs Harbour which extends from around Glenn Innes and Inverell in the north through to the Tamworth region in the south and includes the towns of Manilla, Barraba, Bingara, Warialda, Tenterfield, Asford, Armidale and Guyra.

Touring New England can be a rewarding experience in more ways than one as the area known for is precious stones.

Tamworth is known as the Country Music Capital of Australia and the famous Tamworth Country Music Festival is held in the height of Summer in January.

Australia has always had a long association with country music and some of the Australian artists , Keith Urban for one, have gone on to become world wide selling acts.

The country music connection with its celebration of cowboys and all things 'country' stems from the fact that this area is an extremely important Australian live stock and equine centre.

Fossickers Way

The Fossickers Way takes in Nundle, Tamworth, and Glen Innes and as the name suggests, the area is a fossickers’ delight with sapphires, diamonds, gold and other precious stones there for the picking, if you are very very lucky.

It is like hunting a needle in a haystack but for the lucky ones, 'finders keepers'

Inverell (known locally as Sapphire City) it is possible to hire fossicking equipment at a genuine Sapphire reserve and try your luck.

Poolbrook Gems Fossicking Park provides advice on sapphire fossicking, hire of the required equipment and tours of the mining plant.

New England National Park

New England region has more highland areas than any other part of New South Wales.

There are extensive table lands, gorges, streams, waterfalls as well as parts of The Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves of Australia (which are protected areas of rainforests which include the magnificent Barrington Tops further south.)

The New England National Park is around 80km east (on unsealed dirt roads) of Armidale and includes World Heritage Listed Rainforests, fast flowing rivers and lookout platforms over spectacular wilderness areas (e.g. Banksia Point, Point and Wrights Lookouts)

White Water Rafting

The Nymboida River in The New England Tablelands offers some of the wildest white water rafting in Australia.

The river winds through the Nymboida-Binderay National Park and the 9km route offers spectacular views as well as grade 1- 5 rapids.

Canoe and Kayak tours also run on the Nymboida River. Access to the Nymboida River is around 30 km SW of Grafton via the Ebor and Armidale Road.

New England accommodation

Tamworth's hotel accommodation does get heavily booked in January for the Country Music Festival.

See our general Tamworth accommodation listings.

Location

New England is located in central northern New South Wales and has a Latitude of 30.9°S and a Longitude of 151.1° E.

Driving To New England

Some approximate driving times are:

6.5Hrs From Sydney (540Km)

15.5Hrs From Melbourne (1400Km)

5Hrs From Brisbane (410Km)

See Route and Distance Calculator for more accurate driving times and routes from additional locations throughout Australia.

Bald Rock

Bald Rock, located in Bald Rock National Park, is the largest granite monolith in the Southern Hemisphere and has similarities with Uluru (Ayers Rock) in The Northern Territory.

It measures over 700 metres long, 500 metres wide, is almost 1300 metres above sea level and protrudes over 200m above the surrounding bushland.

There are two marked walking tracks to the summit of Bald Rock offering both a leisurely, scenic route or a more arduous climb.

From the top of Bald Rock, the views are spectacular and if the conditions are right you can see up into Queensland. Bald Rock National Park is 30 km north of Tenterfield along an unsealed dirt road.

New England Climate

These figures are for guidance only: