The
precise route to the border excited considerable debate amongst the New England
citizenry, particularly the rival claims of the highland towns such as Uralla,
Armidale, Glen Innes and their western slopes competitors such as Manilla,
Barraba and Inverell.'12 Although this particular rivalry has been construed as
an economic contest between wool and wheat producing areas, the potential spoils
of rail communication went to the very heart of rural political culture. Quite
simply, the railway was perceived as the greatest single influence upon the
future prosperity of all these communities.In the end, and after intense lobbying, the highland towns associated with the pastoral industry won the battle.13 The line ultimately decided upon in April 1880 would pass through Armidale, Glen Innes and Tenterfield.14 At the border it would connect with the Queensland rail system at Wallangarra, where a small railway service town would develop.
Impact on the Environment
It took almost ten years to build the single line trunk railway between Tamworth and Wallangarra. The cost in human and environmental terms was high. The first construction task undertaken by contractors was the clearing of the surveyed route. Not only was all vegetation cleared from the path of the railway, but hundreds of earth cuttings and embankments were built along the route, forcibly reshaping the...to next page
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