"New England" a New England Range Travel Page by iandsmith

Doesn't matter where you go in the New England area, sooner or later you're going to see granite. It is unquestionably the dominant rock formation in the area. Whether it's a stand-alone monolith or a gorge that's been slowly worn away it's always around you, not always visible.
This is taken on the old Gwydir Highway and was selected once as a magazine cover.
The New England has a wide variety of scenery, from rain forest to high plains. It has some of Australia's busiest inland communiites, like Tamworth, Armidale and Inverell.
It has some of Australia's most spectacular gorges, though ask anyone from outside the area and it's a fair assumption that they aren't aware they exist.
I have spent years travelling in the area and never tire of driving through the countryside. Autumn is my favourite time followed by winter and spring. Frankly, mid summer can be a bit too hot for my liking but, some people like the heat.

There was a popular saying years ago that "Australia rides on the sheep's back". Though that no longer literally applies, you wouldn't want to shout that too loudly in the New England area.
One of Australia's prime woolly strongholds there is a proud tradition here of things fleecy.
If you want to buy woollen clothing or get something made up there is a wool shop in Armidale I can recommend where I bought a jumper. Oddly enough, it's called the wool shop.

This shot shows two features of the New England area: sunsets and dieback.
Whilst the former can be spectacularly pretty, the latter can be downright sad. Due to the way the clouds form on the edge of the plateau, it's not uncommon for a good sunset to form on the ranges. Once you're a dedicated sunset watcher you'll start to see the signs a couple of hours before which is why I kept an eye on this particular one just east of Glen Innes.
To get some sort of foreground is often the tricky bit so it's ideal if you get in position early so you can line something up. I just happened to spot some dead trees, which is where the dieback comes in. Though the jury is still out on what caused this phenomena, during the late 80s and early 90s the New England area was devastated in places with hundreds of trees dying for no apparent reason.
Many theories have been advanced but what one can say for certain is that there was an ecological imbalance somewhere.
A couple of the more prominent theories are that bird numbers were down due to the drought and the small Christmas Beetles had a picnic in their absence and another is that the sugar gliders were suffering during the drought and weren't making the trip from the coastal side as much and so the insects had a feast. Another theory was some sort of fungus called phytophthera that happens to be related to the one that caused the Irish potato famine - current thinking is that this is the most likely culprit.
These days they make for a wonderful foreground for sunsets I think you'd agree.