New England

In 1972 the northern NSW town of Inverell, the centre of a prosperous wheat-growing area, celebrated the centenary of its proclamation as a municipality. The Inverell Times produced a supplement to commemorate the event. D.J.R. Sommerlad, suggested that Inverell could look to the future with "cautious optimism". "Because of its size and location, retrogression is not a prospect, but it has no inherent quality or resource that is likely to attract outside industry or cause anything but gradual growth". The town's "growth" - at least as measured in terms of population - has been very gradual indeed, if it has not in fact declined.It is true that Inverell's experience was not reflected in all other New England towns. Tamworth has consolidated its regional pre-eminence since the 1950s. Its only serious rival, Armidale, grew in the same period from approximately 8700 (1954) to just over 18,000 (1971), and then expanded more slowly to 22,000 in more recent times.Nevertheless, as a consequence of the drop in New England's share of the NSW population, the absolute number of State seats in the Region has decreased from five in 1947 to only three today - Tamworth, Northern Tablelands and Barwon - and the last now occupies a drastically larger chunk of the Northern Region than did the 1950 Barwon electorate, further emphasising regional population decline.