The following links give some background on Tom Roberts' life and his association with the Inverell area.

• Tom Roberts and his links to Inverell

• "Newstead North" Shearing Shed

• "Bailed Up"

• Cobb & Co

• Oxford Hall

• "In a Corner on the Macintyre"

• Thunderbolt - Fredrick Ward

When the Australian Parliament sat for the very first time on May 9 of 1901, hundreds of people packed into the Melbourne Exhibition Building to witness the historic occasion. Seated in the crowd was artist, Tom Roberts. Already renowned as one of the pre-eminent portraitists of his day, it was no surprise that, two weeks later, Roberts was commissioned to paint the official record of parliament's first sitting. The finished canvas involved some 250 miniature likenesses of the various VIPs in attendance and took more than two-and-a-half years to complete.

For Roberts, it was his 'Big Picture' - the very pinnacle of his career - and he would no doubt be smiling down from that great studio in the sky to see his Opening of Parliament being used so widely in this centenary year to symbolise the birth of Australia's nationhood.

But the Federation of Britain's separate state colonies into the Commonwealth of Australia was much more than a political manoeuvre. In many ways, it was the birth of a national identity; the recognition of the colonists and squatters and ex-convicts as not just British settlers, but 'Australians' in their own right. And whilst he hailed from the Mother Country originally, Roberts had as much to do with forging that image of Australia and Australians as any other pre-Federation artist.

Born in Dorset, England, in 1856, Roberts emigrated to Melbourne with his family at the age of 13. After completing his schooling, he studied at the Collingwood and Carlton Artisans' School of Design before joining the National Gallery School. In 1881, he became the first major Australian painter selected to study at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, helped along by a Victorian Academy of Arts bursary. During the next four years in England, Roberts was particularly influenced by the popular plein-air painters who focussed on capturing the effects of outdoor light and atmosphere on their canvases. And where better to experiment with this emerging new style than in his adopted country of Australia, where the harsh light and wide open spaces were inherent to the beauty of the land?

Roberts returned to Melbourne in 1885 at just the right time to instigate a new school of painting based on plein-air practices. He rallied his artist friends - Arthur Streeton, Fred McCubbin, Charles Condor and others - encouraging them to abandon the soft-focussed English style for a closely observed, hard-edged realism. He took them out to paint and camp in the bush; to places like Box Hill, Beaumaris, Mentone and Eaglemont. Despite the fact that the results of the Heidelberg School artists (as they came to be known) are now regarded as priceless treasures and among the finest artworks ever produced in Australia, they received little reward for their efforts.

An exhibition of their works painted on 9" × 5" cigar box lids and framed in flat lengths of kauri wood was condemned by one critic as "a pain to the eye". Notably, that same critic described Roberts' Shearing the Rams - one of his finest works - as too naturalistic: "Art should be of all times, not of one time", said the critic, "of all places, not of one place". Roberts responded: "By making art the perfect expression of one time and one place, it becomes for all times and of all places". The artist capped off his Churchill-esque retort by promptly moving to Sydney, where he established an artists' camp at Sirius Cove. Fellow Melbourne artists, Streeton and A.H. Fullwood were quick to join him.

In addition to the city and harbour scenes that depicted pre-Federation Sydney in all its wild colonial glory, Roberts was equally driven by a personal goal to record the pastoral and rural methods that were fast disappearing and to describe with his brush the experience of 'strong masculine labour' on which the colony was being built.

He travelled to Brocklesby Station in the Riverina to paint Shearing the Rams which came to be regarded as the definitive image of the emerging national identity, and he roamed widely from Sydney - riding long distances and living hard - to find fresh subject matter.

This is how Roberts came to Inverell and the property of his friend, Duncan Anderson. From Christmas 1893 to May 1894, the artist was a permanent guest at 'Newstead'. He became immersed in the lifestyle of the northern NSW sheep property and of the Inverell township. And it was here in the gently rolling foothills of the Great Divide that Roberts forged his own identity as an artist. The Golden Fleece: Shearing at Newstead, Bailed Up, In a Corner on the Macintyre, Newstead Shearing Shed, Summer Landscape and Landscape - Newstead were all painted here, as were the playful portraits of Anderson's children and of Anderson himself.

Roberts' final visit to Inverell was in 1900. Three years later, he left for England where he spent the next sixteen years, predominantly painting portraits but barely making ends meet.

He returned to Australia in 1919, holding exhibitions in Melbourne and Sydney. The success of these showings prompted him to return to his adopted country for good in 1923. He and his wife and son settled in a small cottage in the Dandenong's where he died in 1931.

The impressive body of work Roberts painted in and around Inverell, plus his close association with the families of the district, has earned this northern NSW town the reputation as 'Tom Roberts Country'.

The inaugural Tom Roberts Festival was held in 1996, celebrating the centenary of the last major work Roberts painted in the district - a portrait of Sergeant Robert Fraser. It evolved from the idea of organising a day trip to the Roberts' art sites around Inverell, but resulted in a ten-day festival that attracted thousands of art lovers from all over Queensland and NSW. The second Tom Roberts Festival in Inverell was scheduled to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Opening of Parliament in Australia's Centenary of Federation year in 2001.

Built in 1857, the shearing shed measured 62 feet by 18 feet with skillions on both sides, large enough to hold from seven to eight hundred sheep.

The yards were more than likely constructed along with the first stage of the shed. They have predominantly picket and post type fences. The rails have since been replaced with wire in places. A sheep dip is located on the eastern side of the shed and counting yards but may date from the 1880s.

It is clear that major additions to the shed took place before Roberts' 1894 painting of The Golden Fleece: Shearing at Newstead. From early descriptions of the working of the shed, it also appears that shearing was meant to take place in the central part of the shed.

However, in 1894 when Roberts painted Shearing at Newstead, he portrayed the shearing being conducted in one of the skillions. The central area may also have had men shearing in it at this time, but it appears from the painting that the central area was used for classing and sorting of wool. The painting also shows blade shearing still in operation in the shed. Mechanical shearing was not introduced onto "Newstead" until 1900. Only three arms remain of the original twelve that were initially installed. The shed ceased to operate in the early 1980s.

The companion painting to The Golden Fleece was Shearing Shed, Newstead, a view of the outside of the shed painted from the north. It clearly shows counting yards and that the iron roof had replaced the shingles by 1894. Also clearly visible is the skylight. The small companion painting was an oil on wood panel.

The incident depicted in this painting dates back to the 1860s. The site of the painting is on the old Armidale to Inverell Road, three kilometres from Paradise and five kilometres from "Newstead" at a place known as Wall's Hill described as 'a rough and lonely bit of road well suited for the setting of the picture'.

Bailed Up Courtesy Art Gallery NSW

Line Drawing for "Bailed Up" c.1893 Courtesy Mitchell Library

According to Alick Anderson, the painting of the landscape section was done on a perch in some trees at the site. When this was finished, the picture was brought to Inverell to the Oxford Hall behind the hotel where one of the coaches running from Inverell to Glen Innes was painted in. The well-known driver Bob Bates was on the box, in charge of a fine team of four. The picture then came out to "Newstead" and was finished there. Some horses added at this stage belonged to Anderson and some of the bushrangers were his men. In later interviews, Jack Bates (Bob's son) stated that the lady passenger was Mrs Caldow, wife of the then proprietor of the Swan Vale Hotel while Fred (Russell Hughes' younger son) tells us that Duncan Anderson is the man with one foot on the step of the coach.

It is likely Roberts worked on the picture over a two year period, firstly making a small oil sketch on a wood panel painted at 'Newstead" in December 1893. This sketch measuring 16.5mm x 26.5mm was inscribed 'To Mrs Anderson, Tom Roberts December 1893'. It was passed down through the Anderson family and is now in a private collection.

It is interesting to note that the present road is higher up the hill than the one depicted in Bailed Up. It runs approximately where the top of the stage coach is in the picture. The line of the 1890s road is still visible today as is the bridge spanning a small gully at the bottom of the painting.

Roberts' major bushranging work 'Bailed Up' was based on an incident in the 1860s involving the hold up by "Captain Thunderbolt" of a Cobb & Co coach and its driver, Bob Bates, on the main northern road through New England.

The Cobb & Co. coach line began in Victoria in 1854. With its lighter American coaches more well suited to Australian conditions, skilled drivers and good quality horses, it soon became a common mode of travel throughout eastern Australia.

Along each coach line was a series of changing stations where a fresh team of horses was harnessed by the groom and passengers could have meals, often provided by the groom's wife. Some of these stations were also overnight stops such as the Half-Way Hotel at Wandsworth and the Half-Way House at Swan Vale.

On the Armidale to Inverell run in 1882, the horses were changed at inns at Booroolong, Wandsworth (overnight), Kangaroo Camp (an outstation of Paradise Creek) and Tingha.

From 1843 to 1855 the Armidale, the Inverell route was quite different, joining the head stations through "Booroolong", "Ollera", "Moredun", "Paradise Creek", "Newstead", "Elsmore" and "Inverell". The road which we now travel on to Paradise Creek is little changed from the winding gravel roads of the 1850s.

A hazard of travel was always the possibility of being held up and robbed by a bushranger. In the North, until 1870, this was most often "Thunderbolt" (Frederick Ward).

One of the best known and most skillful drivers in this district was "Silent Bob" Bates, taciturn but well-liked. The hero status of so many drivers, the pioneering sprit of them and their passengers and the legends which have grown up around the bushrangers have no doubt all played their part in the romance associated with coach travel in the early days.

The Oxford Hotel was constructed in 1886 for William Onus. The original two storeyed brick hotel had a passage-way from Otho Street under the balcony so vehicles could go through to the yard at the rear where a twenty-stalled stable had been provided. On some nights, when the passageway was free, Wally Leverge conducted a shooting gallery there. Onus ran a line of mail coaches from Inverell to Glen Innes; one trip every night and three each way every day, ensuring a constant supply of guests for the hotel.

Behind the Oxford Hotel, Onus built Inverell's second public hall in 1888, the 24m x 9m Oxford Music Hall. It is in this building that Tom Roberts painted the coach additions to his bushranging painting "Bailed Up". Made of corrugated iron, with a large stage, the Oxford Hall seated 400 to 500 and was used extensively for meetings, lectures and travelling entertainments until its demolition in 1911.

In March 1901, "Banjo" Paterson conducted lectures there over two nights on his experiences as a war correspondent during the Boer War in South Africa. He also presented an impressive slide show of 50 biographic views. While on this tour of country New South Wales, he wrote a poem of his impressions and experiences in these provincial centres. The poem was titled "It's Grand". Like Tom Roberts before him, his memories of Inverell are less than flattering.

Thunderbolt's frequent escapes from pursuing police were often due to the superior quality of his horses. He had a reputation for stealing only the best mounts. Sometimes these horses were only borrowed from the properties of sympathetic squatters, used for a specific ride and then promptly returned.

Although "Thunderbolt" often operated alone, there were occasions when he had an accomplice. One such lad was thirteen year old, Will Monkton.

Although robbing coaches was not a highly profitable occupation, it was for "Thunderbolt" a fairly safe one, since he chose his spot with care. It was usually an isolated stretch of the road (such as that chosen by Tom Roberts for his Bailed Up painting) and some hours away from police contact.

After innumerable robberies, many of which went unreported, "Thunderbolt's" six and a half year career came to an end at Kentucky Creek, Uralla when he was shot by Constable Walker in May, 1870.

• Humphrey McQueen: 'Tom Roberts', Pan Macmillan, Sydney, 1996

• Helen Topliss: 'Tom Roberts: a collection raisonnee', OUP, Melbourne, 1985

• Virginia Spate: 'Tom Roberts', Landsdowne, Melbourne, 1972

• Guy McKenna: 'Newstead Heritage Study', Commercial Heritage Management Service, Mona Vale, 1985

• Elizabeth Wiedemann: 'A World of its Own', Devill, Inverell, 1981

While acknowledging the above texts as major sources for the overview, the Editorial Committee accepts the responsibility for any errors which may have arisen in the interpretation of these works.