Today, what does 'New England' mean? The 2005 telephone directory lists nearly a hundred enterprises using the name, from 'New England Embroidery' to 'New England Tractors'. Half of them are in or around Armidale, but others are scattered through Uralla, Glen Innes, Tenterfield, Inverell and Moree, and as far south as Tamworth, Quirindi and Gunnedah. Obviously, the name has a living significance. It offers a sense of place reaching beyond any one town or district, which to the enterprising mind also means reaching an extended market. On the other hand, it has geographical limits. In the north, there is the Queensland border. On the western slopes the pleasant reaches of the Gwydir River throw up some feeble terminological competition. So we find 'Gwydir Glass', 'Gwydir Olives' and 'Gwydir Air'. There is no 'New England' beyond Moree. To the east, across the escarpment, the name is no use at all. There, the coastal rivers, the beaches and the ocean provide a sens of place for which the name is totally irrelevant. But within certain boundaries, 'New England' reigns supreme. It has a real existence in local imagination.

As early as the 1870s and 80s it was common throughout parts of Australia for settlers to collect Aboriginal artefacts and curiosities of natural history -- stone axes, snake-skins, unusual feathers, egg-shells and so on -- bringing them home and putting them away in cabinets or drawers. Some collectors were highly discriminating and even created small private museums. Teachers also encouraged children to help in building up museums for their schools, hoping thereby to give them an intelligent grasp of their environment. This was an effort in keeping up with contemporary educational theory. Many colonists of that generation showed a newfound interest in knowing more about the Australian countryside and especially their own corner of it.