City and University

Abstract

As a regional city - one of the locations that might well have been preferred to Canberra as the Federal Capital for the nation - and with, first, a Teachers' College, and then a University College (each to be decentralised national prototypes), Armidale, from 1928, has been a notable seat of learning and innovation for tertiary and further studies. All of this has been provided in a magnificent rural setting, without the stressful travelling and other disadvantages of like capital city institutions. The then unique regional Teachers' College - and soon the first non-metropolitan and largely residential University College - would create a flow of students from the north and from the nearer coast to the New England. The relative isolation of both institutions led to an early and willing co-operation between students, academic staff and the very modestly-sized cathedral city community.