The highest town in northern NSW, Ben Lomond is home to the longest hand cut railway cutting in Australia, the highest passenger railway station in the southern hemisphere (at the time of the construction of the railway), and a scattering of old and historical relics of times past.

Location: Ben Lomond is 571 km north of Sydney, 402 km south of Brisbane, 62 km north of Armidale and 37 km south of Glen Innes

Travellers on the New England Highway in northern NSW between Guyra and Glen Innes have a treat in store when they take a short detour at Llangothlin and visit the historic village of Ben Lomond.

The road winds alongside an abandoned railway line through some extremely picturesque farming country on its way up the hillside to the sleepy village of Ben Lomond.


During the construction of the railway line (opened in 1888), Ben Lomond was a vibrant community boasting modest local industry, several schools (although only one was a state school), and several sporting teams. Following the closure of the railway line in December 1985 and the bypassing of the town by the New England Highway soon after, the population has dwindled to around 30 persons in the village, and a further 70 or so in the surrounding district.

In recent years the village has formed something of a local rivalry with neighbouring Glen Innes in the form of an annual inter-town friendly cricket match. Whilst at a substantial size disadvantage, Ben Lomond have won four of the games so far, and drawn the other. Games are played on the Ben Lomond Recreational Ground, which once played host to regular games but is seldom used outside of the fixture.

Brief History

In 1848, the Manooan run of 17,000 acres (69 km2) had the Ben Lomond Range as its southern boundary. In the 1860s there was a station named Ben Lomond which had been robbed by the notorious bushrabger, Captain Thunderbolt, who frequented the region. The slow climb and timber on the Ben Lomond Range proved an ideal place for the robbery of coaches and travellers.