Tallong is in the traditional lands of the

Gundungurra The Gundungurra people, also spelt Gundungara, Gandangarra, Gandangara and other variations, are an Aboriginal Australian people in south-eastern New South Wales, Australia. Their traditional lands include present day Goulburn, Wollondilly Shire ...

people. It is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...

within the

Southern Tablelands The Southern Tablelands is a geographic area of New South Wales, Australia, located south-west of Sydney and west of the Great Dividing Range. The area is characterised by high, flat country which has generally been extensively cleared and ...

region of

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, Australia, in Goulburn-Mulwaree Council. The village is located just outside the southern extremity of the Southern Highlands region and has some cultural and historic connections with this region also. In the , the village had a population of 813. The town is 8.5 km from the town of

Marulan Marulan is the traditional lands of the Gundungurra people. It is a small town in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia in the Goulburn Mulwaree Council local government area. It is located south-west of Sydney on the Hume Highw ...

and 25 km from the town of

Bundanoon Bundanoon is a town in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia, in Wingecarribee Shire, on Gandangarra and Dharawal Country (where these two countries meet). It is an Aboriginal name meaning "place of deep gullies" and was forme ...

. The principal industries of the village include

stud farm A stud farm or stud in animal husbandry is an establishment for selective breeding of livestock. The word " stud" comes from the Old English ''stod'' meaning "herd of horses, place where horses are kept for breeding". Historically, documentation ...

s, arts and crafts and services for surrounding farms. Tallong is home to the Tallong Midge Orchid (''Genoplesium plumosum''), a tiny

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...

found only in the area surrounding the town. This

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowerin ...

is now a protected

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

. It was discovered in 1997.

Etymology

The original settlement was named Barber's Creek after the watercourse that runs through the town. In the early twentieth century the town was renamed "Tallong" after an Aboriginal word meaning either "tongue" or "spring of water".

History

Colonial era

The first European settler in the area was George Barber, a cattle farmer. In 1814 Barber established a cattle station along what became known as Barber's Creek. In 1821 he received a grant of covering the general Tallong-Marulan district, to be converted from cedar brush to farmland. Before his death in a riding accident in 1844, Barber had extended his local landholdings to , which he named "Glenrock". He is buried in the Old Marulan Cemetery in

. In the late 1820s, that portion of Barber's land that would eventually become the township was sold or reallocated to Sydney entrepreneur and mariner

Billy Blue William Blue (c. 1767 – 7 May 1834) was an Australian convict who, after completing his sentence, became a boatman providing one of the first services to take people across Sydney Harbour. He was also made a water bailiff and watched boat t ...

. Convict labour was used to clear the grazing land and prepare a route for the Main South railway line to

Goulburn Goulburn ( ) is a regional city in the Southern Tablelands of the Australian state of New South Wales, approximately south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Canberra. It was proclaimed as Australia's first inland city through letters pate ...

. Tallong was selected as the location for a railway refuelling point, and the town's initial population consisted of convicts, woodcutters, railway workers and their families. The opening of the railway in 1869 brought shops, a school,

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

s and a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional ser ...

to the town.

Post-Federation

By 1900, cattle grazing was slowly giving way to a thriving fruit industry, known particularly for apples and pears. The village sent an annual exhibit of a tall pyramid of fruit to the Sydney Royal Easter Show; Tallong's apples and pears took top honours several times throughout the early part of the twentieth century. The population reached 200 in 1920, and a Memorial Hall was constructed to mark the town's growth and record the service of local residents in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. The Hall and war memorial are still standing today. In 1955 the Australian poet and novelist Seaforth Mackenzie drowned while attempting to swim across Tallong (formerly Barber's) Creek near the town. Tallong was destroyed in the Chatsbury bushfire of 1965. It's economy did not fully recover and the award-winning fruit industry folded. Many residents moved and the post office and a number of small businesses closed.

Heritage listings

Tallong has a number of heritage-listed sites, including: * Main Southern railway: Tallong railway station

Attractions

The village is also home to one of the oldest surviving single-teacher

school A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes comp ...

houses in Australia at Tallong Public School. Moreover, it is home to the country campus of

Santa Sabina College , motto_translation = Truth , established = , slogan = Shake the world , principal = Paulina Skerman , chairperson = Tony Woods , location = Strathfield, In ...

. Furthermore, the village is home to two lookouts on the plateau that makes up the Shoalhaven Gorge (a which looks over the drop to the Shoalhaven River) and

Morton National Park The Morton National Park is a national park located in the Southern Highlands, South Coast and Illawarra regions of New South Wales, Australia, situated approximately south southwest of Sydney. Location and features The most notable attractio ...

. The lookouts are known as'' Badgerys Lookout'' and ''Longpoint Lookout''. Tallong is home to the big apple and host to the award-winning annual "Apple Day" festival. There is also an annual Tallong Trail Ride in support of the Rural Fire Service.

References

External links

An article on the history and description of Tallong
{{authority control Towns of the Southern Highlands (New South Wales) Southern Tablelands Goulburn Mulwaree Council