Tocumwal ( ) is a town in the southern

Riverina The Riverina is an agricultural region of south-western New South Wales, Australia. The Riverina is distinguished from other Australian regions by the combination of flat plains, warm to hot climate and an ample supply of water for irrigation ...

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 Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, in the

Berrigan Shire Berrigan Shire is a local government area in the southern Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. The Shire lies on the New South Wales State border with Victoria formed by the Murray River. The Shire is adjacent to the Newell and Riveri ...

local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a State (administrative division), state, province, divi ...

, near the Victorian border. The town is situated on the banks of the

Murray River The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray) (Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta: ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is Australia's longest river at extent. Its tributaries include five of the next six longest r ...

, north of the city of

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

. The

Newell Highway Newell Highway is a national highway in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. It provides the major road link between southeastern Queensland and Victoria via central NSW and as such carries large amounts of freight. At in length, the Newell is th ...

and

Murray Valley Highway Murray Valley Highway is a state highway located in Victoria and New South Wales, Australia. The popular tourist route mostly follows the southern bank of the Murray River and effectively acts as the northernmost highway in Victoria. For all b ...

join at the Murray River, and form part of the main road route

National Highway A39 National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

between

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

and Melbourne. At the , Tocumwal had a population of 2,682. The winner of several 'Tidy Town' awards, Tocumwal is affectionately known as 'The Jewel in the Crown That Is The Riverina District'. The town is said to be named for the local Aboriginal word for "deep hole in the river".

History

Prior to European settlement, the Tocumwal area was inhabited by the

Ulupna Ulupna is a locality in the north of the Australian state of Victoria. The locality is basically Ulupna Island, an inland island bordered by Ulupna Creek and the Murray River The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray) (Ngarrindje ...

and

Bangerang The Pangerang, also spelt Bangerang and Bangarang, are the Indigenous Australians who traditionally occupied much of what is now north-eastern Victoria stretching along the Murray River to Echuca and into the areas of the southern Riverina in Ne ...

Aborigines. The first pastoral runs were established in the 1840s. The town was established in the early 1860s and gazetted in 1862 as "a Village to be called TOCUMWAL ... Situated on the Murray River, on the road from Albury to Deniliquin, about 50 miles west of Corowa, and 40 south-east of Deniliquin." Tocumwal Post Office opened on 1 August 1868. Prior to

Federation A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...

, Tocumwal was an important customs point for goods crossing between the then colonies of Victoria and New South Wales. A

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

branch line from the

New South Wales Government Railways The New South Wales Government Railways (NSWGR) was the agency of the Government of New South Wales that administered rail transport in New South Wales, Australia, between 1855 and 1932. Management The agency was managed by a range of differe ...

Main Southern railway line The Main Southern Railway is a major railway in New South Wales, Australia. It runs from Sydney to Albury, near the Victorian border. The line passes through the Southern Highlands, Southern Tablelands, South West Slopes and Riverina regions. ...

Junee Junee () is a medium-sized town in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. The town's prosperity and mixed services economy is based on a combination of agriculture, rail transport, light industry and government services, and in par ...

reached

Narrandera Narrandera ( ) until around 1949 also spelled "Narandera", is a town located in the Riverina region of southern New South Wales, Australia. The town lies on the junction of the Newell and Sturt highways, adjacent to the Murrumbidgee River, and ...

in 1881 and a branch from Narrandera was completed to Tocumwal in 1898. The

broad gauge A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , commonly known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union (CIS ...

Victorian Railways The Victorian Railways (VR), trading from 1974 as VicRail, was the state-owned operator of most rail transport in the Australian state of Victoria from 1859 to 1983. The first railways in Victoria were private companies, but when these companie ...

Melbourne-Shepparton railway line was extended to Tocumwal in 1908, creating a

break-of-gauge With railways, a break of gauge occurs where a line of one track gauge (the distance between the rails, or between the wheels of trains designed to run on those rails) meets a line of a different gauge. Trains and rolling stock generally cannot ...

at Tocumwal until the New South Wales Government Railways line was closed south of Narrandera (about 1980). During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

the town was the site of

Royal Australian Air Force "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...

Station Tocumwal, which was a major

Royal Australian Air Force "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...

training airfield and aircraft depot. Units included (at various times) the 5 Operational Training Unit, 7 Operational Training Unit, 7 Aircraft Depot and the Paratroop Training Unit. Today, the airfield is a renowned

gliding Gliding is a recreational activity and competitive air sport in which pilots fly unpowered aircraft known as gliders or sailplanes using naturally occurring currents of rising air in the atmosphere to remain airborne. The word ''soaring'' is al ...

site. After the war families were housed at the American Air Force Hospital, the men travelled daily over the river to Yarroweyah to work on farms which they could then apply for under the soldier settlement scheme. The hospital was on or next to Barooga Station. Living quarters were made in long

Nissen huts A Nissen hut is a prefabricated steel structure for military use, especially as barracks, made from a half-cylindrical skin of corrugated iron. Designed during the First World War by the American-born, Canadian-British engineer and inventor Majo ...

, 3–4 in each with a shared bathroom. Single quarters were at the front and a cook was employed for them. After the war ended, around 200 of the Air Force houses in Tocumwal were disassembled and trucked to

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

to be rebuilt and reused in new and inner city suburbs where they provided government housing to workers from

and

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

to construct the new capital city. Called

Tocumwal houses Tocumwal houses refers to a type of house in Canberra, the capital city of Australia. The houses, originally sited in the southern New South Wales town of Tocumwal were relocated to Canberra in the 1940s to address a housing shortage. The vast m ...

, they remain a distinctive architectural form in Canberra's suburbs, such as O'Connor and Ainslie. Because of the break-of-gauge between the railways north and south of Tocumwal, this station was a natural choice for military oriented storage facilities and

munitions Ammunition (informally ammo) is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. Ammunition is both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines) and the component parts of other weap ...

dumps. Also during

, Tocumwal was the location of RAAF No.14 Inland Aircraft Fuel Depot (IAFD), completed in 1942 and closed on 14 June 1944. Usually consisting of 4 tanks, 31 fuel depots were built across Australia for the storage and supply of aircraft fuel for the

RAAF "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...

and the

US Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

at a total cost of £900,000 ($1,800,000).

Heritage listings

Tocumwal has a number of heritage-listed sites, including: * Narrandera-Tocumwal railway:

Tocumwal railway station Tocumwal railway station is a heritage-listed closed railway station in the town of Tocumwal, New South Wales, Australia. It was once the break-of-gauge between the broad gauge Victorian Railways Tocumwal line from the south, and the stand ...

* Narrandera-Tocumwal railway:

Tocumwal Road and Rail Bridge over Murray River The Murray River road and railway bridge is a heritage-listed railway and former road bridge that carries the Tocumwal railway line across the Murray River at Tocumwal in the Berrigan Shire local government area of New South Wales, Australia ...

Climate

Tocumwal has a

semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi-ar ...

(''BSk'').

Facilities

Tocumwal has one state and one Catholic primary school. The nearest high school is in Finley, to the north.

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

and

netball Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifical ...

are all very popular in the town. Notable sporting teams include the

Tocumwal Football Club The Tocumwal Football Netball Club, nicknamed the ''Bloods'', is an Australian rules football and netball club that entered the Picola & District Football League in 2014. The club is based in the town of Tocumwal located in the Riverina district ...

(The Bloods) who compete in the

Picola & District Football League The Picola & District Football Netball League is an Australian rules football and netball league affiliated with the AFL Victoria Country. The league covers a large area of northern Victoria, Australia, Victoria and southern New South Wales f ...

Tocumwal is in the

federal Federal or foederal (archaic) may refer to: Politics General *Federal monarchy, a federation of monarchies *Federation, or ''Federal state'' (federal system), a type of government characterized by both a central (federal) government and states or ...

Division of Farrer The Division of Farrer is an Australian electoral division in the state of New South Wales. Geography Since 1984, federal electoral division boundaries in Australia have been determined at redistributions by a redistribution committee appoint ...

and the state

Electoral district of Murray Murray (The Murray until 1910) is an electoral district in the Australian state of New South Wales. Murray is a regional electorate lying in the southwestern corner of the state. It encompasses several local government areas, namely Wentworth ...

. Tocumwal was also where the largest Murray cod in the world was caught. Tocumwal has a 36-hole championship golf course at the Tocumwal Golf Club,Tocumwal Golf and Bowls Club
/ref> a bowls club and is well known internationally for gliding at SportAviation.Sport Aviation
/ref>

Gallery

File:Tocumwal Big Cod.JPG, The Big Murray Cod on the Tocumwal foreshore File:Tattersalls Hotel Tocumwal.JPG, The Tattersalls Hotel, one of four pubs in Tocumwal File:Tocumwal Terminus Hotel.JPG, The Terminus Hotel, another of the four pubs File:Tocumwal Airport overview Vabre.jpg, Tocumwal Airport

References

External links

* *
Tocumwal : Centre to the Murray Attractions (Official tourism site)

Tocumwal Railway Station
{{authority control Towns in Berrigan Shire Towns in the Riverina Towns in New South Wales Populated places on the Murray River Newell Highway