Tallawang is an historical locality north of

Gulgong Gulgong is a 19th-century gold rush town in the Central Tablelands and the wider Central West (New South Wales), Central West regions of the Australian States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales. The town is situated within th ...

in central western

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, Australia. The place name is derived from an Aboriginal word for "apple gum".

History

The area now known as Tallawang (originally often spelled Tallewang) lies on the traditional lands of

Wiradjuri The Wiradjuri people (; ) are a group of Aboriginal Australian people from central New South Wales, united by common descent through kinship and shared traditions. They survived as skilled hunter-fisher-gatherers, in family groups or clans, a ...

people. In the 1830s the area was settled by Europeans, originally raising sheep. The Tallawang area is in the valley of Tallawang Creek, which flows south into

Wyaldra Creek Wyaldra Creek is a creek in the Gulgong district of New South Wales, Australia. Wyaldra Creek is about 20 km long. It rises in the hills near Tallawang, about 15 kilometres north of Gulgong. It flows south and then west and joins the Cud ...

and then subsequently to the

Cudgegong River Cudgegong River, a perennial stream that is part of the Macquarie catchment within the Murray–Darling basin, is located in the central western and Orana districts of New South Wales, Australia. The river rises of the western slopes of the G ...

west of

. There was an inn at Tallawang on the track and stock route which is now the

Castlereagh Highway Castlereagh Highway is a state highway located in New South Wales and Queensland, Australia. From north to south the highway traverses South West Queensland and the North West Slopes, Orana (New South Wales), Orana, and Central West (New South ...

. In the 1860s gold was discovered at Tallawang and it became the site of a minor

gold rush A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, ...

, overshadowed by the much larger discoveries of gold at Gulgong to the south of Tallawang. In the late 19th century, many small farms at Tallawang were owned by retired gold miners, and Tallawang had an inn, school, church and stores. A railway station opened in 1910, after the railway line was built from Gulgong to

Dunedoo Dunedoo ( ) is a village of 1,021 inhabitants situated within the Warrumbungle Shire of central western New South Wales, Australia. Dunedoo is well known to Australian travellers due to its distinctive name (''Dunny'' is a colloquial Australian ...

, and was closed in 1974. In the early 20th century, an iron ore

mine Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging *Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun M ...

operated there, called Tallawang Iron Mines. A government railway line to the quarry was built, and successful ore production commenced in 1911. The ore was railed to Lithgow, where it was smelted in the

Lithgow Blast Furnace The Lithgow Blast Furnace is a heritage-listed former blast furnace and now park and visitor attraction at Inch Street, Lithgow, New South Wales, Lithgow, City of Lithgow, New South Wales, Australia. It was built from 1906 to 1907 by William San ...

. The Tallawang Iron Mines closed in February 1927. The mine was worked again from early 1952, with the

magnetite Magnetite is a mineral and one of the main iron ores, with the chemical formula . It is one of the iron oxide, oxides of iron, and is ferrimagnetism, ferrimagnetic; it is attracted to a magnet and can be magnetization, magnetized to become a ...

ore being crushed and ground and then used in the process of

coal washing 300px, A coal "washer" in Eastern Kentucky A modern coal breaker in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania combines washing, crushing, grading, sorting, stockpiling, and shipping in one facility built into a stockpile of anthracite coal below a mountain top ...

. This continued up to the 1980s. More recently, underground mining of magnetite has commenced in the area. Today nothing remains Tallawang. From 1906, Tallawang was part of the Wyaldra Shire, then the Gulgong Shire, and now is part of the

Mid-Western Regional Council The Mid-Western Regional Council is a Local government in Australia, local government area in the Central West, New South Wales, Central West region of New South Wales, Australia. The area is located adjacent to the Castlereagh Highway that passe ...

area, based at

Mudgee Mudgee () is a town in the Central West (New South Wales), Central West of New South Wales, Australia. It is in the broad fertile Cudgegong River valley north-west of Sydney and is the largest town in the Mid-Western Regional Council Local gov ...

Notes and references

Towns in New South Wales {{NewSouthWales-geo-stub Ghost towns in New South Wales Mining towns in New South Wales