Tarago is a town in the

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

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 Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

Goulburn Mulwaree Council Goulburn Mulwaree Council is a Local government in Australia, local government area located in the Southern Tablelands region of New South Wales, Australia. The area is located adjacent to the Hume Highway and the Southern Highlands railway line ...

. Part of the defined locality, which includes a large area of grazing country, is on the eastern shore of Lake George in the area of the

Queanbeyan–Palerang Regional Council Queanbeyan–Palerang Regional Council is a Local government areas of New South Wales, local government area (LGA) located in the Southern Tablelands region of New South Wales, Australia. The council was formed on 12 May 2016 through a merger of t ...

. The town is situated south of the city of

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

and northeast of

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

, the capital city of

. It is located on the Goulburn- Braidwood road. The town is notable for recent renewable energy projects in the surrounding districts.

History

The area is the traditional land of the

Ngunnawal The Ngunnawal people, also spelt Ngunawal, are an Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal people of southern New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory in Australia. Language Ngunnawal–Gundungurra language, Ngunnawal and Gundungurr ...

people The term "the people" refers to the public or Common people, common mass of people of a polity. As such it is a concept of human rights law, international law as well as constitutional law, particularly used for claims of popular sovereignty. I ...

, but was also traversed by other tribes going to the coast or the Monaro during the

Bogong moth The bogong moth (''Agrotis infusa'') is a temperate species of Nocturnal, night-flying moth, notable for its biannual long-distance seasonal Lepidoptera migration, migrations towards and from the Australian Alps, similar to the diurnal monarch ...

season. Stone artefacts dating back 20,000 years have been found at nearby Lake George. Lake Bathurst was discovered in April 1818 by chance on a journey of exploration commissioned by

Governor Macquarie Major General Lachlan Macquarie, CB (; ; 31 January 1762 – 1 July 1824) was a British Army officer and colonial administrator from Scotland. Macquarie served as the fifth Governor of New South Wales from 1810 to 1821, and had a leading role ...

to find a route from the inland to the settlement on the south coast at

Jervis Bay Jervis Bay () is a oceanic bay and village in the Jervis Bay Territory and on the South Coast (New South Wales), South Coast of New South Wales, Australia. A area of land around the southern headland of the bay, known as the Jervis Bay Terri ...

headed by Surveyor General James Meehan. The town of Tarago was originally known as ''Sherwin's Flats'', the town took the name "Tarago", possibly an Aboriginal word meaning "country","SMH Travel: Lake Bathurst"
''

Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper in ...

'', 8 February 2004. Retrieved 12 October 2007. from the town presently known as Lake Bathurst, which is located 7 km north of Tarago. The name change coincided with the railway line's arrival and the opening of the station on 3 January 1884.Bozier, Rolfe,
"NSWRail.Net: Tarago Railway Station"
'. Retrieved 12 October 2007. Within the town a number of historic buildings remain in use, including the original 1884 railway station, the St Josephs Catholic Church, and the Loaded Dog Hotel, which dates from 1848.

Heritage listings

Tarago has a number of heritage-listed sites, including the

Tarago railway station Tarago railway station is a heritage-listed railway station located on the Bombala railway line, Bombala line in New South Wales, Australia. It serves the town of Tarago, New South Wales, Tarago. It was built in 1884 by G. & C. Horn. It was add ...

Mining and energy

Woodlawn Mine

The town of Tarago serves the adjoining large ''Woodlawn Mine'' site. The mine, which operated from 1978 to 1998 extracted

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

lead Lead () is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a Heavy metal (elements), heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale, soft and Ductility, malleabl ...

and

zinc Zinc is a chemical element; it has symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodic tabl ...

from deposits formed within the

Lachlan Fold Belt The Lachlan Fold Belt (LFB) or Lachlan Orogen is a geological subdivision of the east part of Australia. It is a zone of folded and faulted rocks of similar age. It dominates New South Wales and Victoria, also extending into Tasmania, the Austr ...

. During the period of mining operations, goods sidings were added at the town's railway station to facilitate the transfer of minerals to and from the site. The closure of the mine came about when the operator, Denehurst Limited was placed in

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal: the process of dealing with or controlling things or people. ** Administrative assistant, traditionally known as a se ...

due to financial difficulties and subsequently sparked controversy when the pay entitlements of the 160 former miners, totalling $6.5 million, were not paid.Lewis, Daniel
"A complete space of waste"
''

'', 2 August 2004. Retrieved 12 October 2007. CSIRO ScienceImage 2825 Tailings Outflow for the Woodlawn Mine

In 2012, Canadian-Australian mining company TriAusMin proposed reactivating the mine to potentially extract minerals at the site from both the three

tailings In mining, tailings or tails are the materials left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction (gangue) of an ore. Tailings are different from overburden, which is the waste rock or other material ...

dams and underground mine. The

New South Wales Government The Government of New South Wales, also known as the NSW Government, is the executive state government of New South Wales, Australia. The government comprises 11 portfolios, led by a ministerial department and supported by several agencies. Th ...

announced on 8 July 2013 that the project had received final approval, with the $126 million investment creating up to 140 ongoing jobs.

Woodlawn Bioreactor

Waste company Collex (now

Veolia Veolia Environnement S.A., branded as Veolia, is a French transnational company with activities in three main service and utility areas traditionally managed by public authorities – water management, waste management and energy services. In ...

) had examined both the Woodlawn site and others during the 1990s as a new site to house

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

's waste, and eventually were given approval to use the site in 2002. As part of their agreement, Collex promised to pay out the workers' entitlements. They planned to run six 55-car trains a week between a waste transfer station in the Sydney suburb of Clyde and sidings off the

Bombala railway line The Bombala railway line is a branch railway line in the south of New South Wales, Australia. The northern part of it forms part of the main line from Sydney to Canberra, but the southern part is closed. It branches off the Main South line at J ...

near the mine. These would take, at full capacity, 400,000 tonnes of putrescible waste a year, up to 20% of Sydney's waste. The project was highly controversial, especially in regard to the shipping of waste by train. Residents of Clyde and neighbouring Auburn in Sydney opposed the mine's approval on environmental grounds and took the company to court to try to stop the project. The

New South Wales Land and Environment Court The Land and Environment Court of New South Wales is a court within the Australian court hierarchy established pursuant to the to hear environmental, development, building and planning disputes. The Court's jurisdiction, confined to the state o ...

ruled in their favour, finding that the transfer station would cause significant air pollution problems. However, the court's decision was overturned by the

, led by

Bob Carr Robert John Carr (born 28 September 1947) is an Australian retired politician and journalist who served as the 39th Premier of New South Wales from 1995 to 2005, as the leader of the New South Wales Labor Party, New South Wales branch of the A ...

, with bipartisan agreement by special legislation. The Government, in doing this, stressed the need for a new waste site for Sydney and the need to pay the mine workers' entitlements. The mine finally reopened on 7 September 2004, with mine workers receiving their entitlements shortly afterwards. An intermodal transfer station was built just outside the township of Tarago, at ''Crisps Creek''. Today, the mine site is being used for developments in green energy while still providing for Sydney's waste disposal. The owners of the mine, Veolia, plan to begin using the mine in late 2007 to harvest

methane Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The abundance of methane on Earth makes ...

gas and use it for electricity to cut down the

greenhouse gas emissions Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from human activities intensify the greenhouse effect. This contributes to climate change. Carbon dioxide (), from burning fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum, oil, and natural gas, is the main cause of climate chan ...

from the mine. The company also plans to use the organic waste in the site, once broken down, for fertiliser. In 2005, the Government also gave approval to Veolia to build a $96 million, 25-tower

wind farm A wind farm, also called a wind park or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turbines covering an exten ...

at the site, which would generate enough electricity to power 22,000 homes. However, as existing quotas on greenhouse gases at State and Commonwealth levels were being fulfilled at that time, the project was postponed in July 2006 until renewable energy targets were raised.

Woodlawn Wind Farm

The

Woodlawn Wind Farm The Woodlawn Wind Farm is a wind farm located near Bungendore, New South Wales. It is part of the Capital Renewable Energy Precinct, along with nearby Capital Wind Farm and the Woodlawn Bioreactor landfill, Bioreactor. Woodlawn Wind Farm was ...

is located approximately southwest of the town. The facility, constructed and operated by

Infigen Energy Iberdrola Australia (former Infigen Energy) is a developer, owner and operator of renewable energy generation assets in Australia. The head office is located in Sydney, NSW, with other offices also located in Melbourne, VIC, and Brisbane, QLD. Ib ...

consists of 23 wind turbines and was commissioned in November 2011.

Transport

is served by six daily

NSW TrainLink NSW TrainLink is a regional train and coach operator in Australia, providing services throughout New South Wales and into Australian Capital Territory, the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria (state), Victoria, Queensland and South Australia ...

Xplorer services, three in each direction operating between

and

Situated east of Lake George and north of Bungendore, Tarago is some distance from both the Federal and

Kings Kings or King's may refer to: *Kings: The sovereign heads of states and/or nations. *One of several works known as the "Book of Kings": **The Books of Kings part of the Bible, divided into two parts **The ''Shahnameh'', an 11th-century epic Persia ...

Highways, the major road transportation routes in the region. Historically, rail transport has provided an important link for the town. In October 2012, the New South Wales Government committed funding to a study into the potential extension of Main Road 92 - significantly upgraded between

Nowra Nowra () is a city in the South Coast, New South Wales, South Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. It is located south-southwest of the state capital of Sydney (about as the crow flies). As of the 2021 census, Nowra has an estimated po ...

and Nerriga in 2010. One option considered in this study was to upgrade rural roads from Nerriga westwards across the

Shoalhaven River The Shoalhaven River is a perennial stream, perennial river that rises from the Southern Tablelands and flows into an open mature wind wave, wave dominated estuary#Lagoon-type or bar-built, barrier estuary near Nowra on the South Coast, New Sou ...

to Tarago, then south to the Kings Highway at Bungendore. Despite no firm commitments to further construction, the reactivation of the Woodlawn mine has led to increased interest in the study, with the mine operator indicating road transport as the preferred option to move its product to ports on the coast, significantly increasing the number of heavy vehicles using local roads File:Field in Winter, Tarago, New South Wales, Australia.jpg, Agriculture in Tarago. File:Tarago AU war memorial.jpg, Tarago,

war memorial A war memorial is a building, monument, statue, or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or (predominating in modern times) to commemorate those who died or were injured in a war. Symbolism Historical usage It has ...

References

External links

Veolia: Woodlawn Bioreactor
- official site about Woodlawn bioreactor site.
Woodlawn Wind Farm
- proposed wind farm. {{authority control Towns in New South Wales Southern Tablelands Goulburn Mulwaree Council Mining towns in New South Wales