Tarcutta is a town in south-western New South Wales,

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 ...

. The town is south-west of

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 ...

, east of the

Hume Highway Hume Highway, inclusive of the sections now known as Hume Freeway and Hume Motorway, is one of Australia's major inter-city national highways, running for between Melbourne in the southwest and Sydney in the northeast. Upgrading of the route ...

, It was proclaimed as a village on 28 October 1890. As of 2016, the town had a population of 446. It serves a local farming community relying for its prosperity mainly on sheep and cattle, and the interstate truckies who use the town as a halfway change-over point in the trade between the state capital cities of

and Melbourne.

History

The Tarcutta area was first visited by the European explorers Hume and Hovell as they passed through on their way from Sydney to Port Phillip in the Colony of Victoria. On 7 January 1825, near the present site of Tarcutta, they met a group of Wiradjuri aborigines. A decade after this first European contact around 1835–37, "Hambledon", a U-shaped slab house was built at Tarcutta. It was the first inn and post office to be built between Gundagai and Albury. Tarcutta Post Office opened on 1 January 1849. Among the earliest settlers was Thomas Hodges Mate. Mate was Tarcutta's earliest innkeeper, as well as its first post-master. Mate's daughter Annie claimed that 'tarcutta' was a Wiradjuri word meaning 'a food prepared by grinding grass seed'. Gold was mined in the area round Tarcutta, with limited success. By the 1880s Tarcutta locals were actively lobbying for a rail branch line from Wagga Wagga to Tumbarumba via Tarcutta, and in 1917 the Tumbarumba branch line became a reality. A section of the line sustained major flood damage in 1974, and the remainder of the line was closed in 1987. The Tarcutta bypass is west of the village, linking-up to the freeway to the north of the village and south of the village. It was opened to traffic on 15 November 2011.

Trucking industry

Tarcutta is situated halfway between Sydney and Melbourne on the

, and has long been popular in the

trucking industry Road transport or road transportation is a type of transport using roads. Transport on roads can be roughly grouped into the transportation of goods and transportation of people. In many countries licensing requirements and safety regulations e ...

as a stopping and changeover point for drivers. The local park houses the National Truck Drivers' Memorial to the truck drivers who have died on the infamous local stretch of the Hume Highway, as well as around the country. The country singer, Slim Dusty, endorsed the memorial with a plaque. A commemorative event is held annually in October. The local café, which has sustained generations of truckies, has also been the source of inspiration for some of Australia's recent modern poets, Les Murray and Bruce Dawe. Murray wrote "The Burning Truck" while visiting the café in 1961 and Dawe immortalised the eatery in a couple of lines in his poem "Under Way". The poem reads in part: 'there would be days / banging open and shut like the wire door of the cafe in Tarcutta / where the flies sang at the windows'. There had been extensive political arguing since 1999 between Federal and State Governments over funding and where to site a proposed Tarcutta truck changeover facility. It was finally decided to place it off the main street and the project which was completed early 2007 was jointly funded at a cost of $6.5m. Truck drivers are required to stop for 30 minutes every five hours.

Heritage listings

Tarcutta has a number of heritage-listed sites, including: * Tarcutta Street:

Hambledon Homestead The Hambledon Homestead is a heritage-listed residence and former inn and store at Tarcutta Street, Tarcutta, in the City of Wagga Wagga local government area of New South Wales, Australia. It is also known as Tarcutta Station. It was added to ...

Other features

Tarcutta is also the birthplace of former Grand Slam champion tennis player Tony Roche. A left-hander, Roche had a successful singles and double career and won 12 Grand Slam men's doubles tournaments. Located nearby is the

Tarcutta Hills Reserve Tarcutta Hills Reserve is a nature reserve on the lower western slopes of the Great Dividing Range in central west New South Wales, Australia. It is south-west of Sydney, close to the Hume Highway, and south of Tarcutta. It is owned and ...

, owned and managed by Bush Heritage Australia. This reserve provides an important remnant of white box woodland with a relatively untouched grassy understory: a last refuge for the squirrel glider, endangered birds like the swift parrot, and as many as 11 other threatened wildlife species. The site is listed on the

Register of the National Estate The Register of the National Estate was a heritage register that listed natural and cultural heritage places in Australia that was closed in 2007. Phasing out began in 2003, when the Australian National Heritage List and the Commonwealth Heritag ...

. In 1969, the Tarcutta Rugby League side became the Group 13 Rugby League premiers. Their superior season also saw them crowned as the Clayton Cup winners for 1969.

Climate

References

External links

Tarcutta Railway StationNational Truck Drivers' Memorial
{{authority control Towns in New South Wales Hume Highway Mining towns in New South Wales