Tomerong is a village in the South Coast region of

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. It is located approximately 180 kilometres by road south from the state capital

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 ...

and 20 kilometres south of the commercial centre of the

City of Shoalhaven The City of Shoalhaven is a Local government in Australia, local government area in the South Coast, New South Wales, South Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. The area is about south of Sydney. The Princes Highway passes through the a ...

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 ...

in the

County of St Vincent St Vincent County was one of the original Nineteen Counties in New South Wales and is now one of the 141 cadastral divisions of New South Wales. It included the south coast area encompassing Batemans Bay, New South Wales, Batemans Bay, Ulladull ...

. The village is eight kilometres inland of the western shores of

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 ...

and is located at the boundary of the Parish of Tomerong and the Parish of Wandrawandian. Its population at the was 1,194. The traditional custodians of this country are the

Wandandian The Wandandian are an Aboriginal Australian people of the South Coast of New South Wales with connections to the Yuin and Tharawal nations. Country The Wandandian lands extended over an estimated from Ulladulla to the Shoalhaven River and No ...

(wandi wandian) people of

Yuin The Yuin nation, also spelt Djuwin, is a group of Aboriginal Australians, Australian Aboriginal peoples from the South Coast (New South Wales), South Coast of New South Wales. All Yuin people share ancestors who spoke, as their first language, ...

Country who spoke the

Dhurga language The Dhurga language, also written Thurga, is an Australian Aboriginal language of New South Wales. It is a language of the Yuin people, specifically the Wandandian and Walbunja groups, but there have been no fluent speakers officially record ...

. With a history of farming and

sawmilling A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimens ...

, the village and its environs is now primarily low to medium density residential, providing easy access to tourist areas such as Huskisson on

and the commercial centre

. West and south west of the village the land is predominantly

State Forests A state forest or national forest is a forest that is administered or protected by a sovereign or federated state, or territory. Background State forests are forests that are administered or protected by some agency of a sovereign or federate ...

and

Crown Land Crown land, also known as royal domain, is a territorial area belonging to the monarch, who personifies the Crown. It is the equivalent of an entailed estate and passes with the monarchy, being inseparable from it. Today, in Commonwealth realm ...

adjoined by the

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 attracti ...

History

The first recorded European exploration of the area around Tomerong probably occurred when Lieutenant James Grant of the ''Lady Nelson'' ventured inland from Jervis Bay up to 13 kilometres in 1801. Land grants occurred around Jervis Bay and St Georges Basin in the 1830s and 1840s with the first Tomerong land sale occurring at Nowra on 8 May 1855. Settlement increased as the a bridge was constructed across Falls Creek and the development of the main south coast road provided transport and mail services. The Travellers Rest Hotel was opened in 1857 to service the travelling public and, five years later, a post office and school were established. Both celebrated their 150th (Sesquicentenary) anniversary in 2012. A church was constructed in 1877 and a general store commenced operation about 1882, but it was the development of the timber industry (from 1815 for cedar and from about 1860 for hardwood) that saw Tomerong's importance grow, just as farming had started to wane. For the next 100 years the industry was so important to the village that it resulted in the headquarters of the Clyde Shire being constructed in 1908. A school of arts was constructed in 1926 and remains a popular venue for entertainment, not only for the locals. The consolidation of sawmills saw local enterprises reduce in the 1960s and 1970s and the bypassing of the village in 1995 by the Princes Highway meant the village became more attractive for family living adjacent to the growth areas of St Georges Basin and Huskisson/Vincentia.

Contemporary Tomerong

Since the last sawmill closed in the mid 1980s and the main south coast road bypassed in 1995, the village, whilst quieter, has increased in population and dwellings. Its precinct (now Hawken Road) is still dominated by th
school of artspublic school
post office, church and the voluntee
Rural Fire Service
building. Th
school of arts
has a busy patronage with private and community events. A new Rural Fire Service building was opened in 1991 opposite the Union Church that, whilst undergoing major repairs in 2000s, has seen little use since 1993. The public school was the subject of a major building program in 1995 and remains the major employer in the village. Volunteer organisations are an important part of village life with members active in P&C, Rural Fire Service, th

(a Community Consultative Body active with the loca
Council
and the school of arts. Other bodies have been organised as required; such as th
Friends of Tomerong Union Church
that organised the church's restoration; th
Shoalhaven Unwanted Tip
Campaign (ShUT), that successfully lobbied to prevent a local shale quarry from being used as a non-putrescible waste dump; and the Sesquicentenary Committee that organised the primary school's 150th celebrations in 2012. ClydeMap TP6062

Geography and climate

The village is 48 metres above sea level and is overlooked to the north by Tomerong Hill at 111 metres. The settlement is concentrated on a north to south spur of this hill which runs two kilometres down to Tomerong Creek 20 metres above sea level. A ridgeline, of about 100 metres above sea level, located two kilometres west of the village runs generally north to south. Creeks north east of the village generally drain to Currambene Creek and

, whilst those to the south generally run to St Georges Basin. The village lies near the southern extremity of the

Sydney Basin The Sydney Basin is an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia, interim Australian bioregion and is both a structural entity and a depositional area, now preserved on the east coast of New South Wales, Australia and with some of its ...

with the higher areas to the north and west comprising Nowra

Sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

that thins to the south and east to reveal Wandrawandian

Siltstone Siltstone, also known as aleurolite, is a clastic sedimentary rock that is composed mostly of silt. It is a form of mudrock with a low clay mineral content, which can be distinguished from shale by its lack of fissility. Although its permeabil ...

. Average minimum and maximum temperatures in degrees Celsius and average rainfall in millimetres are shown in the following table.

References

External links

More information on Tomerong's history

Tomerong Public SchoolTomerong Union Church
{{authority control Towns in the South Coast (New South Wales) City of Shoalhaven