Tongala is a town in the

Goulburn Valley The Goulburn Valley is a sub-region, part of the Hume region of the Australian state of Victoria. The sub-region consists of those areas in the catchment of the Goulburn River and other nearby streams, and is part of the Murray-Darling Basin. ...

region of northern Victoria, Australia. The town is in the

Shire of Campaspe The Shire of Campaspe is a local government area in Victoria, Australia, located in the northern part of the state. It covers an area of and in June 2018 had a population of 37,592. It includes the towns of Girgarre, Echuca, Kyabram, Roc ...

local government area, between

Kyabram Kyabram is a town in north central Victoria, Australia. Kyabram is located in the centre of a rich irrigation district in the Goulburn River Valley, north of Melbourne. It is the second-largest town in the Shire of Campaspe, situated betwee ...

and

Echuca Echuca ( ) is a town on the banks of the Murray River and Campaspe River in Victoria, Australia. The border town of Moama is adjacent on the northern side of the Murray River in New South Wales. Echuca is the administrative centre and larges ...

, north of the state capital,

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 me ...

. At the , Tongala had a population of 1,926.

History

The first Post Office in the area opened on 27 April 1878. In 1882 it was renamed Kanyapella and a new Tongala office opened to the south; this was renamed Tongala East in 1908 when a new Tongala office replaced the Tongala Railway Station office in the township. St Patrick's

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

church was constructed in 1909, opening on Sunday 28 November 1909. St Patrick's Catholic primary school was opened in 1959. The Tongala water tower, designed by

John Monash General Sir John Monash, (; 27 June 1865 – 8 October 1931) was an Australian civil engineer and military commander of the First World War. He commanded the 13th Infantry Brigade before the war and then, shortly after its outbreak, became c ...

, was constructed in 1914 with an initial capacity of and extended to in 1923. After

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

many blocks were opened up under the ' soldier-settler' scheme. One such soldier settler was

John McEwen Sir John McEwen, (29 March 1900 – 20 November 1980) was an Australian politician who served as the 18th prime minister of Australia, holding office from 1967 to 1968 in a caretaker capacity after the disappearance of Harold Holt. He was th ...

— later Prime Minister of Australia—who bought a block at Tongala and married a local, Anne McLeod, in the town in 1921. In November 2003 a monument to the 24 Australian Light horse

regiment A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, service and/or a specialisation. In Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of front-line soldiers, recruited or conscripted ...

s and their horses was unveiled by Maurice Watson, aged 84 the last Light Horseman, who enlisted from Tongala. The statue, standing two metres, is of a horseman carrying an empty

saddle The saddle is a supportive structure for a rider of an animal, fastened to an animal's back by a girth. The most common type is equestrian. However, specialized saddles have been created for oxen, camels and other animals. It is not kno ...

bridle A bridle is a piece of equipment used to direct a horse. As defined in the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', the "bridle" includes both the that holds a bit that goes in the mouth of a horse, and the reins that are attached to the bit. Headgear ...

and saddle cloth, walking away, head lowered. In 2012 photographic artist Shaun C Mackrell undertook a year-long project to document and record the people of Tongala and their stories. The work culminated in a touring exhibition which was shown in Tongala, Bendigo and Brunswick Victoria. Later the series was put on display in Melbournes Federation Square for three months at the end of 2012. The project was made possible only by the generous support of the Federal Governments Regional Arts Fund as administered by Regional Arts Victoria.

Economy

Dairying is the most significant industry in the town's economic structure that also includes food processing at a

Nestlé Nestlé S.A. (; ; ) is a Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland. It is the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other metrics, sin ...

plant. In June 2005 Nestle announced that it would cease manufacturing powdered milk in Australia and that its Tongala factory would be restructured to become a liquid milk only site with 147 jobs to be lost.

proceeded to invest $17 million back in to the factory in late 2011, constructing a new liquid manufacturing facility that would go on to produce part of their Health Science range consisting of ready-to-drink medical supplements. It opened in October 2012. In August 2019 Nestle announced the shutdown of the Tongala factory with all 106 remaining jobs to be made redundant. A spokesperson for Nestlé cited a change in consumer purchasing behavior towards tinned milk and increasing competition from cheap importsNestlé announces closure of Tongala factory
/ref>

Sunrice SunRice is the consumer brand and trading name of Ricegrowers Limited, which is one of Australia's largest branded food exporters. In the 2017 financial year, SunRice recorded revenue of A$1.1 billion and profit of A$34.2 million. The SunRice ...

operates a CopRice plant that employs thirty staff in a state of the art stockfeed mill, established in 1989, with a capacity to produce up to 100,000 tonnes of stockfeed.

Attractions

On walls around town can be seen the ''Tongala Murals'', many painted by local artist Murray Ross, which show the history of the dairy industry and Tongala.

References

External links

Tongala war memorial
{{authority control Towns in Victoria (Australia)