All books featured here are listed in alphabetical order according to title. Each can be found in the Towong Integrated Community Centre, Library (Tallangatta). All items are available for research purposes within the library, but cannot be borrowed. Please contact the library for more information.
The branch line : a history of the Wodonga-Tallangatta-Cudgewa railway
“an umbilical cord to civilisation and guarantee to prosperity”.
Author: Lloyd Holmes
Publication Information: [Albury, N.S.W : L. Holmes, 1985].
ISBN: 9781862524897
Tallangatta Library Call number: H385.099455 HOL
Summary: Approximately 100 pages, this book details the history of one of Australia’s railway branch lines that provided “an umbilical cord to civilisation and guarantee to prosperity”. As the author states, it is “the story of one such line that was built in two stages, altered physically a number of times, played a very significant role in developing the territory it served, and now is defunct” (p. 3).
The book does not contain a Table of Contents nor an index, but provides a brief history of the development of the area, and rich details of railway branch development commencing in 1887. The book contains several images of local townships, railway building progress, train stations, hand drawn representations of railway station designs and train time tables. Brief historical accounts of the development of townships in the region are also included, as well as information regarding opening ceremonies, school developments and advertisements of local businesses.
The Century Book: Old and New Tallangatta
Authors: Malcolm Ronan (Old Tallangatta) and Craig Harold (New Tallangatta)
Publication Information: Tallangatta, Vic. : Tallangatta and Districts Heritage Group Inc., 2001.
ISBN: 9780646410197
Tallangatta Library Call number: H994.551 CEN
Summary: Published in 2001, this book brings together the research efforts of Malcolm Ronan and Craig Harold to establish a one hundred year history of Tallangatta, in both locations. The book is divided into two parts with each offering a simple table of contents with page numbers. No index is provided.
Ghost Towns
“..with the sounds of cattle and a distant sawmill clearly rising, I could not believe such a solid. town could vanish utterly. I had such an air of permanence.” p. 84
Author: Farwell, George, 1911-1976
Publication date: 1968
Publisher: Adelaide : Rigby
Tallangatta Library Call Number: H919.4 FAR
Chapter on Tallangatta pg 84-93
About the author: Author George Farwell was a well traveled man, having lived in England, Australia, Tahiti and the Phillipines. A prolific, award winning writer,1 Farwell spent considerable town in rural Australia and it was here he found his inspiration.
Summary: Farwell’s account of both the old and new townships of Tallangatta is quite a vivid, and his objection the removal of the town is noted by the language used. Farwell shares details of anecdotes from Tallangatta locals such a George Carver (former editor of the Upper Murray Herald) and detailed descriptions of some of the buildings that have since been submerged.
Old Tallangatta : a town to remember 1850-1950 : an idiosyncratic history
“The Herald editor James J. Law had a way with nicknames: two ofo his favourites were Banana-land for Queensland, and Yankee-land for the U.S.A. He referred to butchers as Knights of the Cleaver.” p. 90
Author: Malcolm Ronan
Publisher: Melbourne Macron 1995
ISBN: 9780646256672
Tallangatta Library Call number: H994.55 RON
About the author: Read this tribute to Malcolm (Mac) Arnold published in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Summary: A substantial volume of 276 pages, the book details a page of contents without page numbers sectioning the history of the old town into the “beginnings” and then each decade from the 1860’s through to the 1950’s. Within each decade, the author provides detailed accounts of happenings and developments within the township each year that particular decade. Imagery and anecdotes are included.
Ronan also details an extensive 12-page index in the volume as well as an 89-page section providing a synopsis of each and every family that lived in the town.
The Shire of Tallangatta : a history
“Then came the overlanders, who drove stock from settled areas of New South Wales .. Mong these were C. H. Ebden, Joseph and John Hawdon, Charley Bonney, John Gardiner, John Hepburn, William Dutton, A. F. Mollison and others. The importance of these men, true explorers, for the pastoral settlement of VIctoria, cannot be over-emphasised.” p. 35
Author: Keith Swan
Publication Information: [Tallangatta, Vic.] : published by Keith Swan for the Tallangatta Shire Council, 1987.
ISBN: 9780731603565
Tallangatta Library Call number: H994.55 SWA
About the author: Keith Swan (1916-1996) was a prolific author and historian, dedicated to the “significance, value and fascination of regional history”2. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from Charles Sturt University in 1995.
Summary: A well documented text with a detailed table of contents, including a detailed account of all illustrations used. A six-page index accompanies the text that begins with a description of the terrain as found by Hamilton Hume and William Hovell, including a chapter on the first nations people who inhabited the region. On page 18, Swan provides a map of the “Aboriginal Tribal Boundaries” however this is incongruous with the AIATSIS Map of Australia3 and should be taken in context with the time the book was writing.
Tallangatta Valley : the first 100 years 1881-1981
Author: Tallangatta Valley Schools Centenary Committee
Note: Committee represents Tallangatta Valley Primary School No. 2337 and former Primary Schools Wyeeboo No. 3377 and Cravensville No. 3099.
Publication Information: [Tallangatta Valley, Vic.] : [The Centenary Committee], [1981].
Tallangatta Library Call number: Q372.99455 TAL
Summary: An unpublished volume put together by a local committee to details the history of schools in the Tallangatta Valley region between 1881 and 1981.
The town that moved : the story of Tallangatta, 1951-1956
“For a long time there had been rather an ominous threat hanging over the town. .. In 1918 the River Murray Commission selected the confluence of the Mitta Mitta and Mirray Rivers, upstream of Albury-Wodonga, as the site for a major reservoir..” p. 7
Author: Harold Craig
Publisher: Melbourne Macron 1995
ISBN: 9780646256672
Tallangatta Library Call number: H994.55 CRA
Summary: A pamphlet of 23 pages written by local historian Craig Harold. It provides a brief but informative synopsis of the establishment of the new township of Tallangatta.
Reference List
- n.d. (1976, August 7). George Farwell dies at 64 The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 – 1995), p. 3. Retrieved June 8, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article110820547 ↩︎
- Swan, K. (1987). The Shire of Tallangatta. Keith Swan. ↩︎
- AIATSIS. (2024, May 14). Map of Indigenous Australia. https://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/map-indigenous-australia ↩︎