Tailem Bend - Culture and History

We’re sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. We’re working to restore it. Please try again later.

Advertisement

This was published 15 years ago

Tailem Bend - Culture and History

Prior to European settlement the area was inhabited by the Ngarrindjeri people (they are the same people who fought over secret women's business at Goolwa). They made bark and reed canoes, and lived on the fish and animals which came to live beside the river.

The Ngarrindjeri people were decimated by the arrival of Europeans. The combination of smallpox (which raged all the way up the Murray River) and massacres saw the numbers drop dramatically.

The first European into the area was Captain Charles Sturt who, being assigned to solve the great mystery of why so many rivers flowed westward from the Great Dividing Range (often known as the question of whether Australia had an 'inland sea') rowed a whale boat down the Murrumbidgee in late 1829 and reached the present site of Tailem Bend in early February before entering Lake Alexandrina, at the mouth of the Murray river, on 9 February, 1830.

Following Sturt the whole area along the Murray was opened up particularly by overlanders who moved sheep and cattle across the land. By the 1840s there was a ferry across the Murray River at Wellington which meant that the more difficult terrain, particularly the high cliffs, around Tailem Bend were overlooked in the development of the river bank.

The town's real roots lie in the railway. It is essentially a railway town was created when the railway came through the area in 1886. The town was proclaimed in 1887. If you doubt the importance of the railway try and think how many towns you have visited where the railway line (and the attractive local railway station) run alongside the main street.


Sign up for the Traveller Deals newsletter

Get exclusive travel deals delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up now.

Most viewed on Traveller

Loading