Tambo

Tambo
A quiet, old style country town.
To the traveller speeding along the Mitchell Highway from Charleville to Longreach, Tambo seems nothing special. Located 200 km from Charleville and 208 km from Barcaldine it's just another town in western Queensland. A sign at the southern end of the town announces that it has a population of about 500 and is located 398 m above sea level. This would hardly cause the traveller to even pause.

A closer look reveals that it is a town which has been held in time. Tambo is a country town out of the 1940s or 1950s. There's a couple of lazy pubs, a disused picture theatre which looks like it closed its doors only yesterday, a general store which still feels like a general store - drapery, vegetables, groceries - and a number of old buildings which date back to the 1870s and 1880s.

Tambo proudly claims that it is the oldest town in Central Western Queensland. Certainly it was surveyed and gazetted in the early 1860s and settlement began in 1863.

The first European through the area was Sir Thomas Mitchell who described the region around present day Tambo as 'downs and plains extending westward beyond the reach of vision'. Even the Barcoo River, which is frequently nothing more than a necklace of waterholes, was described as 'a river traceable to the remotest verge of the horizon'. It was on the basis of these recommendations that the town was established.

Initially it became an important stopping place for itinerant carriers and drovers. A blacksmith's shop was established and by 1865 there was a pub for the thirsty travellers making their way from Charleville to Longreach.

Things to see:

Post Offices
Most notable are the two post offices in the main street. The operational one was built in 1904. It still has the charm of the time and its open weatherboard design is attractive.

Over the road is the original post office which was built in 1876. The key can be obtained from the Council Offices next door but there is little point unless you are interested in old bottles or telegraphic equipment.

Influenza Memorial
At the southern end of town is a grim reminder that even ina place as remote as Tambo was affected by the deadly influenza epidemic of 1919. A memorial beside the road has the following dedication: 'Reginald Sylvester Barry (late manager of Tambo Station) who died on 17 June 1919. He worked unceasingly to save those people in Tambo stricken with pneumonic influenza and at the end of the epidemic contracted the disease himself and died. Erected by the residents of Tambo and District in January 1920.'