Tallangatta Victoria |
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Tallangatta viewed from the town lookout in January 2004. The Mitta arm of Lake Hume can be seen behind the town
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Location in Shire of Towong, Victoria
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Coordinates | 36°12′S 147°15′E / 36.200°S 147.250°ECoordinates: 36°12′S 147°15′E / 36.200°S 147.250°E |
Population | 950 (2006 census) |
Postcode(s) | 3700 |
Location | |
LGA(s) | Shire of Towong |
State electorate(s) | Benambra |
Federal Division(s) | Indi |
Tallangatta /təˈlæŋɡætə/ is a town in north-eastern Victoria, Australia. The town lies on the banks of the Mitta Arm of Lake Hume, approximately 38 kilometres (24 mi) south-east of Albury-Wodonga along the Murray Valley Highway. At the 2006 census, Tallangatta had a population of 950.
Tallangatta was founded in the 1870s, the Post Office opening on 15 May 1871.
On the arrival of the railway it served as a rail gateway for the Mitta and Upper Murray valleys (the Upper Murray only until the railway was extended to Cudgewa). A considerable amount of gold and tin mining occurred in the late 19th and early 20th century, though, unlike Beechworth, little evidence for this remains. While initially profitable, the mining generally ended because the deeper reefs contained not only gold but other metals, and mining technology at the time was not advanced enough to cope with these and extract the gold profitably.
Since that time, Tallangatta has been a service centre for the local farming community, with a butter factory operating throughout much of the 20th century. Improved road transport links finally ended both the dairy and the rail link in the 1970s (with dairy processing operations now concentrated in Tangambalanga, about 15 kilometres (9 mi) to the west).