Tumbarumba is a small town in New South Wales, Australia, about southwest of the state capital, Sydney. Tumbarumba is located on the periphery of the Riverina and South West Slopes regions at the western edge of the Snowy Mountains. The showed the population of the town and surrounding area to be 1,862 people. Locals refer to the town as 'Tumba'. To the south and east, the highest peak of the Snowy Mountains and mainland Australia—Mount Kosciuszko—can be seen.
History
The community was established in the late 1850s after gold was discovered in the district. The Post Office opened on 1 August 1860 but was spelt Tumberumba until 1915. A railway branch line was opened to Tumbarumba in 1921. The Tumbarumba railway line ran from Wagga Wagga through Tarcutta. The service has been suspended since 1987. The 21 km final section of the line between Rosewood and Tumbarumba opened as a rail trail in April 2020. Gold mining petered out in the 1930s, and the region's economy now depends on agriculture and tourism. The timber industry dominates the Shire’s economy. The name Tumbarumba may be derived from the sound of thunder. or alternatively from the Aboriginal words for "hollow sounding ground", "thunder", "sound" or "place of big trees".
Industry
The major industry in the town is softwood timber processing, with the Hyne and Sons Timber Mill to the west of the town being the biggest employer. Other industries include tourism, viticulture, and blueberry growing. Tourism is a source of income due to its proximity to the snow fields.
Tourism
Tumbarumba provides a convenient base for visiting the Western Snowy Mountains area. The town lies on the Snowy Valleys Way which Destination NSW advertises as a more leisurely and picturesque driving route to take between Sydney and Melbourne. The Snowy Valleys way links Gundagai and Beechworth passing through Tumut, Tumbarumba and Corryong. Tumbarumba is also close to the 440 km Hume and Hovell Track. Access to the track is at the Henry Angel Trackhead, 9 km from Tumbarumba toward Khancoban. A half day walk from the Henry Angel Trackhead to 'Big Hill' provides views of the western face of the Snowy Mountains Main Range. This walk passes old gold workings at the Burra Falls. Tumbarumba is also the centre of the Tumbarumba wine region, a developing cool climate wine growing region with the first plantings in 1982. Several local wineries have 'cellar doors' with wines for sale. The Museum and Visitor Information Centre on Bridge Street is open 363 days of the year, and the Tumbarumba Library and Archive on Prince Street is open Monday to Saturday, but check for opening hours.
Education
There are three schools in Tumbarumba. Tumbarumba Public School and All Saints Primary School providing primary education. Tumbarumba High School provides secondary education to the district.
Events
The Tumbarumba Rodeo is held annually at the Tumbarumba Showground on New Years Day. In addition, Tumbafest, an annual weekend long music, wine and market festival, is held on the last weekend in February. Past festivals have attracted acts like Leo Sayer. Tumbarumba Tastebuds is a festival celebrating local food, wine and art. It is held in the Spring.
Climate
Tumbarumba has a temperate maritime climate. Frosts are frequent and snowfall is fairly common in the winter through to spring; the lowest recorded maximum temperature was on 15 July 1966 and the coldest recorded minimum temperature was on 22 June 1989.
In November 1963, New ZealanderJohnny Devlin released the single "Stomp The Tumbarumba", a song covered later by, among others, the Australian rock bandHoodoo Gurus. Tumbarumba in the song's title may or may not have something to do with the name of the town.
Tumbarumba is one of the very few Australian placenames mentioned in James Joyce's prose-poem Finnegans Wake. 'Tumbarumba mountain' is listed as one of the places of origin of HCE, one of the central characters of the Wake .
Shirley Abicair, the UK based Australian singer, made the town of Tumbarumba's name familiar to many British children with the publication of her book "Tales of Tumbarumba" in 1962.
Tumbarumba is another word for a tmesis, a linguistic term which refers to the placing of a word within another word, such as "ri-goddamn-diculous". The origin of this meaning may come from the poem "Tumba-bloody-rumba" by John O'Grady, which includes several tmeses including "Tumba-bloody-rumba", "e-bloody-nough", and "kanga-bloody-roos".
