Tumbarumba, New South Wales

Infobox Australian Place | type = town
name = Tumbarumba
state = nsw


caption = Main street of Tumbarumba
lga = Tumbarumba Shire Council
postcode = 2653
pop = formatnum:1487
pop_footnotes= census 2006 AUS|id=UCL176000|name=Tumbarumba (Urban Centre/Locality)|accessdate=2008-03-31|quick=on]
est = 1850s
elevation= 592
maxtemp =
mintemp =
rainfall =
county = Selwyn
stategov = Albury
fedgov =Eden-Monaro
dist1 = 19
location1= Rosewood
dist2 = 41
location2= Batlow

Tumbarumba is a small town in New South Wales, Australia, about 500 km southwest of Sydney. Tumbarumba is located within the Riverina region and more specifically on the South West Slopes at the western edge of the Snowy Mountains. At the 2006 Census of Population and Housing, formatnum:1487 people lived in the town. Tumbarumba Shire Council is administered from offices located in Tumbarumba.

To the east, Mount Kosciuszko, the Snowy Mountain's and mainland Australia's highest peak, 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. Citation
last = Premier Postal History | title = Post Office List | url = https://www.premierpostal.com/cgi-bin/wsProd.sh/Viewpocdwrapper.p?SortBy=NSW&country= | accessdate = 2008-04-11 ]

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 Wiradjuri "dhamba dhamba", meaning "very soft" [cite book |last=McNicol |first=Sally |coauthors=Hosking, Dianne |year=1994 |chapter=Wiradjuri |title=Macquarie Aboriginal Words |location=Sydney |publisher=Macquarie Library |pages=98] or alternatively from the Aboriginal words for "hollow sounding ground", "thunder", "sound" or "place of big trees". [ [http://www.gnb.nsw.gov.au/name_search/extract?id=SXjLBKsEan Geographical Names Board of NSW Tumbarumba] ]

Cultural references

*In November 1963, New Zealander Johnny Devlin (with Bee Gees on backing vocals) released the single "Stomp The Tumbarumba", [ [http://www.columbia.edu/~brennan/beegees/63.html Bee Gees Recordings] ] a song covered later by, among others, the Australian rock band Hoodoo Gurus (see "Come Anytime" and "1000 Miles Away"). "Tumbarumba" in the song's title may or may not have something to do with 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 (Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker), one of the central characters of the Wake [http://www.trentu.ca/jjoyce/fw-596.htm (FW 596.11)] .
*Shirley Abicair, the UK based Australian singer, made the town of Tumarumba'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".ABC local radio: 92.5 FM

port

Tumbarumba Greens fields a rugby league team in the Group 9 competition andthe town has an Australian Rules football team competing in the Upper Murray Football League.

References

ee also

*Mannus Correctional Centre

External links

* [http://www.tumbashire.nsw.gov.au/ Tumbarumba Shire Council]
* [http://www.dotars.gov.au/auslink/green_paper/submissions/lgov_NSW/lgov_tumbarumba_council.htm Tumbarumba Shire Council submission to AusLink Green Paper concerning regional transport networks]
* [http://www.rrdb.com.au/rivprofile/tumbarumba.htm Demographic profile of Tumbarumba Shire in 2001]
* [http://www.bushpoetry.com.au/Default.aspx?tabid=60&newsType=CategoryView&CategoryID=3 Discussion on "Lost Poetry" web site of authorship of the poem "Tumba-bloody-rumba"]