Tooma Valley Essay

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The Tooma Valley is in south-eastern NSW, east of Tumbarumba and in the foothills of the Australian Alps. It is a fertile willow-lined valley today but was once covered with stringy bark, apple and yellow box and red gum, along with grass trees, Xanthorrhoea australis. Aboriginal inhabitants The valley was originally home to the Wolgal tribe, who lived on the tablelands of the Australian Alps and the lower country to the north. In summer, they feasted on bogong moths, which they attracted to their camps with fires. Axes and perfectly formed mounds, where initiation ceremonies took place, have been found in the valley. By 1870, the Wolgal tribe had mostly disappeared as Europeans took their land and brought diseases. European settlement …show more content…

In 1839, Dr Thomas Bell took up Maragle Station and Sir James Garland took up Tooma Station. In 1866, the owner of Tooma Station paid a rent of £80 a year on 15,560 acres, which was supposed to carry 7,000 sheep, and Arthur Dight paid £39 rent on 49,640 acres for Maragle Station, which was supposed to carry 640 cattle. The first selector, Mrs Mary Maginnity, took up land after the Robinson Land Act of 1861 ended the squatters’ monopoly of the land, though some selections were absorbed back into the Tooma-Maragle Station as the selectors struggled to survive on the rough land. In 1877, the Tooma homestead was built by Morton Rolfe. Everything needed for the station had to be brought into the valley by horse and dray or bullock wagon. These drays and wagons returned to Albury with wool from …show more content…

The arrival of these 21 families brought renewal to the Tooma district. The school reopened and new amenities, such as the Tooma Services Memorial Hall, were built. The social club and the CWA were major forces in these developments, many of which were supported by the soldier settlers and their wives. In 1960, electricity came to the district and in 1964 three new bridges replaced the old wooden structure that had served the district since the early 1900s. However, life was not easy for the settlers, who often lived in pioneering conditions as they struggled to establish their farms on what had really been almost virgin grazing land, part of the enormous Tooma and Maragle stations. Natural disasters also challenged them. In 1949, soon after the settlers’ arrival when most were living in makeshift huts or sheds, six inches of snow fell, so stock had to be

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