Town in New South Wales, Australia
Tingha
is a small town on the
Northern Tablelands, New South Wales
, Australia in
Inverell Shire
.
[2]
Formerly part of
Armidale Region
, on 1 July 2019, responsibility for Tingha was transferred from Armidale Regional Council to Inverell Shire Council.
[3]
[4]
The town is 30 kilometres (19 mi) south of
Inverell
and 559 kilometres (347 mi) north-north-east of Sydney. Tingha is an Aboriginal word for "flat or level".
History
[
edit
]
Before non-indigenous settlement the area now known as Tingha was mainly lived upon by people from the Nucoorilma clan of the Gamilaroi Nation, which is an associated group of the Murri
Aboriginal
people. Many of their descendants still live in the surrounding area.
Tingha was first settled in 1841 by Sydney Hudson Darby and became a mining town after
tin
was discovered there in the 1870s.
[5]
Within a year Australia's first commercial tin mines were operating at a private settlement known as Armidale Crossing. Around 5,000 people arrived and about 1000 of the miners were Chinese.
[6]
[7]
The Wing Hing Long Museum is a reminder of that heritage, being established in the 1880s as a general store by Chinese storekeeper, Ah Lin.
[8]
[9]
Armidale Crossing
Post Office opened on 1 September 1872 and was renamed
Tingha
the next month.
[10]
The village was proclaimed a town in 1885. Initially there were enough readily accessible surface deposits to make a good living without using machinery as Chinese people did. The first school was established by the Sisters of St. Joseph in 1890. In the 1890s drought came to the district and the easily obtained deposits of tin were exhausted leading to a loss in population.
[11]
By the early 1900s the mining boom was over and Tingha's population had dwindled to just a few hundred people. Shortly after this, large companies moved into the area to mine the less accessible tin. Dredges were used in mining operations in the area.
[12]
The town was serviced by the
Bundarra & Tingha Advocate
newspaper, published in Bundarra, from 1900 to 1932.
[13]
It was also serviced by the
Tingha Advocate and North-Western Journal
, published in Tingha, from 1916 to 1932.
[14]
Formerly part of the
Guyra Shire
and then the Armidale Region, on 1 July 2019, responsibility for Tingha was transferred from Armidale Regional Council to Inverell Shire Council.
[15]
[16]
Heritage listings
[
edit
]
Tingha has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:
Today
[
edit
]
The main industry nowadays is agriculture with some fossicking in the area. Tin dredging and mining has continued on a scale that varies according to international price fluctuations.
Tingha has a hospital, pre-school, primary school, caravan park, sports and recreation club, a first aid post, hotels plus other shops and services to supply daily needs. Tingha Tigers rugby league club have a large following and have produced several
National Rugby League
players. Tingha's "swimming hole" is a large man made pool which was once a mining excavation.
[18]
One of the main attractions around Tingha is "Green Valley Farm" Entertainment Park. In 2018, the town's residents voted for the town to become a part of Inverell Shire Council area.
In February 2019 a bushfire that commenced by a
lightning strike
burnt 23,419 hectares (57,870 acres) and destroyed 13 homes and 44 outbuildings. A further six homes and 13 outbuildings were also damaged by the fire.
[19]
[20]
Notable people
[
edit
]
Historical population
Year
| Pop.
| ±%
|
---|
1966
| 272
| ?
|
---|
1971
| 259
| ?4.8%
|
---|
1976
| 868
| +235.1%
|
---|
1981
| 886
| +2.1%
|
---|
1986
| 837
| ?5.5%
|
---|
1991
| 831
| ?0.7%
|
---|
1996
| 732
| ?11.9%
|
---|
2001
| 707
| ?3.4%
|
---|
2006
| 713
| +0.8%
|
---|
2011
| 527
| ?26.1%
|
---|
2016
| 476
| ?9.7%
|
---|
2021
| 445
| ?6.5%
|
---|
Source:
Australian Bureau of Statistics
data.
[21]
[22]
|
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Australian Bureau of Statistics
(25 October 2007).
"Tingha (State Suburb)"
.
2006 Census QuickStats
. Retrieved
26 July
2008
.
- ^
"Tingha"
.
Geographical Names Register (GNR) of NSW
.
Geographical Names Board of New South Wales
. Retrieved
4 August
2013
.
- ^
"It's official Tingha is on the move to Inverell"
.
Armidale Regional Council
. Armidale Regional Council. 8 February 2018
. Retrieved
3 March
2019
.
- ^
"Tingha community joins Inverell Shire"
.
Inverell Shire Council
. 1 July 2019.
Archived
from the original on 13 August 2019
. Retrieved
13 August
2019
.
- ^
"Armidale, Guyra, Uralla, Walcha", June 2007
- ^
"Tingha: The Chinese Question"
.
Australian Town and Country Journal
. 14 September 1878. p. 39
. Retrieved
15 February
2019
.
- ^
"Tingha, NSW"
.
migrationheritage.nsw.gov.au
. NSW Migration Heritage Centre
. Retrieved
15 February
2019
.
- ^
"Wing Hing Long Museum"
.
mgnsw.org.au
. Museums & Galleries of NSW
. Retrieved
15 February
2019
.
- ^
Janis Wilton.
"Different Sights: Immigrants in New England: Ah Lin"
.
hfrc.une.edu.au
. University of New England
. Retrieved
15 February
2019
.
- ^
Premier Postal History.
"Post Office List"
. Premier Postal Auctions
. Retrieved
26 May
2011
.
- ^
Reader's Digest Guide to Australian Places
, Reader's Digest, Sydney
- ^
"TIN DREDGING AT TINGHA"
.
Sydney Morning Herald
. 20 August 1907. p. 10
. Retrieved
30 August
2023
.
- ^
"State Library of NSW Catalogue"
.
State Library of New South Wales
. State Library of New South Wales
. Retrieved
26 March
2015
.
- ^
"Tingha Advocate and North-Western Journal"
. 7 January 1916. p. 1
. Retrieved
8 January
2017
.
- ^
"It's official Tingha is on the move to Inverell"
.
Armidale Regional Council
. Armidale Regional Council. 8 February 2018
. Retrieved
3 March
2019
.
- ^
"Tingha community joins Inverell Shire"
.
Inverell Shire Council
. 1 July 2019.
Archived
from the original on 13 August 2019
. Retrieved
13 August
2019
.
- ^
"Wing Hing Long & Co. Store"
.
New South Wales State Heritage Register
.
Department of Planning & Environment
. H01307
. Retrieved
18 May
2018
.
Text is licensed by State of New South Wales (Department of Planning and Environment) under
CC-BY 4.0
licence
.
- ^
New England Holiday, Express Print, Armidale, nd
- ^
Bedford, Matt (16 February 2019).
"
'Wall of fire' rips through NSW vineyard, destroying grapes on harvest day"
.
ABC News
. Australia.
- ^
"Tingha devastated by fires"
(PDF)
.
Guyra Gazette
. 20 February 2019. p. 1.
- ^
"Statistics by Catalogue Number"
. Australian Bureau of Statistics
. Retrieved
22 January
2024
.
- ^
"Search Census data"
. Australian Bureau of Statistics
. Retrieved
22 January
2024
.
External links
[
edit
]
Tingha
travel guide from Wikivoyage