Tongala, Victoria

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Tongala is a small town between Kyabram and Echuca in the Goulburn River valley in northern Victoria, Australia, part of the Campaspe Shire. As of 2004 its population is about 1,100 people.

Dairying is the most significant industry in the town's economic structure that also includes food processing at a Nestle plant. In June 2005 Nestle announced that it would cease manufacturing powdered milk in Australia and that its Tongala factory would be restructured to become a liquid milk only site with 147 jobs to be lost. The National Union of Workers is negotiating for the workers at the plant.

Sunrice operates a CopRice plant that employs thirty staff in a state of the art stockfeed mill, established in 1989, with a capacity to produce up to 100,000 tonne of stockfeed.

[edit] History

In 1894 in a meeting at Mangan's Victoria Hotel, Tongala, the Tongala Football Club was formed, with games played at Tongala Recreation Reserve. The club participated in regional leagues including Kyabram District Junior Football Association (1910-23), Goulburn Valley Football League (1924-32), Echuca and District Football League (1933-35), Kyabram District Football Association (1936-45), Goulburn Valley Football League (1946-2005) and Murray Football League (2006- ).

St Patrick's Catholic church was constructed in 1909, opening on Sunday 28 November 1909. St. Patrick's Catholic primary school was opened in 1959.

The Tongala water tower, designed by John Monash, was constructed in 1914 with an initial capacity of 10,000 gallons (45,500 litres) and extended to 20,000 gallons in 1923.

After World War I many blocks were opened up under the ‘soldier-settler’ scheme. One such soldier settler was John McEwen, who bought a block at Tongala and married local, Anne McLeod, in the town in 1921. McEwen joined the Victorian Farmers Union in 1919, and became a leader of the Country Party, and caretaker Prime Minister on the death of Harold Holt.

With major bank branch rationalisation in the 1990s, country towns like Tongala were particularly hard hit by the closure of bank branches. Community members approached Bendigo Bank in May 1999 to evaluate a proposal to establish a Community Bank Branch of the Bendigo Bank. The Tongala Community Bank opened its doors on 11 December 2000.

In November 2003 a monument to the 24 Australian Light horse regiments and their horses was unveiled by Maurice Watson, aged 84, the last Light Horseman, who enlisted from Tongala. The statue, standing two metres, is of a horseman carrying an empty saddle, bridle and saddle cloth, walking away, head lowered. On a plaque beneath the statue is the poem Farewell Old War Horse, a tribute to the 120,000 Australian waler horses that went overseas in the First World War. Due to quarantine restrictions, only one horse returned to Australia, "Sandy", the mount of Major-General W.T. Bridges, who died at Gallipoli in May, 1915.

[edit] Attractions

The Golden Cow Tourist and Dairy Education Centre has become a central attraction with its working dairy, landcare, salinity and irrigation displays. Milking demonstrations can be seen by visitors. On walls around town can be seen the Tongala Murals, many painted by local artisit Murray Ross, which show the history of the dairy industry and Tongala.

Tongala also hosts an annual Tent Town Festival in March when artists and craftsmen gather to show their wares and to discuss the state of their art.