| Attunga New South Wales |
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Attunga
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| Population: | 633[1] |
| Postcode: | 2345 |
| Elevation: | 374 m (1,227 ft) |
| Location: | |
| LGA: | Tamworth Regional Council |
| State District: | Tamworth |
| Federal Division: | New England |
Attunga is a small farming community in the New England region of New South Wales Australia.
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The name is an Aboriginal word for "a high place", and was originally the name for a nearby farm operated by pastoralist John Brown in the 1840s.[2] The land had previously been part of a 313,000-acre (1,270 km2) grant to the Australian Agricultural Company in 1834 and had been used to graze 6,000 sheep.[3]
The village of Attunga was gazetted in 1847[4] but early settlement appears to have been slow. The first recorded burials at the Attunga Cemetery date from 1872 with the earliest inscriptions dated 1881.[5]
Population growth remained slow until the mid-twentieth century. The current population of 633 includes families of commuters to Tamworth. Services in Attunga currently include a primary school, supermarket, hotel and sports ground, and rural fire service headquarters.
The English singer-songwriter Max Bygraves owns "Attunga Park", an 84 hectare farm near the village.
The main industries are sheep and cattle farming, and limestone mining from a mine to the east of the town. The town abuts the Attunga State Forest, a popular walking and camping destination.[6]
The town was served by the Barraba branch railway line until the local station was closed in 1985.
Recent drought conditions have caused bank erosion along Attunga Creek, as a result of stock movements across and along the creek bed. In 2006 the town of Attunga received funding for a major program of bank stabilisation and revegetation to restrict stock movements to defined corridors near the waterway.[7]