Таралга: История и наследие австралийской деревни.

Taralga is the traditional land of the Gundungurra people. Today it is a small village in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia, in Upper Lachlan Shire. It is located at the intersection of the Goulburn Oberon Road and the Laggan Taralga Road. It is accessible from Oberon to the north, Mittagong to the east, Goulburn to the south, and Crookwell to the west. At the , Taralga had a population of 467. A newspaper editorial in 1886 suggests the word Taralga is a corruption of 'Trialgong', an Indigenous word for 'three stony hills' (presumably in the Burra language), rather than a corruption of 'Trial gang'. Also, explorer Thomas Mitchell mentioned 'Trialgong creek' in his field, note and sketchbook in 1828.

The area around Taralga was the traditional land of the Burra Burra peoples of the Gundungurra Nation Although no major clashes with the Europeans seem to have been recorded, nor tales of collaboration with them, their last great gathering or corroboree seems to have been in the 1830s after which they are not recorded by European history. Accordingly, they would have been pushed further west to less fertile plains after the disease brought by the Europeans. Charles Throsby passed through the Taralga area in 1819 on a journey from Cowpastures to Bathurst in search of new grazing lands. By 1824, John Macarthur's son James and his nephew Hannibal had established themselves in the Taralga region where they helped pioneer Australia's wool industry. A private village was established on land donated by James Macarthur and cleared by convicts in order to house and service members of the Macarthur family and their employees. Orchard Street, now the main thoroughfare is located on the site of Macarthur's orchard. During the town's early history, Macarthur Street functioned as the main street and many examples of heritage buildings still stand here. An 1828 census revealed a small number of residents at Taralga suggesting the village was already under way by that time, although there were probably no more than a few buildings. For the first few decades of the colony of New South Wales, most of the settlers were convicts assigned to the landowners and it was they who largely cleared the land, built the huts and houses, and ran the farms. Taralga started to look like a town after the first few houses were built in the 1840s, but more rapid growth would be experienced in the 1860s in part due to the Robertson Land Acts allowing freehold title over land to settlers at favourable rates. Taralga was officially established as a town in the 1860s, with a school in 1857, and churches—Presbyterian in 1861, St. Ignatius Roman Catholic in 1864, St. Lukes Anglican in 1866 and Methodist (now the Historical Society building) in 1868. There were a number of stores, smiths and artisans' businesses and two hotels recorded in 1866. There was a large increase in population in Taralga after the 1860s, caused mainly by the gold rush bringing new migrants to the area. In 1923, the town was visited by Premier Sir George Fuller, marking a period of renewed interest and prosperity in Taralga. During that visit, the Premier unveiled a war memorial honouring those residents who served in World War I, turned the first sod for construction of a railway link, and laid the foundation stone for the Taralga Co Operative Dairy Company's new butter factory. The Taralga railway line, constructed as a branch from the Crookwell line at Roslyn, opened in 1926 and closed in 1957. The line has since been lifted and little remains of the formation. Electricity was first provided in the 1930s by way of a plant set up by a local, Sid Holt.

While the population of Taralga declined after the gold rush period, the character of the town did not. Today there are many historically significant buildings to be observed throughout the town. Small vineyards are located around the town. There are two heritage listed hotels, and a sports club with lawn bowling greens and tennis courts. There is a 9 hole golf course with sand greens. The town also hosts the annual "Australia Day Rodeo" and the Taralga Tigers Rugby Club always attracts big crowds during the Winter months and in the summer touch football is played. The town is situated on the Goulburn Oberon Road, designated Main Road 256 which was progressively upgraded between 2002 and 2008. Taralga is the largest settlement between the two towns and a convenient stop for travellers between Goulburn and Bathurst wishing to bypass Sydney. The town can also be accessed by rural roads from Crookwell and Marulan.

There is a small wildlife park in Taralga that is keeps a number of native and domestic species including bare nosed wombats, eastern grey kangaroos, hill wallaroos, red necked wallabies, dingoes, dromedary camel, llama (including hybrid llama guanaco), alpacas, donkey, miniature horses, fallow deer, blackbuck, eastern bearded dragon, blotched blue tongued lizards, shingleback lizards, spiny tailed skinks, wedge tailed eagle, tawny frogmouth, laughing kookaburra, channel billed cuckoos, blue and yellow macaw, cockatoos (sulphur crest, pink, yellow tailed black, red tailed black & gang gang), parrots, black swans, geese, ducks, royal spoonbill, glossy ibis, helmeted guineafowl, pheasants, turkeys and others.

Taralga has an oceanic climate. Temperatures are warm in summer, whereas winters are cool during days, with frequent frosts by nightfall. Precipitation is relatively frequent year round, peaking in June. There are some occurrences of snowfall and sleet in the cooler months, though mainly in light to moderate quantities. Summers occasionally see frost due to a high diurnal range coupled with occasional cold airmasses. The area is prone to severe thunderstorms. The lowest maximum temperature was 1.1 °C (34 °F) recorded in August 1962; the highest temperature recorded was 40.5 °C (105 °F) in January 2020. The lowest minimum plummeted to 9.6 °C (15 °F) in July 1982; and the highest minimum on record was 24.2 °C (76 °F) in February 1973.