QI Tour - Thargomindah History Tour (Day 27)

Thargomindah is a wonderful little town - 243 at the last Census - but it has a great heart and it cares about its history. Everyone you talk to is positive. Its the centre of the Bulloo Shire and the developments in showing of its history to tourists have been significant.

We did the history tour of the town: Leahy House, the Old Gaol, Hydro Power Plant and the Old Hospital. Each facility is fully automated, requiring no staff in attendance during your visits. For $8 each, you purchase a swipe card which opens doors, activates audio visual screens and holograms and runs machinery.

Like most places, Thargomindah has a dark past, before the town was established, back when the station owners were a law unto themselves. John and Vincent Dowling came to the area in the early 1860's after Vincent had taken up land along the Darling near Bourke. Both were born in Sydney, with Vincent educated in England. Vincent married his wife Fanny in Sydney and bought her and their young daughter up to the property Thargomindah. Over many years, he never lifted a hand against the local indigenous people, despite once having a spear pierce his American style tall hat and on another occasion having a boomerang open up the side of his horse. However, when his brother John was killed by the Kullilli aborigines, troupers tracked down and killed more than 300 men, women and children.

We started at the house built by John Leahy, along with his brother Patrick, back in 1885. Patrick was the owner of the local newspaper when John went into partnership with him, after they had emigrated from Ireland. John went on to own the cordial factory, was also the proprietor of the Royal Hotel, a brewery and Thylungra Station. He established the Wool Corporation and held significant public positions, including Secretary of the School of Arts and President of the Hospital Board. He and Patrick dug the first artesian bore which supplied water to Thargomindah: the same bore which would go on to power the hydro-electric plant. He went on to represent the electorate of Bulloo in the Queensland parliament, was a minster of the crown and eventually speaker of the House.

This humble four bedroom house was where his work in Thargomindah began. Built of mud bricks manufactured locally, it was sold in 1912 to the Cattle King, Sidney Kidman, who provided it to his local manager. the house contains lots of information and some household artefacts typical of the times.

The Thargomindah Hydro Plant lies out beside the modern airport, which has regular passenger flights from a commercial airline and twice a week it is the landing spot for the Royal Flying Doctor. Using the pressure of the water rising from the artesian basin through the bore, this kinetic energy was used to turn a wheel, designed by a Mr Holmes and built locally by the blacksmith, Joe Hood. A belt was attached to the turning shaft and transferred this circular motion to the shaft of a generator which produced electricity. Thus, not only was Thargomindah the first town in Australia to have articulated water in 1898 but it was also the first to have street lighting powered by hydroelectricity. It was, in fact, the third town/city in the world, behind London and only one hour behind Paris! Today, the flags of the three nations fly at the hydro plant and a sign proudly proclaims: London, Paris, Thargomindah.

Lighting was provided between the hours of 5:30 and 11:30pm ... unless the caretaker, whose job it was to ride his bicycle out to the plant to turn it on and off, could be distracted by a game of cards.

The hydro power gradually extended to houses and run continuously for 54 years until Thargomindah joined the national electricity grid in 1951.

Today, the plant runs for tourists, fully automated and with explanatory video presentations.

At the eastern edge of the town, the Old Hospital remains in good condition, built from Thargomindah mud bricks. The bricks are dried in the sun for quite some time and during the process, animals would often walk over them at night, resulting in prints being left in the bricks. In the outside bathroom, one such brick is highlighted. Again fully automated for entry and displays, there are quite a few video presentations of actors telling the stories of characters associated with the hospital. 

Of particular note was Matron Freda Tite, a well respected leader of the hospital's small staff. suffering her own problem with a heart condition, she used to take arsenic to help alleviate the condition. It was a high stress, often 24 hour job, caring for her patients and without a doctor in town to take full medical responsibility. She was found in the dispensary, dead after another dose, with the suspicion of suicide always hanging over here death. Her burial, well away from other graves and outside the sections set aside for denominations, has always fueled that suspicion. Her ghost, friendly and a little mischievous, is said to haunt the hospital. It was strange that after watching the actor playing her in a video, activated only by the swipe card, we left the room to further explore the hospital. The presentation restarted by itself and kept playing until I returned to the room to investigate, when it suddenly stopped(Cue the Twilight Zone theme)

Our final visit was to the Old Gaol - basically two boxes beside then police station. In one, the prisoners meals were prepared and the other was broken up into three cells.

During our tripping around to these attractions, we met up a few times with a local lady, born and bred in "Thargo", who works as a cleaner for the Council and keeps these attractions presentable. The pride she had in her town was wonderful. So it seems with all we have talked to here.

Our last port of call was the flash council chambers. There we viewed a huge painting which is a tribute to all who have served - a rather bizarre compilation of military aircraft and boats and personnel from all across the timeline of Australian armed forces and their places on conflict. One would describe it as "busy". 

Sue did grocery shopping in a small but recently completed IGA. Lots of choice at reasonable prices.

We finished our day at the pub, where before we could taste the first beer, we had a long chat with Pete Chute - "they couldn't root me, shoot me or electrocute me" - now retired, after living in Thargo, owning and running a property out of Eulo until he divorced and got custody of his children (remarkable for the time). He took them to the coast, saw to their education and did a variety of jobs there. Two of his children moved back to Thargo and he used to visit them for Christmas and special occasions until one visit, he just didn't leave. He was proud to tell us it was his daughter who had served us in the Information Centre.

Pete is the example of why we go out on the road. Looking at sights and learning about history is all well and good but its the people you meet that are the real attraction for us.

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today's photos

Thargomindah is a lovely town which seems to have such a strong community reservoir of resilience and the importance of building a future out of recognising and revering its past. Where wool was its life blood, tourism takes its place but not in the gaudy, money grabbing manner you often see in coastal towns. Here its driven by pride.