Tailem Bend. Tailem Bend School with the original 1902 school room with later additions. The 1902 room is attached to the two storey building.
It would appear the town was named after the significant bend in the River or it could be from a Ngarrindjeri word “thelim” meaning bend. The land in the district was part of a Special Survey for John Morphett in May 1839. He paid £4,000 for 4,000 acres in a narrow strip along each side of the Murray from Wellington to Tailem Bend. This was the Wellington Special Survey. The first pastoralist settlers in the area were the family of Allen McFarlane who established a lease hold run near Wellington in 1845 covering 72,000 acres. They built a grand house called Wellington Lodge, noted for its fine wrought iron work and views over Lake Alexandrina. The original Georgian house of 1843 was incorporated into a later huge Victorian Italianate style house. Wellington Lodge has hosted several royal visits in 1867 and again in 1927 and members of the family were local MPs and councillors. Allen McFarlane was one of the original owners of the Mt Barker Special Survey of 1839. On his Wellington run McFarlane soon owned 43,000 acres freehold apart from his leasehold land. The property is still owned by the McFarlane family and is operated as an Angus beef stud. Across the lake a fellow Scot paid for another Special Survey- the Lake Alexandrina Survey for the Malcolm brothers. They called their property Poltalloch.
More land was surveyed near Tailem Bend when the Hundred was declared in 1853 but the town of Tailem Bend was not surveyed until 1887. Why? Because that was when the Intercolonial Railway to Melbourne passed through the area. But prior to this gazetting of the town Governor Sir William Jervois (1877-1883) had instigated work on the building of levees in 1881 and the reclamation for swamp lands along the Murray River opposite Tailem Bend. This was his own personal land. The area across the Murray from Tailem Bend is known as Jervois. Further swamp lands were reclaimed in 1886 and all suitable areas were reclaimed by 1929 leading to the establishment of dairying in the district. The Jervois cheese factory began in the 1930s and Dairy Farmers still operates a cheese factory on the site. There is also a cheese factory in Murray Bridge. The lower Murray swamps account for 20% of SA’s dairy herds.
Despite the railway of 1887 and a Murray River ferry crossing of the 19th century, Tailem Bend is very much a 20th century town. Growth was slow until the Railways Commissioner (Mr Webb who built our current Adelaide Railway Station) decided to move the railway marshalling yards and rail engine workshops from Murray Bridge to Tailem bend in 1925. Tailem Bend North was subdivided at that time to provide homes for the new railway employees. The Methodist Church was built in 1927(replacing an earlier one); the Anglican Church opened in 1926; and the Roman Catholic Church was completed in 1924. The original 1902 government school was enlarged with a new two storey addition in 1927 to cater for the surge in enrolments. How many other country towns in SA have a two story state school apart from Wallaroo? The railways also had a generator installed in 1927 and from that time it provided electricity for Tailem Bend until ETSA took over that service in 1957. The railway had a huge impact on the town.
But why did Commissioner Webb move rail operations to Tailem Bend? A mapwill explain why. Tailem Bend was the rail hub for the Murray Mallee and the Riverland. The South Australian Railways did not return a surplus until 1905 after the great rail building decades of the 1870s and 1880s. It then started on a new rail building boom to open up the Mallee. In 1907 a line was built from Tailem Bend to Pinnaroo followed by a line to Karoonda in 1909, Loxton and Renmark 1912/13 and Waikerie in 1914. Later lines went to Peebinga (the so-called railway to nowhere) in 1914; to Barmera in 1927; and Yinkanie (Kingston-on-Murray) in 1925. To complement this railway importance a new Art Nouveau style railway station was built in Tailem Bend in 1914 in identical design to those in Moonta, Bordertown etc. But there was another reason for the rail move to Tailem Bend: the large heavy engines needed to pull the trains through the Adelaide Hills were not needed for the flat Mallee and eastern routes. So trains were marshalled and formed and reformed in Tailem Bend. The trains are no longer important as the rail yards have been closed and the train services to Renmark, Pinnaroo and other centres were all closed down in the early 1970s. In later years Tailem Bend has been a transportation hub again- for roadhouses and services for motorists as it is the place where the freeway and dual carriage way road ends and the highway divides between the Coorong route and the Bordertown route.
Tailem Bend. Tailem Bend School with the original 1902 school room with later additions. The 1902 room is attached to the two storey building.
It would appear the town was named after the significant bend in the River or it could be from a Ngarrindjeri word “thelim” meaning bend. The land in the district was part of a Special Survey for John Morphett in May 1839. He paid £4,000 for 4,000 acres in a narrow strip along each side of the Murray from Wellington to Tailem Bend. This was the Wellington Special Survey. The first pastoralist settlers in the area were the family of Allen McFarlane who established a lease hold run near Wellington in 1845 covering 72,000 acres. They built a grand house called Wellington Lodge, noted for its fine wrought iron work and views over Lake Alexandrina. The original Georgian house of 1843 was incorporated into a later huge Victorian Italianate style house. Wellington Lodge has hosted several royal visits in 1867 and again in 1927 and members of the family were local MPs and councillors. Allen McFarlane was one of the original owners of the Mt Barker Special Survey of 1839. On his Wellington run McFarlane soon owned 43,000 acres freehold apart from his leasehold land. The property is still owned by the McFarlane family and is operated as an Angus beef stud. Across the lake a fellow Scot paid for another Special Survey- the Lake Alexandrina Survey for the Malcolm brothers. They called their property Poltalloch.
More land was surveyed near Tailem Bend when the Hundred was declared in 1853 but the town of Tailem Bend was not surveyed until 1887. Why? Because that was when the Intercolonial Railway to Melbourne passed through the area. But prior to this gazetting of the town Governor Sir William Jervois (1877-1883) had instigated work on the building of levees in 1881 and the reclamation for swamp lands along the Murray River opposite Tailem Bend. This was his own personal land. The area across the Murray from Tailem Bend is known as Jervois. Further swamp lands were reclaimed in 1886 and all suitable areas were reclaimed by 1929 leading to the establishment of dairying in the district. The Jervois cheese factory began in the 1930s and Dairy Farmers still operates a cheese factory on the site. There is also a cheese factory in Murray Bridge. The lower Murray swamps account for 20% of SA’s dairy herds.
Despite the railway of 1887 and a Murray River ferry crossing of the 19th century, Tailem Bend is very much a 20th century town. Growth was slow until the Railways Commissioner (Mr Webb who built our current Adelaide Railway Station) decided to move the railway marshalling yards and rail engine workshops from Murray Bridge to Tailem bend in 1925. Tailem Bend North was subdivided at that time to provide homes for the new railway employees. The Methodist Church was built in 1927(replacing an earlier one); the Anglican Church opened in 1926; and the Roman Catholic Church was completed in 1924. The original 1902 government school was enlarged with a new two storey addition in 1927 to cater for the surge in enrolments. How many other country towns in SA have a two story state school apart from Wallaroo? The railways also had a generator installed in 1927 and from that time it provided electricity for Tailem Bend until ETSA took over that service in 1957. The railway had a huge impact on the town.
But why did Commissioner Webb move rail operations to Tailem Bend? A mapwill explain why. Tailem Bend was the rail hub for the Murray Mallee and the Riverland. The South Australian Railways did not return a surplus until 1905 after the great rail building decades of the 1870s and 1880s. It then started on a new rail building boom to open up the Mallee. In 1907 a line was built from Tailem Bend to Pinnaroo followed by a line to Karoonda in 1909, Loxton and Renmark 1912/13 and Waikerie in 1914. Later lines went to Peebinga (the so-called railway to nowhere) in 1914; to Barmera in 1927; and Yinkanie (Kingston-on-Murray) in 1925. To complement this railway importance a new Art Nouveau style railway station was built in Tailem Bend in 1914 in identical design to those in Moonta, Bordertown etc. But there was another reason for the rail move to Tailem Bend: the large heavy engines needed to pull the trains through the Adelaide Hills were not needed for the flat Mallee and eastern routes. So trains were marshalled and formed and reformed in Tailem Bend. The trains are no longer important as the rail yards have been closed and the train services to Renmark, Pinnaroo and other centres were all closed down in the early 1970s. In later years Tailem Bend has been a transportation hub again- for roadhouses and services for motorists as it is the place where the freeway and dual carriage way road ends and the highway divides between the Coorong route and the Bordertown route.