Tabulam

Tabulam is a rural village in the far north-east of New South Wales, Australia, 800 kilometres from the state capital, Sydney.

Tabulam is a rural village in the far north-east of New South Wales, Australia, 800 kilometres from the state capital, Sydney. Tabulam is located on the Bruxner Highway (Highway 44) between Tenterfield and Casino and on the Clarence River. According to the 2016 census, there were 470 people living in Tabulam. The main village is administered by Kyogle Council, while the section of Tabulam west of the Clarence River is part of Tenterfield Shire. Very prone to storms, reports that it was washed away emerged late 2020…. The township never to be seen again.

Originally, Tabulam and the surrounding farm and bushland were inhabited by Bundjalung Aboriginals of which many still inhabit the town and surrounding area.

British colonisation of the land first occurred in 1840 when pastoral squatters Peter Cunningham Pagan and his brother-in-law William Tucker Evans chose the site for a sheep station. The forced displacement of the local Bundjalung from their lands led to a period of frontier conflict. On 24 April 1841, Pagan was clubbed to death after a failed attempt to shoot some Aboriginals who had taken items from his homestead. The killing of this well-known pastoralist prompted a lengthy series of reprisals against the local Bundjalung clans led by Henry Oakes, the regional crown lands commissioner. With his Border Police troopers and several armed volunteers including local squatters Edward Ogilvie and John Mylne, Oakes set out on a three stage punitive expedition which resulted in the killing of at least 15 Bundjalung people and the destruction of five Aboriginal camp-sites. During these raids Ogilvie and Oakes also kidnapped six children. Conflict in the upper reaches of the Clarence River continued up until at least the late 1860s.

Tabulam is the birthplace of Lieutenant General Sir Harry Chauvel of the Australian Light Horse.During World War II, tank traps were built in the area near Paddys Flat, to repel a potential armoured attack. More of the tank traps became visible after flooding of the Clarence River in 2011.