Taroom is a town in the Shire of Banana and locality split between the Shire of Banana and the Western Downs Region in Queensland, Australia.
Taroomis a town in the Shire of Banana and locality split between the Shire of Banana and the Western Downs Region in Queensland, Australia. At the 2016 census, Taroom had a population of 869 people.
History
Prussian explorer Ludwig Leichhardt passed through the district in 1844, carving his initials and date on a coolibah tree that now stands in the centre of town. Leichhardt's carving is no longer visible following an alleged attempt to remove bark growing over the initials that removed the initials as well. Reporting the rich soils in the area, settlers began taking up land in 1845 and by 1850 a town had been established at a popular camping spot near the Dawson River.
Originally named Bonners Knob the town was renamed Taroom, possibly after the nearby Taroom cattle station, on completion of the first post office in 1856. The name Taroom is said to be an aboriginal Waka word tarum meaning wild lime.Situated 40 kilometres (25 mi) west of Taroom is Hornet Bank Station which was the site of the 1857 Hornet Bank massacre, the genocidal reprisals for which led to the Yiman Indigenous language group and people being wiped out.
The town was surveyed by Clarendon Stuart in 1860.Taroom is the oldest inland town in Queensland after Ipswich.Taroom State School opened on 11 April 1871 as a primary school. In 1964, the school had a secondary department added to provide secondary education to Year 10.In 1883, Taroom police officer William O'Dwyer was killed after being struck in the head with a tomahawk by a man he was attempting to arrest near Wandoan.The suspect was immediately shot dead by an accompanying police constable.O'Dwyer died from his injuries thirty minutes after being struck, and was buried at Wandoan. A plaque was unveiled on 7 September 2012 by Assistant Police Commissioner Paul Wilson on a rock in front of the Taroom Police Station to commemorate O'Dwyer being killed in the line of duty.Taroom Aboriginal Mission operated until 1927, when it was closed and its residents moved to Woorabinda, Queensland.
The Taroom War Memorial commemorates residents of Taroom Shire who served in World War I, World War II and the Vietnam War. It is located at the Ludwig Leichhardt Park in Yaldwyn Street and was dedicated in about 1973.
The Taroom Town Hall was built in 2004, immediately next door to the shire council chambers. It was intended to serve as a civic and recreational centre for the town and has a main auditorium that seats 300 people as well as a commercial kitchen and bar. The hall was awarded a regional commendation by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects in 2004.The current Taroom Public Library opened in 1976.Taroom made national news headlines in December 2014 when a man and two children were found near the town after being missing for eleven days. The trio, consisting of Steve Van Lonkhuyzen and his two young sons, had departed the Brisbane suburb of Lota on 11 December 2014 for a road journey to Cairns when they became stranded in Expedition National Park north-west of Taroom, after their four-wheel-drive vehicle became bogged.The Queensland Police Service appealed to the public to help locate the father and his two sons after they were reported missing when they failed to reach Cairns as scheduled on 15 December 2014.The last known communication from the man was a phone call made from Taroom. A local Taroom grazier eventually located the trio on 21 December 2014 while he was searching the national park looking for them after seeing media reports about their disappearance and realising he had witnessed their vehicle enter the national park several days earlier. It was reported they had survived by collecting rainwater and eating mouldy bread. The two boys were admitted to Taroom Hospital as a precautionary measure due to malnutrition.On 29 September 2018, Taroom & District Historical Society Inc and Taroom RSL Sub Branch worked together to preserve the 1973 War Memorial by moving it from Leichhardt Park to the Taroom Museum at 17 Kelman Street, Taroom (on the original site of the Taroom State School 1871-1956).
Weather
Things to do
Taroom has a rare windmill of an unusual design located on the banks of the Dawson River. The windmill was produced by the Steel Wings Company, in North Sydney between 1907 and 1911, one of only six models ever erected. The windmills comprise a steel frame and fan which turns to the wind between a bearing at the bottom and a swivel at the top, all supported by guy-wires. Along with another example in Jerilderie in the Riverina, the fully restored windmills are the only two known working examples in the world designed so their fan is contained and spins within the fully pivoting frame.
There is a lookout at the top of Kelman Street, known as Gilbert's Lookout in honour of John Gilbert, a naturalist with Ludwig Leichhardt's 1844 expedition. There is a memorial to Gilbert at the lookout. Gilbert was killed when he was speared by an Aboriginal at the Mitchell River near Dunbar, Queensland near the Gulf of Carpentaria. The lookout offers panoramic views of the town and surrounding countryside.In 2013, a proposal was put forward to renovate and convert the former Taroom Shire Council Chambers into a tourist attraction that would detail the life and achievements of Ludwig Leichhardt.Banana Shire councillor Vaughan Becker said the characteristics of the Leichhardt Centre would incorporate the feeling of a museum, interpretive centre, educational resource and a tribute to the explorer's achievements.Councillor Becker met with representatives from the German Embassy, Department of Foreign Affairs, Queensland Museum and the University of Queensland to discuss the proposal.Sue Boyce, Ken O'Dowd and Banana Shire Council mayor Ron Carige all publicly supported the proposal.Isla Gorge National Park, Precipice National Park and Expedition National Park are all nearby.