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TURALLIN
Thank you Vince Dooley for this photo of the Turallin School given to you by Rodney Dooley whose father Stan attended the school about 1922-1930.
Thank you Vince Dooley for this photo of the Turallin School given to you by Rodney Dooley whose father Stan attended the school about 1922-1930.
Thank you Vince Dooley for this photo of the Turallin School given to you by Rodney Dooley whose father Stan attended the school about 1922-1930. Stan is 5th from the left back row, with Tom Leonard standing rear right. Mr Honour (Head Teacher) seated at right.
Last house standing?
Early photo of Turallin Hotel before verandah and bay window additions (photo courtesy of Roy Flynn)
WELCOME to a history of Turallin - the town that vanished!
Turallin is situated 7.2 kilometres north west of Millmerran a town in the Darling Downs region of Queensland, Australia, 208 kilometres (129 miles) west of the state capital, Brisbane.
Turallin was a fledgling township in 1889 when it was officially surveyed and 40 half acre town allotments were sold at auction. However, the seeds for it's inception were sown as early as 1845 when Western Creek sheep station commenced, and with the arrival of the bullock teamsters, these carriers and suppliers who traveled the Toowoomba – Goondiwindi stock route and rested on the eastern side of Pine Creek (the original name of Turallin). Currently, owned by David and Dorne Linwood. Soon a settlement grew around the site peopled with workers on nearby stations, newlyweds, families... Despite its optimistic beginnings, Turallin township did not thrive, or indeed survive (the post office finally closed in 1973) for various reasons which will become apparent from the articles reproduced below.
I am grateful to Vince Dooley who has sent me the photos of the
Turallin School in the 1920s. His father Edward and his brothers
Cecil and Stan and sister Florrie attended the school. Their father
Edward Senior, had a property which shared a boundary with Turallin
and Vince believes one of the teachers boarded with these grand-
parents of his.
Whilst I have collected, and almost exclusively reproduced whatever
historical reference to Turallin I could find, including a list of
residents, and a detailed chronology, of course this is only a
beginning. Turallin's story is worth preserving and the more who
have access to it, the better for its safe-keeping. I wholeheartedly
invite your additions, corrections or general feedback, and especially
locations where more relics may exist.
I hope you enjoy the photographs which I took in 2015 of the only
physical remnants left of the little township of Turallin.
Click "Show More" above for the full collection, and "Online Shop" for
purchases.
THE FOUNDING OF A CITY - TURALLIN (written in 1889)
This is a very amusing and enlightening glimpse of life in Turallin in 1889 as reported in the Queenslander newspaper. The first public auction of 40 half acre surveyed town allotments saw the whole population of the district turn out, plus buyers from far afield. Turallin township boomtime - 1889. To read the full article...
TURALLIN – THE TOWN THAT VANISHED - Author/date unknown
Turallin is, pinpointed, on the tourist & local maps. However, the sign post guides the traveler to nowhere except antiquity. At the end of this desolate tarred road rests the imaginary boundaries of this mystic town, displaying no evidence of its ambitious past. Embalmed within these boundaries lingers the sweat, hopes, dreams and memories, of all its former inhabitants, young and old.
TURALLIN GHOST TOWN
12 September 1990 a Mr Dan O'Donnell wrote an article about Turallin that is packed with historic information, particularly about the school and one of its long term attendees, Mr Cec Dooley. At present I'm not sure which publication it was written for, but I hope to eventually find out. To read the full article...