Towrang, NSW

A major stockade for chain-bound convicts and others involved in the construction of the Great South Road was located on the north side of the Highway at Towrang Creek from around 1836 to 1842. The stockade became the principal penal establishment in the southern district and was noted for its harsh discipline.

There were usually at least 250 convicts hutted there. They slept on bare boards with a blanket apiece, 10 men to a box or cell. One of the two official floggers was later found murdered. A few artefacts remain from this period, such as some convict graves, a powder magazine, the convict-built Towrang bridge and numerous culverts charted on an information billboard at the Towrang rest area.

The rest area is on the south side near a well-preserved bridge that is thought to have been designed by David Lenox, the impressive designer of early bridges in New South Wales.

The stockade is on the north side of the Highway. There are the remains of the powder magazine next to the Wollondilly River, three graves on the north bank of Towrang Creek and the remains of a weir on Towrang Creek built for the stockade.

Aboriginal stone tools have also been found on the banks of Towrang Creek, indicating that this was a route well-travelled long before Hamilton Hume came this way in 1818.

The Argyle Apple (Eucalyptus cinerea) is a silver-leaved eucalypt that was named for the local Argyle County. Its main occurrence on the planet is in the Marulan, Towrang, Bungonia and Windellema areas. Its striking silvery leaves are one of Goulburn's unique export items sold in the cut flower markets around the world.

Koalas were all but wiped out in the Goulburn region during the Great Depression. Many landholders shot thousands for their fur which was used in the lining of mink coats in the USA. For decades they were thought to be extinct locally, but some Towrang residents recently discovered small numbers surviving among the ribbon gums, cabbage gums and river peppermints that dot the wooded creek lines in this beautiful valley. Today stands of these nutritious trees are being planted on private farms to help the koalas increase their numbers again.

Towrang Valley Progress Group (TVPG) via 0422 146 065