Established in 1868 as a National School, Tumbarumba Public School has seen many changes in its lifetime. Originally set up to educate the children of mostly miners in the area, the school commenced with an average of 30 pupils regularly attending.
These numbers rose and fell depending on conflicts between teachers and community, lack of a female teacher, bad weather, and diseases (scarlet fever swept the town in 1882 and diptheria in 1888) until 1940 when the school was classified as a Central School with over 20 secondary pupils.
By 1956 the school had attained the status of First Class Central School with a separate Infants Department and Mistress and increased enrollments in all sections.
Increased numbers brought accomodation problems which weren't overcome until 1968 when Tumberumba High School was established as a separate High School. a significant milestone in the centenary year of education in the town!
Declining job opportunities in the area has effected the school so that today Tumbarumba Public School has an enrollment of 153 students in six classes and a total staff of nine.
Located 504 km south west of Sydney and 701 metres above sea level, Tumbarumba is situated on the southern slopes of the Snowy Mountains. By any measure it is a sleepy little town (having been by-passed by the major road and rail routes between Sydney and Melbourne) and consequently it has a kind of old-style charm, and a number of beautifully preserved old buildings, which make it an attractive destination.
This was part of the Wiradjuri country before European settlement. It is from Wiradjuri language that the word 'tumbarumba', probably meaning 'sounding ground', is derived. It has been suggested that there are places in the district where if you hit the ground it has a hollow sound.
The first Europeans into the area were Hume and Hovell who passed through in 1824. They were followed by settlers who moved into the area in the 1830s. The first town settler arrived around the early 1840s. Settlement was sparse until the 1850s when gold was discovered.
Gold was discovered in the Tumbarumba district in 1855 and the Tumbarumba Gold Field was proclaimed in 1866. The township was surveyed in 1859 and lots were officially sold in 1860. The Tumbarumba goldfields were still operating as recently as the 1930s. In the early days they attracted large numbers of Chinese who worked the goldfields and established elaborate sluices and water races to assist their labours.
The railway didn't arrive until 1919 and it was closed by the 1970s. Consequently it never really made an impact on the town's prosperity.
Today Tumbarumba is sustained by the agriculture which surrounds it. It is still central to an area where timber, apples, tobacco, sheep and cattle have proved to be profitable.
