Aboriginal people often have several Totems that may come from animals, plants, landscape features and the weather. Totems have both religious and
social importance. A person with a kangaroo Totem is believed to be related to kangaroos and descended from the kangaroo creator-being.
People sharing the same Totem are like brothers and sisters, which means that it is forbidden to marry someone of the same Totem. Totems connect people with the Dreamtime and spiritual world.
Gamilaroi people also have exogamous (outmarrying) moieties (two-part social classification) known as Gubadhin (Kupathin) and Dhilbay (Dilbi) (Frazer, 1994; O’Rourke, 1997). Both moieties were divided into four marriage classes, with further marriage restrictions.
Soon after the establishment of sheep and pastoral runs, many Gamilaroi became unable to hunt and gather food sources. Violent conflict occurred and Aboriginal people were exposed to diseases like small-pox to which they had no immunity.
Stonewoman Aboriginal Area has traditionally been used as a woman’s teaching and ceremonial site. The story of the rock is that a young Gamilaroi woman ran away with a man from a different tribe, and when she stopped to drink
some water, the elders of her tribe hit her on the head with a nulla nulla, breaking her neck. The rock today serves as a reminder not to marry against the marriage laws.
Explorers and Settlers
Allan Cunningham explored the Inverell district in 1827. From 1835, squatters began to move into the region, establishing sheep and cattle stations.
Sidney Hudson Darby arrived in NSW with his wife and children in 1840. In 1841, he and J.H Goldfinch took up "Tiengah" run, an area of 80,000 acres. Tingha is an Aboriginal word for "flat or level".
The Darby family travelled for six months by bullock wagon from their Hunter Valley home "The Grove". This home is now located at Inverell Pioneer Village.
1870s
Joseph Wills, who was working as a shepherd at Elsmore near Tingha, sold some cassiterite (an ore of tin) he had found at Elsmore. Soon afterwards, numerous workable deposits
were found in the Elsmore, Inverell and Tingha areas.
At the peak of the tin boom, Tingha was the largest tin-producing district in NSW, with mines stretching for 8 km and employing, it is said, 8000 men, of which perhaps 2000 were Chinese. Chinese workers at that time
travelled carrying their possessions, at the end of bamboo poles on their shoulders.
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| Tingha's main street was taken in the early 1870s, NSW |
Chen Quin Jack
Chen Quin Jack came from the southern Chinese province of Guangdong and arrived
in Australia in the 1850s. After travelling to various goldfields, he arrived at Tingha during the tin rush and converted to Christianity to marry a European woman named Mary Fuller. Chen Quin Jack also built the main Chinese Temple on Bundara Road and the Wing Hing Long store.
The Post Office was established in 1872, with the name of Armidale Crossing.
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| Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 - 1912), Saturday 16 November 1872 |
In 1873 a newspaper article claimed that at Tingha: "we have four public houses, seven stores, and two bakers' shops. About half the number would suffice. We have only one butcher s shop; the consequence is that meat rules high,....."
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| Armidale Express and New England General Advertiser (NSW : 1856 - 1861; 1863 - 1889; 1891 - 1954), Friday 2 May 1879 |
1880s
Tingha had a peak population of 2500 people in the 1880s.
Tingha had a Chinatown area with 3 joss houses, various gambling dens, NewYears Fesitval and Qingming (festival of the dead), shanty homes,
market gardens, opium dens.
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| Wing Hing Long & Co. Store at 10 Ruby Street, Tingha, NSW, was built from 1881 to 1895 |
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| Tingha Public School, Tingha, NSW, 1882 |
1890s
The first school was established by the Sisters of St. Joseph in 1890.
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| The main Chinese Temple at Tingha, NSW, about 1890 |
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| Tingha Town Band, NSW, late 1800s |
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| National Advocate (Bathurst, NSW : 1889 - 1954), Tuesday 23 February 1897 |
1900s
Robert Duck Chong, who was born in Tingha in 1900, talked about his childhood memories of opium smoking and gambling in the town. (
2.) Most of the general stores were owned by the Chinese.
The
Bundarra & Tingha Advocate newspaper, published in Bundarra, from 1900 to 1932.
After
the introduction of dredging at Tingha in 1902, tin mining returned to the level it was in the 1870s.
In the early 1900s, about 40 dredges were working the alluvial tin deposits around Tingha.
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| In the Joss House, Tinga, NSW, Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 - 1912), Saturday 3 August 1901 |
By the early 1900s, the
mining boom was over, and Tingha's population was at just a few hundred people. Shortly after this, large companies moved into the area to mine the less accessible tin.
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| Ruby Street, Tingha, NSW, Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1919), Wednesday 13 September 1905 |
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| THE AMALGAMATED DREDGING COMPANY'S NO 1 PLANT ON COPE'S CREEK, TINGHA, NSW, Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1883 - 1930), Saturday 14 July 1906 |
Cope's Creek Mine, 3.2 km outside Tingha town
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| Cope's Creek near Tingha, NSW. A Willoughby machine removed black sand which was retreated to extract tin. The Willoughby machine consisted of an outer tank with hand pump and pressure box and separating box with a perforated copper-plate false bottom. Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1919), Wednesday 30 January 1907 |
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| Tingha police residence, Tingha, NSW, 1910. Howell, the Conrad Mine |
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| Tingha Royal Hotel, NSW, circa 1912 |
WWI
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| Tingha, NSW |
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Daniel Orchard #1221 (on left) and Leo Dane Thorne #201.
ORCHARD Daniel : Service Number - 1221 : Place of Birth - Tingha NSW : Place of Enlistment - Armidale NSW : Next of Kin - (Father) ORCHARD Francis Henry
THORN Leo Dave : Service Number - 201 : Place of Birth - Gilgai NSW : Place of Enlistment - Inverell NSW : Next of Kin - (Mother) THORN Annie |
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| Studio portrait of 1187 Private (Pte) Thomas McArdle, 33rd Battalion, of Tingha, NSW. A grocer prior to enlistment in January 1916, Pte McArdle embarked on board HMAT Marathon (A74) on 4 May 1916. He was promoted to Lance Corporal (L/Cpl) in May 1917 and wounded in action in Belgium in June. L/Cpl McArdle was promoted to Corporal (Cpl) in February 1918. He was killed in action on 4 April 1918 at Villers-Bretonneux, France. Cpl McArdle was 22 years of age. |
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| Tingha Advocate and North-Western Journal (NSW : 1916 - 1932), Friday 4 February 1916 |
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| Tingha Advocate and North-Western Journal (NSW : 1916 - 1932), Friday 11 February 1916 |
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| Tingha Advocate and North-Western Journal (NSW : 1916 - 1932), Friday 11 February 1916 |
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| Tingha Advocate and North-Western Journal (NSW : 1916 - 1932), Friday 11 February 1916 |
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| Tingha Advocate and North-Western Journal (NSW : 1916 - 1932), Friday 22 September 1916 |
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| Tingha Red Cross function, 1918, to welcome the "March to Freedom" |
1920s
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| Tingha Advocate and North-Western Journal (NSW : 1916 - 1932), Friday 27 August 1920 |
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| Tingha Advocate and North-Western Journal (NSW : 1916 - 1932), Friday 27 August 1920 |
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| Tingha, NSW, 1920s-30s |
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| Tingha, NSW, 1920s-30s |
1930s
Ngoorumba Aboriginal school, previously known as Long Gully School, was established in 1932. Before this, the AIM (Australian Inland Mission) were involved with educating the students at Long Gully. Some of the
names of the students are: Livermore, Blair, Baker, Munro, Connors, Edwards, Brown and Madden.
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| Post Office, Tingha, NSW, n.d. |
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| Tingha Advocate and North-Western Journal (NSW : 1916 - 1932), Friday 2 October 1931 |
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| Long Gully, near Tingha, NSW, c1931 |
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| Missionaries cabin and Mission Church, Long Gully (Tingha), 1933. Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales. |
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| Ngoorumba Aboriginal School, Long Gully, Tingha. National Library Australia, 1936 |
1940s and WWII
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| Claude Charles Livermore (Charlie) Aboriginal PoW, survived three-and-a-half years at Changi, the notorious Japanese prison camp, arriving home to Australia on the Arawa. "The face of an Aboriginal mother as she clasped her son, Pte. C.C. Livermore, of Tingha". 2/18th Australian Infantry Battalion, NSW, Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 - 1954), Saturday 6 October 1945 |
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| Armidale Express and New England General Advertiser (NSW : 1856 - 1861; 1863 - 1889; 1891 - 1954), Friday 28 November 1947 |
1950s
Tin mining was still an important industry in the region.
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| Back to Tingha Week, Inverell Times (NSW : 1899 - 1907, 1909 - 1954), Wednesday 27 December 1950 |
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| Tingha Public School, 1950-1, NSW |
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| Tingha Public School, NSW, c1956 |
1960s
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| Tingha District Hospital 1960. FRONT ROW: L to R, Jack DARBY (gardener), Mr J JANSEN (Secretary), Sid DARBY (Gardener, Yardsman, Cow Milker), Patricia URQUARDT, Gai PAYNE nee McDONALD , Sister ?, Sister June BURKE. MIDDLE ROW: Norma COX, Margaret CAMPBELL, Marie HOLDER, Kath HUTTON, Gloria DARBY, Josie LAVENDER. BACK ROW: Margaret DARBY, Beryl DAVIS, Mrs Theresa TING, Judy COX. |
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| Martin Kwok and Gordon Fong outside Eric Fong's battery manufacturing store (next to Sam Kee), Ruby St, Tingha, circa 1961 |
1970s
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| Tingha Tigers, NSW, 1972 |
1990s
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| Floods, Tingha, NSW, 1991 |
In early 1998, the Wing Hing Long store in Ruby Street, Tingha, and most of its contents were purchased by Guyra Shire Council for community management as a living museum.
2019
The Tingha area officially becomes part of Inverell Shire.
In March 2019, fire on the Tingha Plateau destroyed 14 homes and more than 40 outbuildings. Nineteen other homes and outbuildings were damaged and 23,528 hectares were burned. No lives were lost during the fire.
