Tingha, New South Wales

Tingha is a small town on the Northern Tablelands, New South Wales, Australia in Guyra Shire. It is 30 kilometres south of Inverell and 629 kilometres north-north-east of Sydney. Tingha is an Aboriginal word for ‘flat or level'.

History
Before European settlement the Tingha area was occupied by the Anaiwan, a sub-group of the Murri Aboriginal people. Many of their descendants still live in the surrounding area.

Tingha was first settled in 1841 by Sydney Hudson Darby and became a mining town after tin was discovered there in the 1870s. Within a year Australia’s first commercial tin mines were operating at a private settlement known as Armidale Crossing. Over 6,000 people arrived and more than 25% of the miners were Chinese. The Wing Hing Long Museum is a reminder of that heritage. The Post Office was established in 1872, initially under the name of Armidale Crossing.

The village was proclaimed a town in 1885. Initially there were enough readily accessible surface deposits to make a good living without using machinery as the Chinese did. The first school was established by the Sisters of St. Joseph in 1890. In the 1890s drought came to the district and the easily obtained deposits of tin were exhausted leading to a loss in population.

By the early 1900s the mining boom was over and Tingha's population had dwindled to just a few hundred people. Shortly after this, large companies moved into the area to mine the less accessible tin.

Today
The main industry nowadays is agriculture with some fossicking in the area. Tin dredging and mining has continued on a scale that varies according to international price fluctuations.

Tingha has a hospital, pre-school, caravan park, modern sports and recreation club, a First Aid post, hotels plus other shops and services to supply daily needs. Tingha's 'Swimming Hole' is a large man made pool which was once a mining excavation. One of the main attractions around Tingha is "Green Valley Farm" Entertainment Park.

Notable Identities

 * Nathan Blacklock former NRL Australia national rugby league team, St George Illawarra Dragons, Hull New South Wales Waratahs player
 * Preston Campbell current Gold Coast Titans, and former Cronulla Sharks, Penrith Panthers