Tara

History

Baranggum people were and are the aboriginal people settled in the area of the town of Tara. The town was surveyed in May 1910 by Leonard Shield, and named Tara after the local pastoral run of the same name gazetted on 25 March 1852. It is assumed that this is a reference to the Hill of Tara in County Meath, Ireland. The school was located south-west of Tara just north of the Glenmorgan railway line at . Tara State School opened on 21 August 1912. On 28 November 2004, it was renamed the Tara Shire State College, In March 1943, the community requested that the school building, from the closed Goranba State School, be relocated to the Warra-Kogan Road near the Myra Meadows property, a site donated by Andrew Watt Adams. This request was approved in October 1943, and the subsequently relocated school building was opened as Myra State School in 1944 but closed on 2 February 1945. Its location was a site on the eastern side of the Tara Kogan Road (). St Joseph's Catholic Primary School was established in 1965 by the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart. From 1978, the school has had a lay principal. Tara Library opened in 1987 and had a major refurbishment in 2009. On 14 March 2011 a blockade against coal seam gas development began at a property called "Kenya" near Tara. The following day, a woman was arrested after she stopped the movement of a bulldozer working for the Queensland Gas Company. The next month Bob Irwin was arrested and fined for participating in a rally at the same location. He was protesting against plans to build a coal seam gas pipeline. Local landowner Dayne Pratzky, now an anti-coal seam gas activist, features in the 2015 movie-length documentary Frackman. On 12 December 2022, Constables Matthew Arnold and Rachel McCrow were murdered at…

Geography

Tara is on the Darling Downs. The town is at the centre of the locality. Immediately surrounding the urban area of Tara, there are a number of rural subdivisions of 'lifestyle blocks'. The blocks are usually between 13 and 40 ha in area. The population of the 2000 Rural Subdivision blocks exceeds that of the town itself. The Glenmorgan railway line traverses the locality from east (Goranba) to west (The Gums). There are two railway stations within the locality: * Tara railway station, serving the town () * Tullagrie railway station, to the south-west of the town but now abandoned ()

Most-observed species

• Magpie-lark

  Grallina cyanoleuca (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  40
• Galah

  Eolophus roseicapilla (Vieillot, 1817) · Aves
  39
• Willie-wagtail

  Rhipidura leucophrys (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  38
• Apostlebird

  Struthidea cinerea Gould, 1837 · Aves
  31
• White-plumed Honeyeater

  Ptilotula penicillata (Gould, 1837) · Aves
  29
• Red-rumped Parrot

  Psephotus haematonotus (Gould, 1838) · Aves
  28
• Common Myna

  Acridotheres tristis (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  27
• Scaly-breasted Lorikeet

  Trichoglossus chlorolepidotus (Kuhl, 1820) · Aves
  26