Traralgon

Traralgon (/trərælɡən/ trəh-RAL-gən, locally /təˈrælɡən/ tə-RAL-gən) is a city located in the east of the Latrobe Valley in the Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia and the most populous city in the City of Latrobe and the region. The urban population of Traralgon at the 2021 census was 26,907. It is the largest and fastest growing city in the greater Latrobe Valley area, which has a population of 77,168 at the 2021 Census and is administered by the City of Latrobe.

The origin of the name Traralgon is unconfirmed. The name was used for the pastoral lease of the Hobson brothers in 1844, centred on Traralgon Creek, and was alternatively rendered 'Tralgon' by Dr Edumund Hobson. The town was also spelt "Taralgon" in the earliest records of the Gippsland Times available in 1861.

The Gippsland Farmers' Journal wrote in 1889 that the town name was originally spelt 'Tarralgon' and that it was the Indigenous name for 'the river of little fish'. However, these words are not reflected in modern linguists' knowledge of Gunai/Kurnai language. Records of the language show that the words wun wun or wurn wurn mean 'river', the words dala or tarlo mean 'little', while the words kine or kain mean 'fish'. It might be possible to combine words into tarlo-kain, which sounds similar to 'Traralgon', but no such compound word was recorded.

In 1989, Don Macreadie wrote that Paweł Strzelecki named Traralgon after Taralga, the hometown of Charlie Tarra, but the statement lacks evidence.

Traralgon is situated on the traditional lands of the Indigenous Gunai/Kurnai nation, which includes the lands of the Braiakaulung clan of Bunjil Kraura, who lived to the north of Latrobe River (called Durt'yowan in Gunai language), as well as the clan of Woollum-Woollum, who lived on the hills to the south of the river and were more affiliated with the Brataualung people.

Gunai/Kurnai people manufactured stone tools, as long as 5,000 years ago, from silcrete quarries in the Haunted Hills, west of Morwell. Scarred trees and rock sites with axe-grinding grooves are also found in the local area. The Gippsland region was inhabited by the Gunai/Kurnai people for a period in excess of 20,000 years, according to evidence of occupation found at the New Guinea II cave near Buchan, Victoria. In other parts of Victoria evidence of Indigenous occupation has been found for many more thousands of years.

The first non-Indigenous visitors to the area of Traralgon included the party of Count Paweł Strzelecki on their journey from the Snowy Mountains in April 1840, after Strzelecki had named Australia's highest peak as Mount Kosciuszko. Charley Tarra, a Burra Burra man from the NSW town of Taralga, was the Indigenous guide for the party, which included Strzelecki; the New South Wales men James MacArthur and James Riley; and their servants, Irish convict James Nolan and African convict John Rent.

The party crossed Latrobe River and travelled along Traralgon Creek to a heavily forested area, where the party was forced to abandon their horses and equipment. The location was commemorated by monument at Traralgon Creek, Koornalla, erected in 1927. The team's rations were reduced to a slice of bacon and a biscuit per day, but Tarra hunted for animals to end their hunger. They traversed the headwaters of Morwell River, before making a difficult journey across the heavily forested mountain range. They reached Anderson's run in Western Port in May 1840, then walked to Melbourne.