Thowgla and Upper Thowgla

These two rural localities in north-east Victoria are situated on the Thowgla Creek, generally south of Corryong.

The creek was named after the Thowgla pastoral run (1848), and it is thought that the name derived from an Aboriginal word describing a spoonbill wading bird.

Upper Thowgla, 13 km south of Corryong, was settled as the result of alluvial gold being found there in 1880. Within a few months it was estimated that the goldfield had about 500 people, with an assortment of hastily constructed buildings that included a hotel, bakery, general store and butchery. The settlement was relatively brief, as the Victorian municipal directory recorded in 1882 that the shallow ground was being worked out and the population was decreasing.

During the late 1890s mining was revived by the Thowgla Creek Dredging Company, and the activity was sufficiently permanent for a school to be opened in 1902.

Apart from mining the Thowgla valley had farming potential, and settlement occurred there during the 1880s. Thowgla, 5 km south-east of Corryong, obtained a school in 1885. Both places are now comprised of grazing properties. The schools closed in 1950 when Corryong Consolidated was opened, and the Thowgla hall is the valley’s main public centre.

Thowgla and Upper Thowgla’s census populations have been: