Tatura

Tatura may be a small town, but it's home to some big businesses. It is a place of historic buildings and one of the nation’s centres of agricultural innovation. Tatura is a busy place where farming families come to shop and socialise, but it seems to move to the steady but slow beat of its own drum. Surrounded by some of the most productive orchards and irrigated pastures in the country, Tatura and its surrounds produce hundreds of millions of dollars worth of food every year. Tatura was also at the centre of a network of P.O.W. camps during WWII, the history of the interned Germans and Italians told sensitively in the town’s extensive museum. Tat, as it’s known to locals, is home to the largest dairy expo in the Southern Hemisphere every January. After that, fruit harvest is one of the busiest times of the year. In spring, the cherries ripen, and local orchardists put up signs outside their packing sheds and homes to make their little annual farm gates. The process is repeated in late summer and autumn when the apples and pears are harvested, and people make the pilgrimage travelling the highways and backroads to make the most of Tatura’s seasonal bounty. Make sure these local landmarks are on your list: the butchers, the bakers, the pubs (top, middle and bottom), the water tower, Cussen Park and the home of every chef’s favourite: Tatura Butter, stocked at the town’s two independent grocers.

Water Tower
Tatura's town water supply is fed from a concrete tower built in 1912 by Victorian engineer Sir John Monash and his team. Monash served in WWI and, with his engineering and planning acumen, assisted allies in winning strategic battlegrounds that helped end the war. In 2021 artists Cam Scale and Andrew Davis painted a towering portrait of Sir John Monash looking out over the town and, on the other side, a cascade of remembrance poppies.

A Patchwork of Food
Drive the backroads around Tatura, and you'll find a broad landscape crisscrossed by irrigation canals, with almost endless orchards laden with stone fruit in spring and apples and pears in late summer. In the paddocks, beef and dairy graze head down. We produce over $500 million worth of dairy and $250 million of apples, with our agricultural economy worth a whopping $1.2 billion each year. So, take time and take the backroads. There's a lot of food being grown to see between our little towns.

The Civic Halls
For a small town, these twin halls are remarkably grand. Built in 1882, the Mechanics Institute was the centre of religion and study in town in its early days before churches and libraries were built. It was joined in 1925 by the majestic Victory Hall commemorating WWI. With its columns, carved lions and Victorian finials, it is an architectural mix – and now a place where locals gather for art shows, theatre, recitals and town hall meetings.

Tatura Museum
The Tatura Museum includes details of early families, the intern camps and stories of the entrepreneurs who established Tatura and the Goulburn Valley. The collection explores three main themes: the history of irrigation in the Goulburn Valley; the local and family history of Tatura and the district since white settlement; and the History of the seven World War 2 Prisoner of War and Internment Camps, the Garrison and Hospital.

Tatura Butter
Tatura Butter is considered by many chefs to be the best butter to cook with. It was first made in town back in 1907 and today the factory is still an iconic part of the town, a great modernist collection of giant white blocks producing 80,000 tonnes of dairy products every year. You'll find Tatura butter stocked in our independent supermarkets and food stores.