The Brief History

At the far end of the world, Tasmania needed more than the Zeehan/Derby and Queenstown gold rushes to attract a stable population. With Tasmania's mountainous landscape and high rainfall, hydroelectricity was the answer. Far sighted engineers conceived the building of dams, the construction of canals, and the installation of power stations. Work began in the 1920s and Tarraleah was selected as a hydro town.

Work began in the 1920's and the land was heavily forested. The Lodge was built in the 1930s by the Hydro Electric Commission (HEC) at a time when money and craftsmanship was no object. It was the centrepiece of the Tarraleah settlement and was originally built for the visiting engineers and directors. At the same time the HEC needed to attract quality engineering staff to Tasmania and Tarraleah and the cottages were constructed.

Well built and with every modern convenience of the time, housing was provided to some of the worlds elite hydro electric engineers. At its peak in the 1980s the town boasted the cottages, 3 pubs, 2 churches, extensive workshops, sports ovals, a post office, butcher, police station, supermarket and school.

In 1996 the town officially closed and the majority of the housing was sold. Houses were literally cut up and loaded onto trucks and relocated around Tasmania. The land slowly reverted back to scrub and by 2005 the population had sunk from 1600 to 4. The current owners acquired the property in 2005 and the renovation and relaunch of Tarraleah began.

Tarraleah is an Aboriginal word which means Forrester Kangaroo.