Address & Contact
2305-2811 Manilla Rd
Attunga NSW 2345
Phone: +612 6767 5555
Email: trc@tamworth.nsw.gov.au
Web: https://www.tamworth.nsw.gov.au
Attunga is a small town about 20km north of Tamworth on the Manilla Rd.
The name is an Aboriginal word for "a high place", and was originally the name for a nearby farm operated by pastoralist John Brown in the 1840s.
The village of Attunga was gazetted in 1847 but early settlement appears to have been slow. The first recorded burials at the Attunga Cemetery date from 1872 with the earliest inscriptions dated 1881. BHP opened a limestone quarry there in 1919.
Population growth remained slow until the mid-twentieth century. The current population of 633 includes families of commuters to Tamworth. Services in Attunga currently include a primary school, supermarket, hotel and sports ground, and rural fire service headquarters.
The main industries are sheep and cattle farming, and limestone mining from the mine to the east of the town. The town abuts the Attunga State Forest, a popular walking and camping destination.
As a humerous note, the Attunga pub can lay claim to probably the youngest licensee in the state, if not Australia. The publican was so young in fact that he was unable to drink in his own bar! A loophole in the Licensing Act allowed the son of the owner of the pub, 17-year-old Donald Bernard Harris to become licensee in 1939. At the time the pub was known as the Railway Hotel. The teenager held the license from February 13 1939, until July 1 1940.
The pub was destroyed by fire in 1941, was replaced by a bar in a shed for the war years and was rebuilt in 1955.
The full story can be found at
https://timegents.com/2020/07/23/a-loophole-allowed-attunga-pub-to-have-a-17-year-old-licensee-in-1939/