Tongala Accommodation, Hotels, Tours & Information

Tongala

Home to the Golden Cow and the Nestle milk factory, Tongala is just a short drive from Echuca on the Victorian side of the NSW border. It's fair dinkum dairy country out here, as you might expect, and pretty as a picture. The Golden Cow Dairy Education and Tourism Centre presents a working, hands-on rundown of the dairy and associated agricultural industries. Visitors can watch milking sessions, cuddle young calves and tap into the history of the dairy industry, irrigation development, land care and techniques to combat the scourge of rising salinity in soil levels. Tongala also hosts an annual Tent Town Festival in March when artists and craftsmen gather to show their wares and to discuss the state of their art. At neighbouring Kyabram, there's a fauna park, and it's only 15 minutes or so by car to Echuca and its NSW twin, Moama, which straddle the border. Shepparton is about half an hour's drive away to the east. The Goulburn River is nearby and the 7000ha Barmah State Park lies just beyond Echuca. The park and the adjoining state forest contain the largest stand of red gums in the world. Some of the gums in the Heritage-listed forest are more than 500 years old. Many of the trees top 45metres and have a girth of up to four metres.