Tarago is a town in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia in Goulburn Mulwaree Council. Part of the defined locality, which includes a large area of grazing country, is on the eastern shore of Lake George in the area of the Queanbeyan–Palerang Regional Council. The town is situated 39 kilometres south of the city of Goulburn and 69 kilometres northeast of Canberra, the capital city of Australia. It is located on the Goulburn-Braidwood road. The town is notable for recent renewable energy projects in the surrounding districts. History The area is the traditional land of the Ngunnawal people, but was also traversed by other tribes going to the coast or the Monaro during the Bogong moth season. Stone artefacts dating back 20,000 years have been found at nearby Lake George. Lake Bathurst was discovered in April 1818 by chance on a journey of exploration commissioned by Governor Macquarie to find a route from the inland to the settlement on the south coast at Jervis Bay headed by Surveyor General James Meehan. The town of Tarago was originally known as Sherwin's Flats, the town took the name "Tarago", possibly an Aboriginal word meaning "country", from the town presently known as Lake Bathurst, which is located 7 km north of Tarago. The name change coincided with the railway line's arrival and the opening of the station on 3 January 1884. Within the town a number of historic buildings remain in use, including the original 1884 railway station, the St Josephs Catholic Church, and the Loaded Dog Hotel, which dates from 1848. Heritage listings Tarago has a number of heritage-listed sites, including the Tarago railway station Mining and energy Woodlawn Mine The town of Tarago serves the adjoining large Woodlawn Mine site. The mine, which operated from 1978 to 1998 extracted gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc from deposits formed within the Lachlan Fold Belt. During the period of mining operations, goods sidings were added at the town's railway station to facilitate the transfer of minerals to and from the site. The closure of the mine came about when the operator, Denehurst Limited was placed in administration due to financial difficulties and subsequently sparked controversy when the pay entitlements of the 160 former miners, totalling $6.5 million, were not paid. In 2012, Canadian-Australian mining company TriAusMin proposed reactivating the mine to potentially extract minerals at the site from both the three