Tailem Bend (locally, "Tailem") is a rural town in South Australia, south-east of the state capital of Adelaide. It is located on the lower reaches of the River Murray, near where the river flows into Lake Alexandrina. It is linear in layout since it is constrained by river cliffs on its western side and the Adelaide–Melbourne railway line is dominant on its eastern side. The town grew and consolidated through being a large railway centre between the 1890s and 1990s; now it continues to service regional rural communities. In the , Tailem Bend and the surrounding area had a population of 1,705. History Prior to European settlement the area was inhabited for millennia by the indigenous Ngarrindjeri people, who made bark and reed canoes and lived on fish and animals dependent on the River Murray. Once written as "Tail'em Bend", the town's name is the Ngarrindjeri word "thelim", meaning "bend", referring to the sharp bend that the river makes in this location. An alternative explanation is that this part of the river was "Thelum Ki", meaning "bent water". In 1884, while building the railway line eastwards to the colony of Victoria, a track-laying gang set up camp among some native pine trees and named their site "Pine Camp". A township grew from there. In 1887, the year after the railway opened for traffic, "Tailem Bend" was proclaimed. Industry Major industries in the area include pig farming, dairying, and growing grains, hay and olives. The head office of Coorong District Council is situated in the town. The Tailem Bend Solar Power Project and The Bend Motorsport Park, respectively and south-east of the town, are significant recent additions to the region's economy. The Tailem Bend railway centre was a large employer for much of the 20th century, providing refuelling, servicing and maintenance facilities for trains on the interstate railway line and rural lines radiating into the Murraylands to the north-east. The steep grades and sharp curves of the Mount Lofty Ranges towards Adelaide required steam locomotives with power at slow speeds; for the relatively straight and flat interstate line to the Victorian border, fast, large-wheeled locomotives were needed. In 1926, expanded facilities were opened, including a large roundhouse, as part of the reforms initiated by the South Australian Railways Commissioner William Webb. Diesel-electric locomotives introduced in the 1950s had wider power and speed ranges, and longer distances between refuelling, reduciing the need