Illabo Explained
| Type: | town |
| Illabo |
| State: | nsw |
| Coordinates: | -34.8167°N 147.75°W |
| Pop: | 144 |
| Postcode: | 2590 |
| Elevation: | 279 |
| Dist1: | 416 |
| Dir1: | SW |
| Location1: | Sydney |
| Dist2: | 54 |
| Dir2: | NE |
| Location2: | Wagga Wagga |
| Dist3: | 17 |
| Dir3: | E |
| Location3: | Junee |
| Lga: | Junee Shire |
| County: | Clarendon |
| Stategov: | Cootamundra |
| Fedgov: | Riverina |
Illabo (pron. ILL a boh) is a locality in the South West Slopes part of the Riverina in New South Wales, Australia. It is situated about 13km (08miles) southwest of Bethungra and 16km (10miles) northeast of Junee. At the 2016 census, Illabo had a population of 144.
History
Illabo Post Office opened on 1 July 1879.[1] A railway station on the Main South railway served the town between 1878 and the 1970s.[2] A grain silo remains in use. The town name is said to derive from an Aboriginal word meaning "where", but other sources derive it as a clipping of billabong.[3]
Noted residents
- George Main, a chairman of the Australian Jockey Club, and his wife Mary had a grazing property "Retreat", at Illabo, where they bred racehorses and ran sheep. The George Main Stakes was named for him.
- Their daughter Jean Main married Clive Caldwell in 1940 and lived in Illabo for several years after Caldwell became one of Australia's leading fighter aces of WWII and was known as "Killer Caldwell", a household name throughout Australia.
- Hugh Main, George's brother, also a horse breeder but much better known as the local MLA 1920–1938, had an adjacent property, part of "Retreat",[4] and has been referred to as "Retreat East", and may have been at least in part, in the Bethungra district.
External links
Notes and References
- Web site: Phoenix Auctions History . Post Office List . 24 January 2021.
- http://www.nswrail.net/locations/show.php?name=NSW:Illabo&line=NSW:main_south:0 Illabo station
- Web site: Archived copy . 25 April 2018 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20160323133543/http://www.ipswich.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/8690/indigenous_place_names.pdf . 23 March 2016 .
- News: Breeding Notes By Wolaroi . . 1596 . New South Wales, Australia . 1 August 1917 . 8 July 2019 . 7 . National Library of Australia.
