Heritage, Art and Culture

Tumut’s colonial heritage, rooted in the gold rush era, is still visible today in its grand historic buildings and atmospheric pioneer cemetery.

The town’s modern history began in November 1824, when explorers Hamilton Hume and William Hovell discovered a lush green valley threaded by a wide, winding river. Their journey is commemorated by the Hume and Hovell Track, a 426-kilometre hiking trail stretching from Yass to Albury, which crosses the Snowy Mountains Highway just 11 kilometres southeast of Tumut.

Tumut’s earliest settlement was known as Mill Angle, and the town’s first river crossing was constructed in 1850. When severe flooding struck two years later, the scattered hamlets were united, forming the single village that would become the Tumut we know today.