Talwood residents, have your say: North Talwood, South Talwood or just ‘Talwood’?

Talwood residents will have the opportunity to have their say on the future name of their town and surrounding localities.

Goondiwindi Regional Council is considering an appeal from the Talwood Community Consultative Committee (CCC) to make a formal request to the Queensland Government to merge the localities of North Talwood and South Talwood into one locality of Talwood.

Council is requesting more community input from the Talwood community before formally proceeding with the CCC’s request. Residents should provide any feedback to Council’s Community and Economic Development Manager Megan Boyd at 07 4671 7401 or MBoyd@grc.qld.gov.au before 31 August 2022.

Deputy Mayor Rob Mackenzie frequently represents Council at the Talwood CCC meetings, and said members of the CCC felt the north-south division caused confusion.

“Feedback from the Talwood CCC has shown that some Talwood residents see no need for, nor do they want, the two different locality names,” he said. “I think many in Talwood may hold the view that the north-south divide can create confusion for visitors, deliveries and freight, with no real benefit to having the two separate place names,” Cr Mackenzie said.

“Council now wishes to put this issue to the wider Talwood community for their input and consultation before proceeding to take the matter to the state government, who will ultimately be the ones making the decision.”

Historically, the two localities were named based on whether they were north or south of the South-Western Railway Line.

However, both areas share the same postcode and services, such as the Talwood State School.

“Although most people locally just refer to it as Talwood, government records and departments such as the Australian Bureau of Statistics have officially divided Talwood into north and south localities,” Cr Mackenzie said. “That means residents will likely have North or South Talwood as their official address, which would need to be changed if the place name changed.”

If the state government were to accept the request to merge the localities, affected property owners would also need to notify service providers (such as electricity and telecommunications providers, the Department of Transport) of the change.

In the 2021 census, North Talwood had a population of 113 people and South Talwood had a population of 101 people.