Tarilta, originally known as Kangaroo Flat, emerged following the discovery of gold near the junction of Kangaroo Creek and the Loddon River in 1853.[4] A school was established in 1860 within a Wesleyan chapel, and the township was officially surveyed and named Tarilta in 1864, a name believed to derive from a Djadjawurrung word meaning "kangaroo."[4] By 1865, Bailliere’s Victorian Gazetteer described Tarilta as a gold-mining town featuring both alluvial and quartz operations, with three quartz-crushing mills, three horse-puddling machines, and two hotels. Tarilta’s elevated location was accessible only by horse-drawn dray or horseback, including via the Cobb and Co mail service.[4]
