Old Tailem Town

Old Tailem Town is Australia's largest pioneer village located on the Princes Highway at Tailem Bend in the Coorong District of South Australia. Established from 1982, it preserves more than 100 historic buildings relocated from across the region to recreate an early 1900s township. The open-air museum displays period interiors, vintage vehicles, and memorabilia illustrating South Australian settler life, serving as a major heritage attraction between Adelaide and the Coorong National Park.

Visitors can explore a recreated early 1900s township with over 100 relocated historic buildings including shops, church, bank, hospital, blacksmith, and cottages furnished with period items. The open-air village is set on flat ground along the Princes Highway with gravel streets, vintage cars, trucks, horse-drawn vehicles, and extensive memorabilia collections. Visitors walk between buildings at their own pace, view interiors, photograph displays, and can take guided tours to learn about pioneer life in the Murray Mallee and Coorong region.

Established in 1982 to preserve South Australia's pioneer heritage, Old Tailem Town was created by relocating more than 100 historic buildings dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries that were threatened with demolition. The buildings were moved from across the Murray Mallee, Coorong and surrounding districts to recreate a typical South Australian township from the early 1900s, documenting settler life, rural industries and community development.

The village preserves and interprets the social and cultural heritage of South Australian pioneers, showcasing domestic life, trades, transport and community institutions of the early 1900s. It serves as an educational and community heritage resource illustrating settlement history of the Coorong and Murraylands region.