Trangie is small country service centre of some 1100 people, situated 493 km north-west of Sydney and 220 metres above sea-level in the Macquarie Valley Irrigation Area. It is located on the main western railway line and on the Mitchell Highway, between Narromine (35 km south-east) and Nyngan (90 km north-west). Trangie has a caravan park and three fine corner-block pubs.

As you enter the town from the south you cross the Goan Waterhole which, at certain times, can be a spectacular display of mosses and water plants. The townscape is dominated by the Trangie silo - a testimony to the centrality of wheat to Narromine Shire. There are weekly fat cattle sales and vast cotton fields outside the town. Sheep, wool, sorghum and fat lambs are also important to the shire's economy.

The area is thought to have been occupied by the Wongaibon Aborigines prior to white settlement. 'Trangie' is an indigenous word said to mean 'quick'.

The town later developed on 'Weemaabah' station, established, presumably, in the 1830s. It was used for the grazing of cattle and, later, for sheep-grazing and horse-breeding.

The Cobb & Co. coach service from Dubbo to Bourke passed through the property and stopped at the Swinging Gate Hotel, up-river. However, a township did not develop until the railway arrived in 1882, en route from Dubbo to Nevertire. Local wool producers benefited greatly from the improved transportation.

In 1909 an experimental farm was established to develop wheat-growing and the breeding of merino sheep. An Angus beef cattle stud was established in 1929. Saleyards were built in the 1940s and the first wheat silo was erected in 1962. Local agriculture expanded when Burrendong Dam was completed in 1967.

The small village of Dandaloo, 42 km south-west, was used as the setting for 'Banjo' Paterson's poems 'An Idyll of Dandaloo' and 'An Evening in Dandaloo'. The 'Idyll' reads: 'On Western plains, where shade is not....There stands the town of Dandaloo/A township where life's total sum/Is sleep, diversified with rum'.

Map of Trangie