Charles Throsby passed through the Taralga area in 1819 on a journey from Cowpastures to Bathurst in search of new grazing lands.

By 1824, John Macarthur's son James and his nephew Hannibal had established themselves in the Taralga region where they helped pioneer Australia's wool industry.

[7] For the first few decades of the colony of New South Wales, most of the settlers were convicts assigned to the landowners and it was they who largely cleared the land, built the huts and houses, and ran the farms.

[8] Taralga was officially established as a town in the 1860s, with a school in 1857, and churches—Presbyterian in 1861, St. Ignatius Roman Catholic in 1864, St. Lukes Anglican in 1866 and Methodist (now the Historical Society building) in 1868.

In 1923, the town was visited by Premier Sir George Fuller, marking a period of renewed interest and prosperity in Taralga.

The town also hosts the annual "Australia Day Rodeo" and the Taralga Tigers Rugby Club always attracts big crowds during the Winter months and in the summer touch football is played.

Taralga is the largest settlement between the two towns and a convenient stop for travellers between Goulburn and Bathurst wishing to bypass Sydney.

On 20 February 2012, approval was granted by the New South Wales Government for work to commence on the Taralga Wind Farm.

Electricity generated by the project will be fed into the national power grid through a 38 km transmission line to Marulan Substation.

Chief Justice Brian Preston ruled in favour of approving the wind farm as the long-term benefit of reduced greenhouse gas emissions was in the greater public interest.

The layout of the wind farm can be seen through this link There is a small wildlife park in Taralga that keeps a number of native and domestic species including bare-nosed wombats, eastern grey kangaroos, hill wallaroos, red-necked wallabies, dingoes, dromedary camel, llama (including hybrid llama-guanaco), alpacas, donkey, miniature horses, fallow deer, blackbuck, eastern bearded dragon, blotched blue-tongued lizards, shingleback lizards, spiny-tailed skinks, wedge-tailed eagle, tawny frogmouth, laughing kookaburra, channel-billed cuckoos, blue-and yellow macaw, cockatoos (sulphur-crest, pink, yellow-tailed black, red-tailed black & gang-gang), parrots, black swans, geese, ducks, royal spoonbill, glossy ibis, helmeted guineafowl, pheasants, turkeys and others.

Temperatures are generally mild to warm in summer, whereas winters are cool to cold during days, with frequent frosts by nightfall.