The main public buildings are a general store, a preschool and primary school (now closed), Saint Edmund's Anglican Church, a cemetery, a community hall and tennis courts.

Tharwa was named after the Aboriginal word for Mount Tennent, a nearby mountain peak which is part of Namadgi National Park.

Tennant lived in a hideout on the mountain behind Tharwa from which he raided local homesteads 1827–1828, before being arrested and transported to Norfolk Island.

The works took two years and involved removal of the old bridge deck and barrier railings as well as installation of new cross girders and sway braces to the permanent trusses.

[4] Lambrigg is an historical property near Tharwa where William Farrer conducted his work on genetic selection for his wheat varieties.

It was established by Count Leopold Fabius Dietegen Fane De Salis when his family moved to nearby Cuppacumbalong.

[6] The 19 recorded burials between 1876 and 1903 are marked by four headstones and the De Salis granite obelisk, which is placed inside another stone circular wall.

The astronomical measurement of the position on the Earth's surface is only very slightly distorted by a non-vertical gravitational field 0.3" to north and 0.6" to the west.