Barellan is notable as the childhood home of the tennis player Evonne Goolagong (now Evonne Goolagong Cawley). There is a small plaque honouring her in the main street. Evonne Goolagong was born in nearby Griffith on 31 July 1951 and attended Barellan Primary School. Although Aboriginal people faced widespread discrimination in rural Australia at this time, Evonne was able to play tennis in Barellan from childhood thanks to Bill Kurtzman, a kindly resident, who saw her peering through the fence at the local courts and encouraged her to come in to play. Goolagong left Barellan to attend Willoughby Girls High School in Sydney where she developed her tennis-playing skills.
A 13.8 metres (45 ft) long replica of a tennis racquet used by Evonne Goolagong has been built in Evonne Goolagong Park. Goolagong unveiled the exact scale model of the wooden Dunlop racquet during Barellan's centenary celebrations on 3 October 2009.[11]
Barellan Central School
Barellan has a central school that goes from kindergarten to year 12 and has 100[12] enrolled students. Barellan is part of the RAP (Riverina Access Partnership) which allows the year 11 and 12 students to complete their HSC. It comprises students from Hillston Central, Ardlethan Central and Ariah Park Central in video conferencing. In 2010, Oaklands Central and Urana Central Schools entered the Partnership and has a local light bulb collector that gets old fluorescent tubes .[13]
Football
The Barellan Rams compete in the Group 17 Rugby League competition. They were Clayton Cup winners as the best local team in the state in 1999 and 2002.
In 1984, the Riverina District Football League changed its name back to the Farrer Football League and Barellan competed in this league from 1984 to 1992, when they joined the Northern Riverina Football League in 1993 and had a great run of success with senior football premierships in – 1994, 95, 96, 97, 98 and 2011.
