| Yea Victoria |
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High Street, Yea |
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Yea
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| Population: | 1,052 (ABS Census 2006)(2006)[1] | ||||||||||||
| Postcode: | 3717 | ||||||||||||
| Location: | |||||||||||||
| LGA: | Shire of Murrindindi | ||||||||||||
| State District: | Seymour | ||||||||||||
| Federal Division: | McEwen | ||||||||||||
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Yea ( /ˈjeɪ/ yay)[2] is a town in Victoria, Australia. It is in the Shire of Murrindindi local government area. Located 109 kilometres (68 mi) north-east of Melbourne via the Melba Highway, Yea sits at the junction with the Goulburn Valley Highway, and 172 metres (564 ft) above sea-level. At the 2006 Census, Yea had a population of 1,052.[1]
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The area was historically inhabited by the Taungurung people. The first Europeans in the area were a party of explorers led by William Hovell and Hamilton Hume, who crossed the Goulburn River at a point near the locality in 1824. Their favourable report of the grazing land they had observed contributed to the formation of a new settlement that is now known as the state of Victoria.
The first settlers in the district were overlanders from New South Wales, who arrived in 1837. By 1839, settlements and farms dotted the area along the Goulburn River.
The town was surveyed and laid out in 1855 and named [3] after Colonel Lacy Walter Yea [4] — a British Army colonel killed that year in the Crimean War. Town lots went on sale at Kilmore the following year. Settlement followed and the Post Office opened on 15 January 1858.[5]
The town site was initially known to pioneer settlers as the Muddy Creek settlement for the Yea River, called Muddy Creek until 1878.
When gold was discovered in the area in 1859 a number of smaller mining settlements came into existence, including Molesworth. Yea expanded into a township under the influx of hopeful prospectors, with the addition of several housing areas, an Anglican church (erected in 1869) and a population of 250 when it formally became a shire in 1873.
After the proceeds of the goldrush, the town of Yea survived on farming and timber getting (chiefly from the Murrindindi forests). The heyday of the Yea sawmilling industry was from 1907–1915, when the Great War saw many men enlist, and then another boom was between 1923 to 1930, after which the onset of the Great Depression saw production greatly reducing as demand fell. In these times of huge production, there was in excess of 2,500,000 board feet (5,900 m3) of timber sent out each year over the tramlines to Cheviot.
What later became the railway to Mansfield arrived in 1883, with an extension to Molesworth in 1889, chiefly for timber transport to Melbourne.[6] Running steam trains, the train service cut through steep hills and undulating country to connect the shire with the main city. The line was closed on 18 November 1978, with the last passenger service running on 28 May 1977.[7] Although much of the railway property has been appropriated by nearby farmland, the original tracks and crossings may be still be discerned across the countryside. The railway station, built in 1889, is now managed by a Committee of Management. The rooms have served a variety of tenants, including an Information centre. A short section of the former railway line adjacent to the Yea railway station have been converted, along with two other sections, to a rail trail named the Goulburn River High Country Rail Trail.[8] Work is under way to extend the rail trail to include the full length of the former Mansfield railway line. This is scheduled to open in December 2011.[9].
Yea was promoted as something of a tourist centre in the 1890s with trout being released into King Parrot Creek to attract recreational anglers. A post office was built in 1890, followed by a grandstand and a butter factory (now cheese factory) in 1891. There was a proposal in 1908 to submerge the town under the Trawool Water Scheme but it never went ahead.
By 1911 the town's population had increased to 1126 and has remained relatively stable, despite two severe floods in 1934 and 1973 and a major conflagration in 1969. The Limestone Road Baragwanathia fossil site has been registered in the National Estate due to the discovery of the most ancient leafy foliage so far found on earth.
The town's high school is Yea High School. The school also runs the Access Yea Community Education Program (AYCE), a state-wide educational program that is designed to help school leavers and other students who do not fit into the regular school system.[10]
Yea Football Club is an Australian rules football team competing in the Yarra Valley Mountain District Football League.
Yea has a horse racing club, the Yea Racing Club, which schedules two race meetings a year including the Yea Cup meeting in March.[11] Yea St Patrick's Racing Club also hold two picnic race meetings each year at the Yea racecourse.
Golfers play at the course of the Yea Golf Club on Racecourse Road.[12]
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