Yalgoo

History

Gold was discovered in the area in the early 1890s, and by 1895 there were 120 men working the diggings and buildings being erected. The goldfield warden asked for a townsite to be surveyed and gazetted, and following survey the townsite of Yalgu was gazetted in January 1896. It was once the location of an important railway station (opened in 1896) on the Northern Railway. Yalgoo's importance declined in the years after World War II after the forging of an all-weather road between Wubin and Paynes Find, across Lake Moore. In early 1898 the population of the town was 650, 500 males and 150 females. In 1921-22 the priest-architect and parish priest of Yalgoo (as well as of Mullewa), Monsignor John Hawes, designed and built the Dominican convent school and chapel of St Hyacinth: Yalgoo children attended the school until it was closed for lack of pupils in 1950. The timber-framed school building was dismantled and removed. The derelict chapel was restored and re-opened in 1981. Erection of a state battery commenced in July 1931 and was completed in October of the same year.

Most-observed species

• Singing Honeyeater

  Gavicalis virescens (Vieillot, 1817) · Aves
  28
• Little Crow

  Corvus bennetti North, 1901 · Aves
  25
• Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater

  Acanthagenys rufogularis Gould, 1838 · Aves
  25
• Willie-wagtail

  Rhipidura leucophrys (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  23
• Crested Pigeon

  Ocyphaps lophotes (Temminck, 1822) · Aves
  21
• Yellow-throated Miner

  Manorina flavigula (Gould, 1840) · Aves
  19
• Magpie-lark

  Grallina cyanoleuca (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  18
• White-browed Babbler

  Pomatostomus superciliosus (Vigors & Horsfield, 1827) · Aves
  18