Yackandandah is a small tourist town in northeast

Victoria, Australia Victoria is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state with a land area of , the second most populated state (after New South Wales) with a population of over 6.5 million, and the most densely populated state in ...

. It is near the regional cities of

Wodonga Wodonga ( Waywurru: ''Wordonga'') is a city on the Victorian side of the border with New South Wales, north-east of Melbourne, Australia. It is located wholly within the boundaries of the City of Wodonga LGA. Its population is approximately ...

and

Albury Albury () is a major regional city in New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the Hume Highway and the northern side of the Murray River. Albury is the seat of local government for the council area which also bears the city's name – the ...

, and is close to the tourist town of

Beechworth Beechworth is a well-preserved historical town located in the north-east of Victoria, Australia, famous for its major growth during the gold rush days of the mid-1850s. At the , Beechworth had a population of 3,859. Beechworth's many histor ...

. At the , Yackandandah had a population of 2,008.

History

The indigenous people of the area prior to white colonization were the

Dhudhuroa people The Dhudhuroa people (or Duduroa) are an Indigenous Australian people of North-eastern Victoria, in the state of Victoria, Australia. About 2,000 descendants exist in Australia in the early 21st century. Name The endonym Dhudhuroa has been analys ...

, in whose language the

toponym Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...

''Yackandandah'' is said to have meant “one boulder on top of another at the junction of two creeks”, namely the Yackandandah and Commissioner creeks' intersection.'A Brief History of Yackandandah,'
Indigo Shire Council The area was first opened to white settlement when James Osborne took up land at Osborne's Flat in 1844. On the discovery of gold deposits on its territory in 1852, it became a

gold mining Gold mining is the extraction of gold resources by mining. Historically, mining gold from alluvial deposits used manual separation processes, such as gold panning. However, with the expansion of gold mining to ores that are not on the surface, ...

centre known for its alluvial wet mining techniques. Yackandandah Post Office opened on 13 June 1856. Another office nearby, Yackandandah Junction, opened in 1872 but closed in 1885. In his local book, Antony O'Brien (p. 22) quotes an old poem published in the ''

Melbourne Punch ''Melbourne Punch'' (from 1900, simply titled ''Punch'') was an Australian illustrated magazine founded by Edgar Ray and Frederick Sinnett, and published from August 1855 to December 1925. The magazine was modelled closely on ''Punch'' of Londo ...

'', 11 June 1857, titled, "The Lass of Yackandandah".

Today

The area is now predominantly a

dairy farming Dairy farming is a class of agriculture for long-term production of milk, which is processed (either on the farm or at a dairy plant, either of which may be called a dairy) for eventual sale of a dairy product. Dairy farming has a history th ...

and

forestry Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests, woodlands, and associated resources for human and environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands. ...

region and has numerous bed and breakfast lodges which allow its many visitors to enjoy the peace and tranquillity of the district's forest and mountains. It is close to achieving self-sufficiency in energy supply, foreseen to be reached by 2024, based on solar power. The town is affectionately known as "Yack". The commercial center of the town, known as the Yackandandah Conservation Area, is recorded on the Register of the National Estate.

Sports & Recreation

Golfers play at the course of the Yackandandah Golf Club on Racecourse Road. The Yackandandah Cricket Club play in both junior and senior grades in the Cricket Albury Wodonga competition. ;Yackandandah Football / Netball Club The town has had an active Australian rules football team since its first club meeting in 1881 and have competed in the Tallangatta & District Football League, since 1945, winning senior football premierships in 1964 and 2000. *Football Timeline ** 1906 - Murphy's Albion Hotel Football Competition ** 1912 - Yackandandah & District Football Association ** 1913 - 1915: Club active, but did no play in an official competition. ** 1916 - 1923: Club in recess ** 1924 - 1927: Kiewa & District Football Association ** 1928 - 1932: Yackandandah & District Football Association ** 1933 - 1935: Chiltern & District Football Association ** 1936 - 1939: Dederang & District Football Association ** 1940: Yackandandah & District Football League ** 1941 - 1944: Club in recess.

WW2 World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

** 1945 - 1953: Yackandandah & District Football League ** 1954 - Chiltern & District Football Association ** 1955 - Yackandandah & District Football League ** 1956 - Chiltern & District Football Association ** 1957 - 2022: Tallangatta & District Football League *Football Premierships **Seniors *** Murphy's Albion Hotel Football Association ****1906 - Yackandandah ***Yackandandah & District Football League ****1928 - Yackandandah: 7.16 - 58 defeated Kergunyah: 8.3 - 51 ****1940 - Yackandandah: 13.12 - 90 defeated Mudgegonga: 5.9 - 39 *** Tallangatta & District Football League **** 1964 - Yackandandah defeated Mitta United **** 2000 - Yackandandah defeated Barnawartha

Rail

The Yackandandah railway line once linked Yackandandah to Beechworth and opened in 1891. The route to Woorragee and from there to Yackandandah was steep; trains descending the last gradient into Yackandandah would halt (near the now Yackandandah turnoff, from the Beechworth-Wodonga Road) so the guard could apply hand-brakes to carriages and wagons. The last train on the Yackandandah-Beechworth line was in July 1954. Though the line was torn up, many sections of the original right of way are visible from the roadway between Beechworth and Yackandandah. In May 2017 the Victoria State Government budgeted for an extension of the Murray to Mountains Rail Trail side branch from Beechworth to Yackandandah. The side branch currently extends from Beechworth to Everton Station, where it connects to the main trail.

Culture

Used for the filming of the 2003 film '' Strange Bedfellows'' (starring

Michael Caton Michael Caton (born 21 July 1943) is an Australian television, film and stage actor, comedian and television host, best known for playing Uncle Harry in the Australian television series '' The Sullivans'', Darryl Kerrigan in 1997's low-budget h ...

and

Paul Hogan Paul Hogan (born 8 October 1939) is an Australian actor and comedian. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his performance as ...

). Yackandandah is home to the annual Yackandandah Folk Festival attracting local, Australian and international artists since 1998. Like the larger neighboring town of Beechworth, Yackandandah promotes itself as a tourist destination on the basis of its gold mining history and features a period streetscape as well as an increasing number of antique shops. Two historic buildings, the 146-year-old museum (formerly the Bank of Victoria) and an adjacent timber store ("Rainbow Crystal"), were destroyed by a fire in the early morning of 21 December 2006. A real estate agency was also severely damaged. The museum was rebuilt, reopening in November 2008.

Notable people

* Sir Isaac Isaacs, Governor General of Australia, who though born in Melbourne spent most of his early years in Yackandandah. Michael Kirbybr>'Sir Isaac Isaacs — A Sesquicentenary Reflection,'
Melbourne University Law Review 2006 pp.880-904 p.882

References

External links

The Official Yackandandah Tourism (Indigo Shire) Web SiteArts YackandandahYackandandah Folk Festival

home page A home page (or homepage) is the main web page of a website. The term may also refer to the start page shown in a web browser when the application first opens. Usually, the home page is located at the root of the website's domain or subdomain. ...

.
yackandandah.com
{{authority control Towns in Victoria (Australia) Towns in Upper Hume Shire of Indigo Mining towns in Victoria (Australia)