Yarrah is a rural

locality Locality may refer to: * Locality, a historical named location or place in Canada * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localitie ...

in the Far North region of

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

. The eastern section of Yarrah lies within the Flinders Ranges Council, while the western section lies in the Pastoral Unincorporated Area.

History

The

traditional owner Native title is the set of rights, recognised by Australian law, held by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups or individuals to land that derive from their maintenance of their traditional laws and customs. These Aboriginal title right ...

s of the area are the Barngarla people. The name 'Yarrah' is said to come from an Aboriginal word meaning "river red gum". A township at Yarrah, located along the railway line, was surveyed in April 1863 and offered for sale on 21 July 1864 South Australian Place Names
but was largely unsuccessful. The hundred of Yarrah was proclaimed on 16 December 1880 by Governor

William Jervois Lieutenant General Sir William Francis Drummond Jervois (10 September 1821 – 17 August 1897) was a British military engineer and diplomat. After joining the British Army in 1839, he saw service, as a second captain, in South Africa. In 18 ...

. Yarrah

Post Office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

opened on 1 October 1887 and closed around 1909. Yarrah Primary School opened in 1893. In about 1919, it closed because of small attendance, but then re-opened in 1919, only to be closed permanently at a later date. 'The little galvanised-iron church at Yarraville ic is mentioned in the Register newspaper. Wilkatana railway station was located in the west of the hundred of Yarrah, named after nearby Wilkatana Station. The Depot Creek

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

, further to the south within the hundred of Yarrah, existed for many years; however,

Pacific National Pacific National is one of Australia's largest rail freight businesses. History In February 2002, National Rail Corporation, National Rail's freight operations and rollingstock, jointly owned by the Government of Australia, Federal, Governm ...

advised in 2013 that the station had been closed, although the line continues to be in use. The historic Depot Creek Weir is located at Yarrah, and is listed on the

South Australian Heritage Register The South Australian Heritage Register, also known as the SA Heritage Register, is a statutory register of historic places in South Australia. It extends legal protection regarding demolition and development under the ''Heritage Places Act 1993'' ...

. The weir dates from 1912 to 1917, when it was built as part of the supply infrastructure for the

Port Augusta Port Augusta (''Goordnada'' in the revived indigenous Barngarla language) is a coastal city in South Australia about by road from the state capital, Adelaide. Most of the city is on the eastern shores of Spencer Gulf, immediately south of the ...

Kalgoorlie Kalgoorlie-Boulder (or just Kalgoorlie) is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder as the surroundi ...

section of the

Trans-Australian Railway The Trans-Australian Railway, opened in 1917, runs from Port Augusta railway station, Port Augusta in South Australia to Kalgoorlie railway station, Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, crossing the Nullarbor Plain in the process. Built to standa ...

; the underlying springs had earlier been used by explorer

Edward John Eyre Edward John Eyre (5 August 181530 November 1901) was an English land explorer of the Australian continent, colonial administrator, Lieutenant-Governor of New Zealand's New Munster province, and Governor of Jamaica. Early life Eyre was born in ...

. The gazetted locality of Yarrah was created in November 1999. The locality's boundaries roughly equate to those of the hundred of Yarrah and approximately half of the adjacent hundred of Wyacca. In April 2013, an additional portion of formerly unincorporated land was added to the locality. In 2013,

Australia Post Australia Post, formally the Australian Postal Corporation and also known as AusPost, is an Australian Government-State-owned enterprise, owned corporation that provides postal services throughout Australia. Australia Post's head office is loca ...

altered the local postcode from 5713 to 5433 as part of a review of outback postcodes. Much of the 1950 film '' Bitter Springs'', starring

Chips Rafferty John William Pilbean Goffage MBE (26 March 190927 May 1971), known professionally as Chips Rafferty, was an Australian actor. Called "the living symbol of the typical Australian", Rafferty's career stretched from the late 1930s until he died i ...

, was filmed at Yarrah.

References

{{authority control Towns in South Australia Far North (South Australia) Places in the unincorporated areas of South Australia