Yalgoo

Yalgoo is a town in the Murchison region, 499 kilometres (310 mi) north-north-east of Perth and 118 kilometres (73 mi) east-north-east of Mullewa.

Yalgoo is a town in the Murchison region, 499 kilometres (310 mi) north-north-east of Perth and 118 kilometres (73 mi) east-north-east of Mullewa. Yalgoo is in the local government area of the Shire of Yalgoo.

Before it was settled as a town the Yalgoo area was used as grazing land for European settlers including the Morrissey and Broad families. Flocks of sheep were herded onto the rich pastures during the wet growing season and driven back to coastal properties for shearing before summer. Over time the graziers saw the value in the Yalgoo land and began to establish the first sheep stations.

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.

Yalgoo has a hot desert climate (BWk in the Köppen climate classification) with hot summers and mild winters.