Yarrawalla

Yarrawalla is a locality in the Shire of Loddon, Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 census, Yarrawalla had a population of 78.^[3]

Yarrawalla is derived from an Aboriginal name for the blue parakeet or blue winged parakeet.^[5] According to local Aboriginal tradition, Yarrawalla was the home of the blue parakeet, though the bird is now rarely seen in the district.^[5] Before European colonisation, the Yarrawalla area lay within the traditional lands of the Dja Dja Wurrung (to the south) and the Barapa Barapa (to the north).^[5] The region's black box swamps and grassy plains provided kangaroos, possums, yams, wattle seeds, and cumbungi reeds, which were roasted for starch.^[5] Remnants of campfire sites and artifacts remain in the area.^[5] By the 1870s, closer colonisation had forced the last Indigenous groups from the locality.^[5]

Explorer Major Thomas Mitchell claimed to be the first European in the area; his route from Pyramid Hill to the Loddon River crossing suggests that his party travelled through Yarrawalla.^[5] Squatters arrived at Durham Ox in 1838, and cattle grazed the district until the area was opened to colonisation in 1870.^[5] With the growth of the settler population, the first school opened in 1875, serving the children of European families.^[5] The first church, the Bible Christian Church, was built the same year; it later became a Methodist church and was eventually moved to Yarrawalla South.^[5] The railway reached Pyramid Hill in 1884, the Shire of Gordon was formed in 1885, and irrigation began in 1886.^[5] Unseasonal rain in December 1886 damaged hay crops and delayed harvesting and some farmers expressed dissatisfaction with delays to the No. 1 canal under the Tragowel irrigation scheme.^[6]

In February 1888 rust and wind were reported to have damaged grain crops in the Yarrawalla district during the preceding season.^[7] Some farmers reported experimenting with irrigation from the No. 6 main canal, with one achieving approximately four bags per acre on well-watered portions of his crop.^[7] In June 1889 farmers in the district considered establishing a cheese factory or creamery, though butter prices had recently fallen.^[8] The first organised sporting event, a cricket match, was held in 1897, telecommunications arrived in 1924, and electricity was connected in 1958.^[5] Salinity problems began to be noticed in the locality in the late 1950s.^[5]

Yarrawalla was severely affected by floods in 2011 and again in 2022, with surrounding farms impacted to varying degrees but few houses were affected.^[5] The Yarrawalla Uniting Church was decommissioned in November 2013.^[5]