Yalgoo : a book review and photographs

Sketch of Yalgoo 1895

 

Yalgoo by Alex Palmer

The history of  pastoral stations and  mining in the Yalgoo district, east of Geraldton. Available from Hesperian Press.

YALGOO  –  Latitude 28° 20′ S Longitude 116° 41′ E

The townsite of Yalgoo is located in the Murchison region, 499 km north north east of Perth and 118 km east north east of Mullewa. Gold was discovered in the area in the early 1890’s, 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. The spelling Yalgu was used because of spelling rules for Aboriginal names adopted by the Lands & Surveys Department (the letter u best representing the “oo” sound). Within a month the Lands & Surveys had decided reluctantly to use the original Yalgoo spelling, and this spelling has been used ever since. Some doubt about the spelling being officially changed resulted in an amendment from Yalgu to Yalgoo being gazetted in 1938.

Yalgoo is an Aboriginal name first recorded for Yalgoo Peak by the surveyor John Forrest in 1876. The name is said to mean “blood” or “place of blood”, derived from the word “Yalguru”. An alternative view is that it is derived from the Yalguru bush which abounds in the area, and has blood red sap.

The following photographs were recently sent in by John Pritchard, and have been added to the Yalgoo page on the Outback Family History web site:

The Yalgoo Post Office 1944