Yass

History

Aboriginal overview

The area around Yass is the land of the Ngunawal tribe. They knew the area as yarrh, which means "running water." The final "rr" sound was spelled in English with a double-S, apparently after being misheard as such due to its "sharp and forcible" quality.

Colonial overview

The Yass area was first seen by Europeans in 1821, during an expedition led by Hamilton Hume. By 1830, settlement had begun where the nascent Sydney to Melbourne road crossed the Yass River. The site for the town was gazetted in 1837. Yass was incorporated as a District Council in 1843, and boasted a population of 274 by 1848. On 13 March 1873, the Municipal District of Yass was created, and James Cottrell was subsequently elected as the first Mayor of Yass.

One of Australia's best-known poets, A.B. 'Banjo' Paterson, arrived in the district in 1871 at the age of seven, passed his childhood there, and later bought a property in the Wee Jasper area so that his children could experience country life. Poet and priest Patrick Hartigan (pen name: John O'Brien) was born near Yass in 1878, and studied at the local convent school as a youth.

Sir Walter Merriman established 'Merryville', one of the country's most famous sheep studs, and arguably its leading fine-wool establishment, in 1903. Yass is a prominent area for raising sheep which produces very fine wool due to the soil and climatic conditions.

Yass was one of the sites proposed for the Federal Capital after 1901, before Canberra was ultimately chosen. The proposed site would have been slightly west of the township of Yass, which would have been included in the surrounding federal territory.

In 1956, Yass became the first town in New South Wales to have a fluoridated water supply. The Hume Highway passed through the town until a bypass opened in July 1994.

Flour milling

It has never been explained why Yass was the home to a number of flour mills, especially as the district is well known for the production of fine merino fleece. Linge notes that many flour mills were set up for the personal convenience of settlers rather than commercial operations (Linge 1979:108); it may be that the mills were set up to grind locally produced grain for largely domestic consumption.

Bayley in his history of Yass records that, in March 1842, it was reported that the Yass Steam Mill was in operation (1973:24). This mill was located by the Yass River and was owned by the partnership of Hamilton Hume and John Watson. The mill was known as Watson's Mill, and it seems to have operated until it was destroyed in a flood in 1870. At that time, it was owned by Thomas Andrew Barber (Ames et al. 2001:9).

Barber was the son of the George Barber (who, with Hume, first explored Yass) and was also Hume's nephew. These connections no doubt lead to the choice of the site of Barber's next mill as the land was originally owned by Hume. Barber constructed a new steam mill and, by May 1870, steam was raised and the mill itself opened in June 1870 (Bayley 1973:46). According to Armes et al., the Barber family "occupied surviving housing on the corner of Comur and Adele Street" (2003:9). This mill, it is argued, is the existing brick structure known as "Crago's Flour Mill". The mill was operated by Barber until 1876, when he handed over his business interests to his sons Earnest and John, who traded under the name Barber Brothers.

Meanwhile, another steam mill – the Union Steam Mill – had been established, and by 1881, was owned by Petherick Tamblyn Crago. In around 1881 Crago purchased a site for a new mill between the White Horse Inn and Barber's Mill. The mill was called the Commercial Mill and from newspaper reports was operating from 1882. According to Ralph Crago (letter 1970), the decision to erect the new mill was because the machinery in the old Mill (presumably the Union Steam Mill) was worn out.

The Barbers declared bankruptcy in October 1889, and in December 1889 there was a meeting in Yass to discuss the mill. The meeting was told that the machinery was 50 years old, the foundations of the mill were 41⁄2 feet deep and that a new mill would take 12 months to construct while the existing mill could be made operational in the New Year. The mill recommenced trading in January 1891.

Railways

Yass was a battleground between the town and the Sydney to Melbourne railway; because of the topography, the New South Wales Government Railways wanted to bypass the town by a few kilometres. Naturally, the people of the town wished the railway to pass closer or through it. In 1892 a light railway or tram was built to connect Yass Junction on the main line and Yass Town. The railway bridge across the Yass River was the first lightweight, steel Pratt-truss bridge in the NSW railway network.

The last trains operated on the line on 29 October 1988 when steam locomotives 1210 and 3112 operated three final journeys on the line.

The Yass Railway Heritage Centre uses the Yass Town station precinct as a museum. Yass had the nearest railway station on the Sydney Melbourne railway to serve the national capital at Canberra.

When the standard gauge railway between Sydney and Melbourne opened in 1961, the parliamentarian deserving most of the credit - William Charles Wentworth - was unable to leave parliament since his vote was needed in an almost hung parliament. Instead of catching the inaugural train at Sydney, he had to catch it at Yass Junction, where it made a special stop.

Heritage

Heritage listings

Yass has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:

101 Comur Street: Yass Post Office

Main Southern railway: Yass Junction railway station

Yass Town Tramway: Yass Town rail bridge over Yass River

Yass Town Tramway: Yass Town railway station

Yass Valley Way, Marchmont: Cooma Cottage

Cooma Cottage is one of the oldest surviving rural houses in New South Wales. It has historic significance as a relatively intact complex of rural buildings and links to explorer and grazier Hamilton Hume. It is listed on the NSW Heritage register and is managed by the National Trust (NSW).

St Augustine's Parish Yass began in 1838 with the laying of the foundation stone of the church now called the chapel.

A striking modernist new building (the 'big' church) was begun in 1954 under the eye of the then Bishop Young, later Archbishop of Hobart. The architect for the church was architects Fowell Mansfield and Maclurcan of Sydney. The builder was James Wallace of 123 Sussex Street, Sydney.

There are important works of art by renowned Australian sculptor Tom Bass in the Church:

the crucifix on the outside

the crucifix on the rear doors

the statue of St Paul and

the recently installed low-relief of St Augustine near the front door.

The foundation stone of the new church was laid on 11 April 1954 by Archbishop Eris O'Brien and the church was opened on 29 April 1956, by Archbishop Guilford Young.

Climate

The climate in Yass is intermediate between the Southern Tablelands and South West Slopes, having characteristics of both zones. Compared to Goulburn, it has a wider seasonal range and notably wetter winters relative to other seasons, though not quite to the extent as those of Bookham. Yass has a relatively dry climate owing to its rainshadow from the southwest (being east of Conroys Gap), however is exposed to the west and northwest. Snow falls occasionally but is usually light and rarely settles, though heavy snowfalls do occur on the hills to the southwest (around Wee Jasper).

Education

Mt Carmel School, Catholic co-educational primary school

Berinba Public School

Yass Public School

Yass High School

Media

Television

Yass receives five free-to-air television networks relayed from Canberra that broadcast from the Black Mountain.

ABC

SBS

Seven

WIN Television (Nine)

10

Radio

The town is served by these local radio stations:

ABC Radio Canberra on 666 AM (national)

Hit 104.7 on 104.7 FM (commercial)

KIX Country on 92.7 FM (commercial)

2CA on 1053 AM/105.7 FM (commercial)

Yass FM on 100.7 FM (community)

Valley FM on 89.5 FM (community)

2YYY on 92.3 FM (community)

Newspapers

The local newspaper is the Yass Tribune.

A locally run independent newspaper, the Yass Valley Times, distributes weekly editions through Yass businesses and its website.

Governance

Yass is in the local government area of Yass Valley Council. At a state level, Yass is in the electorate of Goulburn represented by Wendy Tuckerman. At a federal level, Yass is in the electorate of Riverina represented by Michael McCormack.

Notable residents

Jack Beaton, rugby league player

Ray Beavan, rugby league player

Peter Bracken, rugby league player

Margaret Coen, artist

Thomas Collins, politician

Thomas Colls, politician and hotelier

John Costello, pastoralist

Ian Craig, cricketer

Horse race trainer Lee Freedman and his brothers Anthony, Michael and Richard grew up in Yass.

Pearl Gibbs, Indigenous activist

Alice Giles, harpist

Francis Gilmore, cricketer and rugby league player

Chris Guider, rugby league player

Jacob John Halley, congregationalist minister

Max Hollingsworth, rugby league player

Cyril Hopkins, New Zealand cricketer

Duncan Ironmonger, economist

Pat Larter, artist

Peter Leonard, journalist

Donald George Mackay, cyclist and explorer

Rod McGregor, rugby league player

Local events

The Yass Show is held in March, the Turning Wave Festival from 2012 to 2017 in September, and the Yass Arts-and-Crafts Festival in November, along with numerous other festivals and events throughout the year.

In 2021 the Yass Show was scheduled for 20 March. Usually a two-day event, it was reduced to one day to allow volunteers to handle the restrictions imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia. It will start earlier, and finish later.

In popular culture

In 2018, the town was featured in Queer Eye, a Netflix original series. The town was chosen as its name matches one of the cast's favourite sayings: yaass.

The lead character in the Australian sitcom Colin from Accounts hails from Yass; he brings his live-in girlfriend home to meet the family in a second-season episode.

Yass is also notable for a humorous billboard advertising the town's McDonald's restaurant, which shows the McDonald's logo and the town's name (making it read "M YASS, opens at 6 AM", similar to "my ass").

In the modern novel An Indecent Obsession by Colleen McCullough, Yass is the residence of the main character Honour Langhtry, the heroine of the story.