Yalgoo
Approaching Yalgoo from the north
Yalgoo, affectionately known as The Goo, feels like that one-horse town. There’s still plenty of evidence of its once thriving past, and the town has obviously realised that if it is to stay alive in the 21st century, it needs to keep its history alive too.
According to a plaque up at the look-out, five prospectors arrived here on horseback in 1892. Setting up camp beside a soak, they later got chatting to a shepherd, his Aboriginal wife and their children. As they yarned around the fire, the prospectors noticed that the stones the children were playing with were rich with gold. To their astonishment, the shepherd had no idea of their worth and happily showed the men where the children had found their ‘toys’. This was the start of the Yalgoo goldrush.
Today, on the walls of long-since boarded up buildings, and dotted on the edge of now vacant land around town there’s interpretive signs with historical facts and stories.
In between the derelict buildings there’s the local store stocking just the very basics, the pub, the oasis that is the Yalgoo caravan park, the old railway station now doubling as the frontage of the bush race track and the public toilets, the police station, the tiny primary school, and the pride of the town - the new footy oval.
![The owners of the tiny grocery store in Yalgoo, WA](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/596595714c8b0390421c11a6/1556754882458-ONVODDQSE6QKXVHKW15Q/0D1A6027-blog.jpg)
![The historic St Hyacinth's chapel built by Monsignor John Hawes](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/596595714c8b0390421c11a6/1556754890435-ZZGB5OOO21FL9DJISEX4/0D1A6038-blog.jpg)
![Interpretive signage around the town of Yalgoo, WA](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/596595714c8b0390421c11a6/1556754894631-NQ9YXTJL1589HPID43IO/0D1A6045-blog.jpg)
![The now-empty streets in Yalgoo, Western Australia](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/596595714c8b0390421c11a6/1556754900881-EZ5S5807NPPHQIXWE89M/0D1A6047-blog.jpg)
![The view from the look-out over Yalgoo, WA](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/596595714c8b0390421c11a6/1556754909820-CGHZ0WSAXLT1IPACKH63/0D1A6048-blog.jpg)
![Yalgoo in Western Australia, once the home of the goldfish](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/596595714c8b0390421c11a6/1556754911932-L9HQKSIBB6A25A9K23BM/0D1A6052-blog.jpg)
![Entry statement to Yalgoo in Western Australia's mid-west](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/596595714c8b0390421c11a6/1556754914853-NAHYCEL1YDSWV848TYCF/0D1A6239-blog.jpg)
![Building and bougainvillea in Yalgoo](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/596595714c8b0390421c11a6/1556754921082-UCGXKDGKH3U2VZHGHXX9/0D1A6242-blog.jpg)
![The Yalgoo Hotel glowing in the afternoon sun](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/596595714c8b0390421c11a6/1556754922728-HC98LK2IVMSGCJKLGGZY/0D1A6243-blog.jpg)
![The pub at Yalgoo, WA](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/596595714c8b0390421c11a6/1556754930410-6YMHRF9YGHMSBHV30LNB/0D1A6250-blog.jpg)
![0D1A6253-blog.jpg](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/596595714c8b0390421c11a6/1556754930046-Z7YMJUG3EQ0F4OAYDII0/0D1A6253-blog.jpg)
![0D1A6261-blog.jpg](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/596595714c8b0390421c11a6/1556754934099-4USR0K6TD23H3JCC6J95/0D1A6261-blog.jpg)
![St Hyacinth's chapel in Yalgoo was built by Monsignor John Hawes](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/596595714c8b0390421c11a6/1556754935493-FY2O2ZOJPWKAL9OU1874/0D1A6263-blog.jpg)