Yea - VIC

Yea, located on the Yea River close to its junction with the Goulburn River, is 100 kilometres north-east of the state capital Melbourne at the junction of the Goulburn Valley Highway and the Melba Highway. The town economy is based around servicing the farming sector, and tourism.

In an area originally inhabited by the Taungurong people, it was first visited by Europeans of the Hume and Hovell expedition in 1824, and within 15 years most of the land in the area had been taken up by graziers. Surveyed in 1855, the township grew as a service centre for grazing, gold-mining and timber-getting in the area. It was named after Colonel Lacy Walter Giles Yea – a British Army colonel killed in the Battle of the Great Redan in the Crimean War.

The first European settlers in the district were overlanders from New South Wales, who arrived in 1837, and by 1839 "most of the suitable country in the area had been taken up". The crossing of the Muddy Creek became quite busy as part of the route from Melbourne to the goldfields at Beechworth and the eastern highlands, and also from them to Ballarat.

Gold was discovered in the local area in the late 1850s. The gold-mining localities near Yea included the 'Providence' diggings just across the Yea River from the town, in the Ghin Ghin area, the Ti Tree Creek, and the 'Higinbotham' area on the Murrindindi Creek.

After the gold mining ended the town survived on servicing farming and timber getting (chiefly from the Murrindindi forests).

The most ancient leafy foliage so far found on earth was discovered at the nearby Yea Flora Fossil Site.

Yea is on the Great Victorian Rail Trail.https://www.greatvictorianrailtrail.com.au