Address & Contact Edit
Windomal Rd
Balranald NSW
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The Yanga Woolshed located approx 7 klms south of
Balranald off the Sturt Hwy, is
well worth a visit for anyone interested in the Australian wool industry and how things were done in the late 1800's.
There is plenty of car
parking space, and
the woolshed can be toured as a "self guided" tour with plenty of info boards inside.
Maps drawn in 1851 show a woolshed on the western side of Tala
Lake, and another at the very northern end of what is now Yanga National Park. These were some 30 and 60 klms north of this site.
The current site is shown as having only huts and a stock yard. It is likely that a woolshed was added in the late 1850's to take advantage of paddle steamer transport to take the wool to market.
The site would have been chosen because it is where red ground, which is normally above flood level, meets the river at a point where there is deep water suitable for the location of a wharf.
The shearing season in the
Balranald district traditionally occurred in August and September. It coincided with a high river and the "navigation season" so that paddle steamers could "lift" the wool and take it on the first stage of its long journey to market soon after shearing was completed.