Yea ( ) is a town in Victoria, Australia north-east of the state capital Melbourne at the junction of the Goulburn Valley Highway and the Melba Highway, in the Shire of Murrindindi local government area. In an area originally inhabited by the Taungurung 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.
The town has had a fairly stable population (around 1,100) since 1900, though it now has a relatively old population. The town economy is based around servicing the farming sector, and tourism, with good road links but little public transport. The town has education supplied by three schools (state primary and high schools, and a Catholic primary). It has three churches, and active sporting clubs.
Heritage sites around the town include the railway station buildings, Purcell's General Store (run by the same family for approximately 100 years), and the nearby Yea Flora Fossil Site, where the most ancient leafy foliage so far found on earth was discovered.
History
thumb|High Street, Yea. Jan 2020
The area was historically inhabited by the Taungurung people. They knew the Yea River as Caluther, and the Goulburn River as Warring. The first Europeans in the area were a party of explorers led by William Hovell and Hamilton Hume, who crossed the Goulburn River at a point near Molesworth in December 1824, and crossed the stream they named Muddy Creek the following day. – a British Army colonel killed in June of that year at the Battle of the Great Redan in the Crimean War, and who had been Clarke's commanding officer in England in 1830s. Town lots went on sale at Kilmore the following year.
thumb|left|Aerial photo of Yea
Development
Yea expanded under the influx of hopeful prospectors, both as a natural overnight stopping place on the route from Melbourne to other goldfields,
A major threat to the township was the Trawool Water Scheme (announced for implementation in 1908), which would have almost certainly meant the drowning of the town. Property values became depressed, and two deputations to the state minister did not appear to change his mind. Survey work commenced, but the scheme was abandoned before it was completed, in favour of the site at Eildon.
The surrounding area consists largely of pastoral properties running beef cattle and sheep.
Flora and fauna
No intact examples of native vegetation survive in the area immediately around Yea. That vegetation consisted of grassy woodlands dominated by river red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) on the creeklines and nearby plains, grading to grassy forest dominated by Acacia and box Eucalyptus species in the nearby valleys and hills.
thumb|left|Yea Wetlands The Yea Wetlands, an area of immediately to the east of the town, and situated between two branches of the Yea River, has had extensive work done to restore its native vegetation. This site is one of only six known locations of the ancient greenling damselfly (Hemiphlebia mirabilis), although no specimens have been recorded there since 2001.
Governance
The first local governance in the area was the Yea District Road Board, formed in 1869, which became the Shire of Yea in 1873.
Law Courts
A Court of Petty Sessions was appointed in Yea in 1860, which continued (or as a Magistrates Court) until all courts in Yea were closed on 1 January 1990. The courts also operated as a County Court (1878-1915), a Licencing Court (1886-1917) and a Childrens Court (1907-1989).</small>
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At the , the town of Yea had a population of 1,789.
Economy
Yea has been a town servicing the agricultural and resources industries of the surrounding area since its inception. These included pastoral agriculture for the entire period, gold mining before 1900, and timber cutting and dairying from then until the late 20th century. The Yea Dairy Factory opened in 1891, and closed in 1993, but other industrial or manufacturing activities have never reached significant scale.
The retail area of Yea still services the farming activities of the area, but over half of the shops now involve food service.
Transport
thumb|Platform at the former [[Yea railway station]]
The Yea District Road Board and its successor the Shire of Yea achieved substantial improvements in transport infrastructure in the area, including the bridges at Molesworth (1874) The last passenger service ran on 28 May 1977, with the line closed on 18 November 1978. The railway line from Tallarook to Mansfield has now been converted to the Great Victorian Rail Trail.
Public transport services to and from Yea are limited to a V/Line coach service from Melbourne or Mansfield, and a V/Line coach service from Alexandra or Seymour via Yea. The closest railway station is Seymour railway station on the Seymour line.
Religion
Although private religious worship occurred beforehand, the first public services were probably held in the 1850s. The school is also the site of the Access Yea Community Education (AYCE) Flexible Learning Program, which is designed to help students who have left or are about to disengage from their learning.
Yea Primary School and the Catholic Sacred Heart Parish Primary School provide education for primary school age students.
Sport
The earliest available record of a cricket match in Yea is for January 1869, against a Murrundindi side, though formal creation of a club did not occur until 1872.
An early record of a lawn tennis match between teams from Yea and Alexandra - one which 'created a large amount of interest in consequence of its being the first occasion that the local club has pitted its members against those belonging to a distant club' - occurred on the Queen's Birthday holiday in June 1891, though a petition (submitted in the same year) to formally reserve land for tennis stated that it 'has been used for years by the Tennis Club'.
Although signs at the entrances to the town state that Yea is the birthplace of olympic equestrian Bill Roycroft, he was actually born in Melbourne and grew up in Flowerdale.
The Yea Football Netball Club administers the two sports in the town, seniors playing in the Yarra Valley Mountain District Football and Netball League, and juniors in the Seymour District Junior Football Netball League. The senior netball teams have met with recent success. Due to the relative isolation of the town, the Tigers have competed in a number of different leagues, including the Kyabram & District Football League and the now defunct Central Goulburn Football League.
The Yea Racing Club schedules four race meetings a year.
Golfers play at the course of the Yea Golf Club on Racecourse Road.
Landmarks and heritage sites
thumb|Yea Shire Hall, originally built in 1877, and the facade being a later addition.Yea has a number of buildings on the Victorian Heritage Register.
The former Yea railway station "is the most intact example of a small group of standard Gothic-styled Railway Station buildings." Built in 1889, it is now managed by a Committee of Management and used for community events, including the monthly Yea Country Market.
The former Purcells General Store "is one of the oldest buildings still intact in Yea and was owned and operated by several generations of the Purcell family until 1986." The family operated a store in the town from the 1860s until 1986. the Yea Shire Hall (1877), the RSL Hall, and the Yea Memorial Hospital (1945).
The Yea Flora Fossil Site in Limestone Road is on the Australian National Heritage List due to the discovery of the oldest fossil evidence of vascular land plants so far found on Earth.