A delightful small town on the Yea River, a tributary of the Goulburn River. Yea was promoted as something of a tourist centre in the 1890s with trout being released into King Parrot Creek to attract recreational anglers. The trout in the forest streams are still a drawcard.
In 1859, gold was discovered near Yea but the yield was quite small and the miners soon turned to farming and timber getting. Yea is world famous for its Baragwanathia Longifolia - the oldest plant fossil in the world, est. 400 million years old and has several fossil sites.
Location: 103 km north-north-east of Melbourne on the Goulburn Valley Highway,
Points of Interest: Cathedral Range State Park; Yea River; Kinglake National Park (Ned Kelly's Lookout); King Parrot Creek; mineral springs (Dropmore); gorges and fern gullies between Yea and Tallabrook; Snob's Creek Fish Hatchery; Murrindi Wildlife Reserve; Grotto (Caveat); Cheviot historic railway tunnel