Yerilla Goldfield, Menzies Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Yerilla Goldfield	Ore Field
Menzies Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

The Yerilla homestead is 45 kilometres south-east of Kookynie, on the Kookynie-Yarri Road. The main goldfield is a compact area bordering the southern side of the road, and south of the homestead. It contains many groupings of shafts, a couple of battery sands remnants, small pits, trenches, surface scrapings and mullock piles. It is bordered on the north and east by the road, and to the west and south by an ephemeral creek.

Gold was discovered here in January 1895 by prospector Jerry McAuliffe. He went into partnership with McGregor and Butcher in an effort to secure more leases against Kerr and party who turned up shortly after. They all obtained rich leases. Baxter, Thomson, and Dr. Simon were all early prospectors on the field.

A town called Yerilla quickly developed with four hotels. By 1900, only sixteen people remained in the town, and the buildings had been dismantled and taken to other goldfield locations. The remains border the north side of the road, being little more than foundations.

After the original Queen of the Earth mine initially uncovered sensationally rich specimens from a surface pothole in 1895, there was a gold rush and soon five hundred men were working the area. After the rich near surface gold had been won, the area fell into a hole, leading to the town being dismantled. A public battery had been opened on the field in June 1899, after much agitation by the local populace. Nine months later it was closed, and removed to Niagara near Kookynie.

After 1900, leases were amalgamated, and a few miners continued on the lower grade ore. The Melba Consols mine erected a battery with State government assistance, with the government later taking over the
building as the new state battery at Yerilla. Mining continued until the World War One years, then very little activity occurred beyond this.

The main goldfield area contains eight lodes, mainly north-south, with a couple of cross lodes east-west. The western most lode is called Queen of the Earth, a middle lode Melba, and eastern lode Yerilla King, all north-south. At the southern end of the field is the east-west Viola and Yerilla Central lodes. Isolated minor gold finds over the years were uncovered for several kilometres, mainly to the south, and east. Several of these have been lost over time.

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