Yarrunga

Settlement, Ulster Park and the school

Yarrunga is a locality in Wingecarribee Shire, close to Avoca and Fitzroy Falls. The name also appears in historical parish, school and district records. Avoca and Yarrunga appear separately in a 1929 Commonwealth electoral notice, while the parish name covers a broader area; neither a shared name nor a school name alone proves the location of a particular property.^[6]

Council’s heritage study describes nineteenth-century settlement in the Yarrunga and Avoca district, including farming families who brought produce out by packhorse in the early years after selection. The State Library’s Starkey family papers offer a detailed research lead for nearby Avoca: diaries and farm accounts document weather, dairy produce, vegetables and family life. The collection also includes a 1923 parish map covering Burrawang and Yarrunga.^[5][10]

Ulster Park is another lead into Yarrunga’s built and family history. A Society newsletter reproduces an account of the stone house built for Peter Francis Hart in the 1880s and later connections with the de Mestre family. Such accounts are starting points for researching land, building and family records; private properties should be respected. The Society’s accounts give different construction years: 1881 in its March 2021 newsletter and 1883 in September 2025. Land and building records may help resolve the date.^[9][13]

The school’s changing name is especially useful to family historians. The Department of Education records a Yarrunga provisional school from September 1872 and a public school from October 1878; the dataset identifies it as Avoca (2) after April 1913. The Society’s 1885-1945 admission index includes children whose parents lived at Yarrunga, Avoca and other localities. Its searchable table is a finding aid: check entries against the original index and ask the Society about the fuller register.^[7][8]

The school through changing years

A 1910 newspaper notice reported that repairs had been approved for Yarrunga Public School. In 1917 the Avoca district’s parents and citizens association held a concert in Peter Hart’s hall at Ulster Park to raise funds for a school roll of honour. The report names organisers and performers, offering leads into local families and wartime community life.^[11][12]