YELLINGBO

Yellingbo is located south of Woori Yallock.

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The district was originally named Claxton after the proprietor of the store and post office on the Woori Yallock Creek. The name later became Parslows Bridge, after the name of the son-in-law who carried on the post office and store. In the 1930s the name was changed to Yellingbo, after the ‘last known’ Aboriginal inhabitant. According to Bunce's Language of the Aborigines of the Colony of Victoria (1859), Yellingbo is an Aboriginal word meaning today.

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The township is at the corner of Parslows Road and the Healesville-Koo Wee Rup Road, consisting of the general store, primary school (1954), public hall and fire brigade. Nearby on the Woori Yallock, Cockatoo and Sheep Station Creeks there are important fauna reserves for the preservation of two of Victoria’s State faunal emblems, the Helmeted Honeyeater and Leadbeater’s Possum.

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The Woori Yallock Creek sub-catchment has been recognised by all levels of government and the general community for its natural values. The portion of the Catchment in the vicinity of Yellingbo Nature Conservation Reserve (YNCR) that adjoins private landholdings and other bushland remnants on private and public land further upstream are of particular biodiversity significance. The Helmeted Honeyeater, Leadbeater’s Possum and a host of other rare and threatened plants and animals inhabit the remnant bushland in this populated rural area just 50km from Melbourne. (Source: https://www.helmetedhoneyeater.org.au/)

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To further protect the two critically endangered faunal emblems: the Helmeted Honeyeater and lowland Leadbeaters Possum,  Victorian Government is working to create a new Conservation Area in the Yarra Valley and southern Dandenong Ranges by using existing public land. 

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Unlike most conservation reserves, which consist of one large continuous block of land, the new conservation area will be made up of many narrow wildlife corridors that connect existing major reserves.

The major reserves that will be connected with wildlife corridors are:

• Coranderrk Nature Conservation Reserve

• Warramate Hills Nature Conservation Reserve

• Haining Farm

• Hoddles Education Area

• Beenak Bushland Reserve

• Yellingbo Nature Conservation Reserve

• Wright Forest Bushland Reserve.

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The WHYLD Community Group is working to form a connected community for this part of the valley. WHYLD is an acronym for the towns of Woori Yallock, Hoddles Creek, Yellingbo, Launching Place and Don Valley.

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Source:

‘Yellingbo’, Victorian Places, 2014, accessed on 24/10/2021

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Further reading:

Helen Coulson, Story of the Dandenongs, 1838-1958, Melbourne, 1968

Jason Edwards: Yellingbo - A special Place

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Area profile for Rural South & East