Why should I visit the Yanga Woolshed in the Yanga National Park?

The Yanga Woolshed in the Yanga National Park, New South Wales, is a hugely evocative building. Visit to learn more about the Australian wool industry on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River.

Approach the Yanga Woolshed when the wind is blowing, and the haunted feeling is unmistakable. But in a way, the Yanga Woolshed is a ghost itself.

Yanga Woolshed in Yanga National Park — The Yanga Woolshed in the Yanga National Park is hugely evocative. Photo by David Whitley/ Australia Travel Questions

The highlight of the Yanga National Park in New South Wales, this enormous woolshed stands as a monument to the Australian wool industry. The Yanga Station was once the largest freehold pastoral property in the country. Then, in 2005, the shears stopped clicking. The property was given over to the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service, and it was later turned into a national park.

Size of the Yanga Woolshed

The Yanga Woolshed is enormous. It sits by the northern bank of the Murrumbidgee River, just before it joins Australia’s longest river – the Murray. The Yanga Homestead is a few kilometres away up the Sturt Highway. But back in the day, it was much easier to herd the sheep down to the woolshed, then put the fleeces straight onto a barge to go down the river.

The Yanga Woolshed is more than 100 metres long, and is designed almost as a factory for shearing. There’s a maze of wooden pens and corrugated metal walls. The wind whips dusts around outside, rattling the iron flaps that fill the gaps between the river red gum roof beams.

At its peak, the Yanga Woolshed could accommodate 3,000 sheep. All-weather, continuous shearing was the goal. Now, the sheep are gone, but there’s still the faint smell of lanolin, stained into the wood.

Inside the woolshed, slightly tatty displays go into the wool industry kicked off by John MacArthur, and how the shearing worked. There are scoreboards showing how many sheep each shearer got through in a day – the record was 218 sheep. There are also photos of the shearers at work. The picture of the final group, gathered on the very last day, brings a tear to the eye.

Visiting the Yanga National Park

The Yanga National Park is one of the best places to stop on the drive from Sydney to Adelaide, or the equally dreary Adelaide to Canberra drive.

You can also include the Yanga Woolshed in a Murray River road trip, fitted in the leg between Echuca or Swan Hill and Mildura. Enjoy the Gunbower Island Forest Drive in the wildlife-heavy Gunbower National Park on the way.

Alternatively, should you hire a car in Mildura, or drive to Mildura from Adelaide, Yanga is one of several national parks in day trip range. From Mildura, you can go on a tour to the Hattah Lakes in the Hattah-Kulkyne National Park. Alternatively, there’s the Murray Sunset National Park, which is fab for pink lakes and camping, and the hugely significant historic site of the Mungo National Park.

More stops between Sydney and Adelaide