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Yass New South Wales

Yass Courthouse

Yass New South Wales

An hour’s drive north of Canberra, or west from Goulburn, Yass is an historic New South Wales Town. We were passing through on a drive from Canberra to Orange so stopped to have a quick look around. Being early morning, parking was easy, and we found a spot outside the Banjo Patterson Park, named after the famous Australia poet.

Several coffee shops were open, so we ordered a coffee before setting off to explore the town. The main street, Comur St contains several well preserved nineteenth-century buildings. The Post Office looks great, but the courthouse looks like a small palace!

Yass Railway Museum

The Yass Railway Museum is small with only a few trains and pieces of rolling stock on display. However, it’s a great place to visit, see some interesting trains, memorabilia and find out about the history of trains in Yass. You can find a full story of our visit here.

1307 Steam Locomotive Yass New South Wales
1307 Steam Locomotive

Abandoned Railway Bridge

We drove to the old railway bridge over the Yass River, parking at Joe O’Conner Park and walking down to the river. Disused since 1988 when the rail line closed it’s now a tourist attraction and heritage listed. It was interesting to walk around, especially as there are trees growing through parts of it.

What Did We Think Of Yass?

Although this was only a quick visit, we enjoyed our time here. The lovely old buildings on the main street, abandoned bridge and railway museum are all worth stopping to see.

To see what else there is to do in New South Wales, please see some of our other stories.

Our photos are available for purchase on

Yass Railway Museum

1307 Steam Locomotive

Yass Railway Museum

Located in the old Yass Town railway station, the Yass Railway Museum displays some of the old rolling stock that used to work here. The main rail line passes four kilometres to the north of Yass, because two river crossing would have been needed to bring it through town. Because of this, Yass lobbied for a light tramway into the main town. Opened in 1892, but never operating at a profit, it was closed in 1988.

The old railway station building houses a small giftshop, railway memorabilia and a model railway. All the main exhibits are outside on the old tracks.

The main attraction is the 1307 steam locomotive. This coal fired steam locomotive operated at Yass from 1910 to 1964. On leaving Yass, it worked around several of Sydney’s train workshops, including Eveleigh and Clyde. When finally retired, it had operated for 94 years. Fortunately sent to Thirlmere Railway Museum for preservation, 1307 relocated to Yass in 1999.

Sitting on the tracks just passed 1307, a line of rolling stock includes a freight wagon, a covered wagon, fuel truck and brake van. At the head of the line-up is X203 diesel locomotive. Although usually employed for shunting trains around stations, at Yass it was the sole locomotive from 1964 to 1972. Scrapped in 1989 the Yass diesel locomotive was actually X202, but X203 stands in for it at the museum.

Awaiting restoration, an open carriage and brake van sit outside the goods shed. As with all the displays, you are able to enter them.

What Did We Think?

With only a few displays, it doesn’t take long to look around, but it was a fun visit, and we were pleased we went. Plenty of parking makes access easy.

To see what else there is to do in New South Wales, please see some of our other stories.

Our photos are available for purchase on

Maitland Regional Art Gallery 2022

Model Train Station

Our visit to the Maitland Regional Art Gallery in January 2022 was a chance to see the galleries’ latest exhibitions. Three of the four will stay until February, but one is due to be replaced by the Archibald Prize paintings. An unusual display was the models used for a stop-motion production, Lost Property Office, which contained some amazing hand-built models.

Artwork on display:

A Conspicuous Object

A tribute to soon-to-be closed Maitland Hospital, A Conspicuous Object aims to bring its stories to life through art. Having existed since 1840, a lot of history and people have passed through its doors. Because the artists used different styles the displays were very interesting.

National Art (Part One)

National Art was a selection of artworks by 50 Australian artists who studied at the National Art School in Sydney. This exhibition celebrates some of the extraordinary artists it has trained over the past seven decades.

Storylines

Using drawing, the artists in Storyline examine Australian History and how we interpret it. Australia’s greatest racehorse Phar Lap looks totally different drawn as a skeleton rather than a full horse. A nearby metal sculpture of his heart shows what powered this magnificent horse.

Lost Property Office – Daniel Agdad

Our favourite exhibition, Lost Property Office is a stop-motion production. Produced by Daniel Agdad over 18 Months, the meticulously made models are simply amazing because of their detail. The 1,258 hand-made cardboard models are artworks and deserve a display as well as the film viewed.

This was a fun visit, with some very interesting artworks to see, particularly the Lost Property Office. Not only were traditional paintings on display, but the cardboard models were amazing.