Yarwun is a rural coastal town and

locality Locality may refer to: * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localities (Australia), in which a locality is a geographic subdivi ...

in the

Gladstone Region Gladstone Region is a local government area in Queensland, Australia. The council covers an area of , had an estimated resident population at 30 June 2018 of 62,979, and has an estimated operating budget of A$84 million. History Gladstone Re ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

, Australia. In the the locality of Yarwun had a population of 119 people.

Geography

The North Coast railway line enters the locality from the south-west ( Byellee), passes to the north of the town, and then exits to the south-east ( Aldoga). The locality is served by three railway stations, one on the main railway line and two on branch lines servicing major industry sites: * Yarwun railway station on the main railway line () * Fishermans Landing railway station on a branch line () * Comalco railway station on a branch line ()

Road infrastructure

The Gladstone–Mount Larcom Road runs through from east to south-west.

History

Yarwun Provisional School opened on 5 June 1906. It became Yarwun State School on 1 January 1909. The school was relocated to the centre of town in the late 1990s in a land swap with

Queensland Rail Queensland Rail (QR) is a railway operator in Queensland, Australia. Owned by the Queensland Government, it operates local and long-distance passenger services, as well as owning and maintaining approximately 6,600 kilometres of track and relate ...

as part of the straightening and duplication of the North Coast railway line. The Yarwun-Targinnie Co-operative Association was established in 1924 to market locally-grown fruit. The district was well known for its pawpaws. In 1963 the Co-op established a store at 60 Butler Street to provide goods needed for fruit production, such as timber cases. Later the store expanded to general goods for the community and postal services. In June 2003, the Yarwun railway station was relocated to the Calliope River Historical Village as its ticket office and kiosk. In March 2005,

Rio Tinto Alcan Rio Tinto Alcan is a subsidiary of Rio Tinto, based in Montreal. It was created on 15 November 2007 as the result of the merger between Rio Tinto's Canadian subsidiary and Canadian company Alcan. It is the global leader of aluminium mining and p ...

opened an alumina refinery in Yarwun.

Bauxite Bauxite is a sedimentary rock with a relatively high aluminium content. It is the world's main source of aluminium and gallium. Bauxite consists mostly of the aluminium minerals gibbsite (Al(OH)3), boehmite (γ-AlO(OH)) and diaspore (α-AlO(O ...

from

Weipa Weipa () is a coastal mining town in the local government area of Weipa Town in Queensland. It is the largest town on the Cape York Peninsula. It exists because of the enormous bauxite deposits along the coast. The Port of Weipa is mainly invol ...

is processed by the

Bayer process The Bayer process is the principal industrial means of refining bauxite to produce alumina (aluminium oxide) and was developed by Carl Josef Bayer. Bauxite, the most important ore of aluminium, contains only 30–60% aluminium oxide (Al2O3), th ...

into alumina. The refinery was expanded in 2012 including a 160 megawatt co-generation facility, which converts heat into electricity. In the , Yarwun had a population of 239 people. In the the locality of Yarwun had a population of 119 people.

Heritage listings

Yarwun has one

heritage-listed This list is of heritage registers, inventories of cultural properties, natural and man-made, tangible and intangible, movable and immovable, that are deemed to be of sufficient heritage value to be separately identified and recorded. In many i ...

site: * 60 Butler Street: Yarwun-Targinnie Co-op store

Economy

The alumina refinery is capable of producing 3.4 million tonnes of alumina each year and employs over 700 people.

Orica Orica Limited () is an Australian-based multinational corporation that is one of the world's largest providers of commercial explosives and blasting systems to the mining, quarrying, oil and gas, and construction markets, a supplier of so ...

operates an

ammonium nitrate Ammonium nitrate is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is a white crystalline salt consisting of ions of ammonium and nitrate. It is highly soluble in water and hygroscopic as a solid, although it does not form hydrates. It ...

plant at Reid Road; it produces over 500,000 tonnes per year for use in the mining industry in Australia and overseas. It operates a raw material import facility at Fisherman's Landing, 5 km north of the Reid Road plant, from which the raw materials are delivered to the plant by underground pipeline. Orica has 200 employees and 100 contractors working at Yarwun.

Education

Yarwun State School is a government primary (Prep-6) school for boys and girls at 35 Butler Street (). In 2013, the school had 52 students in 3 multi-age classes with 6 teachers (4 full-time equivalent). In 2018, the school had an enrolment of 33 students with 4 teachers (3 full-time equivalent) and 5 non-teaching staff (3 full-time equivalent). There is no secondary school in Yarwun. The nearest government secondary schools are Gladstone State High School (to Year 12) in West Gladstone to the south-east and Mount Larcom State School (to Year 10) in Mount Larcom to the west.

References

External links

* — contains history of Yarwun in Section 2 {{authority control Towns in Queensland Gladstone Region Coastline of Queensland Localities in Queensland