Weekend Activities in Perth - York

Located in the Avon Valley approx 97km from Perth via the Great Southern Highway, York looks like a film set for an Australian Western.

The town is the state's most complete pioneering settlement complete with attractive and well preserved early architecture with the result that the whole town has been classified by the National Trust.

It is the oldest inland town in WA and was first settled in 1831, only two years after the Swan River colony. The settlers saw similarities in the Avon Valley and their native Yorkshire and so Govenor Stirling bestowed the name York on the region's first town.

It was the commercial centre of the Avon Valley until the railway, and with it the Great Eastern Highway, bypassed it 30km to the North. York is now an agricultural centre with an historic role as a living museum of ornate nineteenth century public buildings, coaching inns and churches.

The Old York Gaol and Courthouse on Avon Terrace takes you back to it's pioneering history. At the north end of the terrace are the Sandalwood Yards where the perfumed wood, once prolific in WA and highly prized in the Orient, was stored during York's heyday. Here you can walk down a wobbly suspension bridge spanning the generally sluggish Avon River and have a look at the 1854 Holy Trinity Church with it's modern stained-glass designs by Robert Juniper, one of WA's foremeost artists.

If you recross the river and pass the Shire offices and the old cemetary, taking a left turn at the southern end of the Avon Terrace will lead you to Balladong Farm which has been restored by the National Trust. At the time that York was a key inland settlement and a jumping off point for treks into the interior, the farm played a pivotal role in the region and it still employs machinery and husbandry techniques from that era even today.

Nowadays York has gained a reputation as the state's skydiving centre with the drop zone about 3km from town (take a look at www.skydive.com.au for more information).

For more information on York have a look at www.yorktouristbureau.com.au