Yarwun, Queensland


Yarwun is a coastal town and locality in the Gladstone Region, Queensland, Australia.

History

Yarwun Provisional School opened on 5 June 1906. It became Yarwun State School on 1 January 1909.
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 opened an alumina refinery in Yarwun. Bauxite from Weipa is processed by the Bayer process 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.

Heritage listings

Yarwun has one heritage-listed site:
The alumina refinery is capable of producing 3.4 million tonnes of alumina each year and employs over 700 people.
Orica operates an ammonium nitrate 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 co-educational primary school located at 35 Butler Street. It opened in 1906. The school was relocated to the centre of town in the late 1990s in a land swap with the railways as part of the straightening and duplication of the north coast railway. In 2013, the school had 52 students in 3 multi-age classes with 6 teachers.