YEA Yea is a town that is on the alternative route out of Melbourne to the traveler heading to north east of Victoria. Yea is a nice spot that has a clearly great interest with heritage factors. The big wide streets actually give the town character and there is lot to like about the place. The first Europeans in the area were a party of explorers led by William Hovell and Hamilton Hume, who crossed the Goulburn River at a point near the locality in 1824. Their favourable report of the grazing land they had observed contributed to the formation of a new settlement that is now known as the state of Victoria The first settlers in the district were overlanders from New South Wales, who arrived in 1837. By 1839, settlements and farms dotted the area along the Goulburn River. The town was surveyed and laid out in 1855 and named after Colonel Lacy Walter Yea a British Army colonel killed that year in the Crimean War. When gold was discovered in the area in 1859 a number of smaller mining settlements came into existence and Yea expanded into a township under the influx of hopeful prospectors, with the addition of several housing areas, an Anglican church (erected in 1869) and a population of 250 when it formally became a shire in 1873. All of the churches are century plus buildings. Likewise all of the hotels also are over 100 years old. The Yea War Memorial is on the edge of the cbd. There are a number of other heritage buildings that give Yea a really good feel. Allow plenty of time when visiting.