Yarra Junction is located two km east of where the Little Yarra River joins the Yarra River. ​Yarra Junction’s location on the fringes of the Great Dividing Range provides a strategic link between Mount Baw Baw and Gippsland to the south-east and Healesville and the Hume Highway to the north-west. 

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During the early 1880s a community village settlement on 10 hectare blocks was formed, and the area was named Little Yarra Junction. A primary school was opened in 1894. In 1901 the railway between Lilydale and Warburton was opened. 

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Yarra Junction was a conveyance point for timber brought in by bush tram from Noojee, Powelltown, Brittania Creek and several smaller settlements to the south-east. Its growth began to approach Warburton’s, and in 1910 the administrative centre for the Upper Yarra shire was shared with Warburton, and later transferred to Yarra Junction. Yarra Junction’s centrality to the region was strengthened in 1961 when the Upper Yarra High School was opened.

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Source:

‘Yarra Junction’, Victorian Places, 2014, accessed on 6/3/2023

“The Upper Yarra: An Illustrated History” by Brian Carroll 1988