Happy Valley Single Men’s Quarters Precinct Historic Site 1890s

During the milling era, Happy Valley was the colloquial name established for the area behind the Yarloop Workshops.

The first Millars’ Karri and Jarrah Company (1902) Limited workers lived in tents in the forest that was to become Yarloop. Millars allowed men to use the cut timber to build huts which they completed within two weekends.

There are conflicting stories about the name. Some say it was because no women in Happy Valley. Others say that in the 1940s they dubbed it ‘Happy Valley’ because some tenants would argue over which one was stealing the other’s vegetables from the small gardens each had established on the adjacent swampy ground.

In the 1940s, Happy Valley was rebuilt and continued to provide accommodation for workers within the Mill. The simple and small timber frame and weatherboard cottages were clad in corrugated galvanised iron painted alternatively in green and red. Unfortunately, they were destroyed in the 2016 Bushfires.