Yarloop's heritage workshops receive state government boost

The commitment is part of the Royalties for Regions South-West community chest fund, which provides organisations and community groups with grants up to $50,000 to support local projects.

Yarloop workshops chairman Geoff Cattach said once the workshops new building was rebuilt, the funding would allow them to establish a new historical display to share Yarloop and the South West’s rich past.

Mr Cattach said the display would include items recovered from the fires in January 2016 as well as old photographs from Yarloop’s iconic heritage sites.

It is yet unclear what items survived last year’s blaze, since the Yarloop workshops managing team haven’t yet been allowed to go on site.

“We are not aware of what survived,” Mr Cattach said.

“We looked across the fence but we haven’t been able to walk around and see.”

However, Mr Cattach estimates only half of the artifacts survived the blaze.

He said they are currently waiting for the Shire of Harvey to rebuild the workshops but there is not set date for the works to begin.

However, he expected them to start before the end of the year.

Once the building process is completed, Mr Cattach said the team would be able to start working on the tourism display.