Yarloop residents gather to celebrate fifth birthday of community centre brought back from ashes

There was cake to cut, drinks to drink and good times all round in Yarloop last week, as members of the community gathered to celebrate.

The Yarloop Community Resource centre hosted an intimate community gathering last Friday as new and old residents of the town came together for the centre’s fifth birthday.

The centre officially reopened on November 22, 2019, as part of a $2.7 million project after the community was devastated by a bushfire in 2016.

All but the face of the Yarloop Town Hall was destroyed in the blaze which also claimed two lives, destroyed 180 homes and incinerated 69,000ha of land.

While the weeks battling the inferno will never be forgotten, Friday’s gathering was a joyful showing of a community getting back on its feet.

Yarloop CRC manager Julie-Ann Ford said it was great for the community to come come together and catch up on a day important to everyone in town.

“It has been five years since we finally got a home after the fires in 2016,” she said.

“This building has been such an asset to the town, it’s brought a place where the whole town can get together to have events.

“Without it, I think the town would have really been lost.”