Dominican Chapel of St Hyacinth

Yalgoo also has one of the most interesting and unusual of all the church buildings constructed by the famous Western Australian architect ­priest Monsignor John Hawes. Between 1915­ and 1939 Hawes designed and helped to build a large number of churches and church buildings in the Central West. When Hawes arrived in Yalgoo, shortly after he had arrived in Western Australia from Europe, he was overwhelmed by the heat and isolation of the town. In a letter to a friend he described how he just flopped about and struggled to exist. At the time Yalgoo was a small gold mining town in decline. In 1920 Hawes designed the wood and stone Dominican Chapel of St Hyacinth for the Dominican Sisters who were working in the town. Not only did Hawes design the building but he regularly travelled by horseback from Mullewa to oversee the construction and to work as a labourer for the local builder.