A township at Yarrah, located along the railway line, was surveyed in April 1863 and offered for sale on 21 July 1864[6] but was largely unsuccessful.[7] The hundred of Yarrah was proclaimed on 16 December 1880 by Governor William Jervois.[5]
Yarrah Post Office opened on 1 October 1887 and closed around 1909.[8] Yarrah Primary School opened in 1893. In about 1919,[6] it closed because of small attendance, but then re-opened in 1919, only to be closed permanently at a later date.[9][10]
'The little galvanised-iron church at Yarraville [sic]' is mentioned in the Register newspaper.[11]
The gazetted locality of Yarrah was created in November 1999. The locality's boundaries roughly equate to those of the hundred of Yarrah and approximately half of the adjacent hundred of Wyacca. In April 2013, an additional portion of formerly unincorporated land was added to the locality.
In 2013, Australia Post altered the local postcode from 5713 to 5433 as part of a review of outback postcodes.[15][1]
^This name is one of the names used on the widely used Aboriginal Australia Map, by David Horton (ed.), 1994 published in The Encyclopedia of Aboriginal Australia by AIATSIS. This map also divides Australia into 18 regions (Southwest, Northwest, Desert, Kimberley, Fitzmaurice, North, Arnhem, Gulf, West Cape, Torres Strait, East, Rainforest, Northeast, Eyre, Riverine, Southeast, Spencer and Tasmania).
^ ab"Hundred of Yarrah". Property Location Browser. Government of South Australia. Retrieved 17 February 2016.