The first Europeans to visit the Youanmi area were the
Robert Austin party in 1854, followed by the
John Forrest's expedition in 1869, which passed through in search of
Ludwig Leichhardt and his party. The mine was owned by
London-based company Yuanmi Gold Mines, Limited. On Christmas Eve 1929,
Arthur Upfield met Snowy Rowles at Youanmi, after the latter had just murdered James Ryan and George Lloyd, in a case known as the
Murchison Murders. With the closure of the gold mine in 1942, Youanmi was almost completely abandoned. It is the setting of the 1957 stage musical ''
Nex' Town''. Mining at Youanmi resumed in the 1980s, when the gold mine reopened, but because of the
fly-in fly-out nature of present-day mining, the town was not reestablished. Mining continued until 1997, when the mine was closed once more. At the time of its second closure, Youanmi had produced 670,000 ounces of gold throughout its lifetime. ==See also==