The Forests of Warburton - a Pictorial Heritage - 1853 to 2012

Epilogue

Home
Scope
1853 - Beginnings
1885 to present day - Dee Valley Mills
1889 to 1919 - Mills in the Wesburn and Old Warburton area
1890 - Roads to the Forests
1901 to 1964 - The Warburton Railway
1902 to 1906 - Anderson's Mill
1902 to 1939 - East Warburton and Onwards
1903 to 1907- Robinson's Mill No. 1
1905 to 1949 - Tramways of the Mills
1905 to 1928 - Parbury's Brookfield Mill
1906 - Wondwondah Estate and the Adventist Church
1907 to 1913 - Richards Mill
1907 to 1922 - Robinson's Mill No. 1
1908 to 1922 - Robinson's No 2 Mill (Cement Creek)
1909 to 1916 - Hermon's Mill (La La Estate)
1909 to 1949 - The Warburton Steam Railway
1911 to 1915 -The O'Shannassy Aqueduct and Weir
1915 to 1973 - Brimbonga Seasoning Works - East Warburton
1918 to 1925 - Sunnydale Mill, East Warburton
1919 to 1920 - Slocum and Walker's Mill
1920 - From the Bush to the Bungalow
1922 to 1932 - Enterprise Mill (La La)
1925 - Family Snow Trip to Mt Donna Buang
1932 to 1937 - Horner's Mill
1938 to 2000 - Tuckman's Mills
1950 - Welcome Back to Warburton
The Donna Buang Range
Timeline
Epilogue
Bibliography
The Author's Personal Websites
Below is a YouTube Video titled "Warburton - Yarra River Walk", with music, produced in March 2012 by the author

Epilogue

 

I have been interested in the Warburton district for many decades!

 

I was introduced to the town in September 1951 on a school-holiday day bus trip arranged by the YMCA here in Melbourne, which was one of many excursions available to boys aged 10 to 13, who were members of the YMCA Boys’ Club.

 

We were taken to the summit of snow-covered Mt Donna Buang, climbed the Lookout Tower, built a snowman, and then had some free time back in the town before the drive back to Melbourne.

 

I had just bought a Kodak 620 Box Brownie Camera, and the very first photos I took at Warburton were on that camera, which is still in good working order, some 61 years later!

 

It was to be six years later, in 1957, before I visited Warburton again. By that time, I was working in the PMG’s Dept as a Trainee Technician, and with a mate I went to Warby by train and spent the day there wandering around the town and the River.

 

In 1959 I got my driver's licence and bought a car, a 1948 Ford Anglia Tourer and in 1960 I took my family to Warby, on the way through to a trip to the Upper Yarra Reservoir.

 

In the mid-1960s I was involved in a Bushwalking Club and did some day hikes to the Warby region.

 

I never returned to Warby until 2005, when I completed a series of shorter hikes which included Mt Boobyalla, Mt Donna Buang, Mt Victoria, Ben Cairn, Mt Littlejoe and the Big Pat’s Creek region.

 

In mid-2006, the first sector of the O’Shannassy Aqueduct Trail was opened, and in the years until the present I completed most of the Trail.

 

In the years since the early 2000s, I have travelled extensively throughout the Yarra Ranges National Park.

 

During my travels in the Warby area, I had come across artefacts and remains of early sawmilling activity, and this present Project brings together many heritage, contemporary maps and drawings, with personal photographs and videos, depicting the evolution and development of the Warburton Forests, and its timber industry.

 

The graphics are supported by descriptive text.

 

During 2012, I made many trips to Warburton, researching the original mill sites, tramway alignments and logging inclines, identifying their locations, and what is there now! Several of the small concrete timber tramway bridges across the O’Shannassy Aqueduct survive, which can be inspected along the O’Shannassy Aqueduct Trail.

 

Enjoy your journey in time and space in the Warburton Forests!

 

Comments are feedback from readers would be appreciated!

 

Bob Padula

September 2012

timbertrain2nd.jpg
Early 1900s - timber tramway

Contact Bob Padula