Blue Lake is in Yellow Gum Park in the Plenty Gorge, north of Greensborough.Digital copy of colour photographsyellow gum park, blue lake, plenty gorge park

Blue Lake is in Yellow Gum Park in the Plenty Gorge, north of Greensborough. These photos show views of the lake.Digital copy of colour photographsyellow gum park, blue lake, plenty gorge park

Blue Lake is in Yellow Gum Park in the Plenty Gorge, north of Greensborough. These photos show views of the lake.Digital copy of colour photographsyellow gum park, blue lake, plenty gorge park

Blue Lake is in Yellow Gum Park in the Plenty Gorge, north of Greensborough. These photos show kangaroos in the Park.Digital copy of colour photographsyellow gum park, blue lake, plenty gorge park

Aerial survey of Plenty Gorge Park area, including Greensborough by-pass construction and Metropolitan Ring Road reservation.An historical view of developing GreensboroughColour aerial photograph QAS 2504c run 5 3/11/86 1:15,500 by Qascophotoplenty gorge park, greensborough bypass, metropolitan ring road

Blue Lake is in Yellow Gum Park in the Plenty Gorge, north of Greensborough. These photos show the variety of vegetation in the park.Digital copy of colour photographsyellow gum park, blue lake, plenty gorge park

Blue Lake is in Yellow Gum Park in the Plenty Gorge, north of Greensborough. These photos show a makeshift camp site in the park.Digital copy of colour photographsyellow gum park, blue lake, plenty gorge park

Undated photographs of young men swimming at Blue Lake. Blue Lake is located in Yellow Gum Park, a section of the Plenty Gorge Metropolitan Park.3 digital photographsblue lake, yellow gum park, plenty gorge park, plenty river

Blue Lake is in Yellow Gum Park in the Plenty Gorge, north of Greensborough. This photo was taken from Yellow Gum Park and shows Greensborough in the distance.Digital copy of colour photographsyellow gum park, blue lake, plenty gorge park

Nillumbik Council has conducted another round of sweeping inspections on more than 200 properties rated at high risk of fire. This follows a grass fire in Greensborough and a bushfire at Plenty Gorge Parklands.News article 1 page, black text.nillumbik council, high fire risk, symon crescent greensborough, plenty gorge park

This archaeological survey of the Plenty Valley was conducted by Isabel Ellender in 1991 for the Board of Works (Melbourne Water), in particular the Plenty Gorge Metropolitan Park. The area studied is north of Greensborough to Whittlesea. A number of Aboriginal sites were identified and recommendations made for the future.67 p., illus., maps. Plastic spiral binding.plenty river, aboriginal heritage sites, plenty gorge metropolitan park

The Shire of Diamond Valley was a Local Government Area located about 20 kilometres northeast of Melbourne. The shire covered an area of 74.38 square kilometres and existed from 1964 until 1994.Annual guide to services in Shire of Diamond Valley18pages, illus (some colour), maps. Front cover photograph "Plenty Gorge".shire of diamond valley, greensborough, handbooks

Stuchbery Farm was situated on the Plenty River bounded by Smugglers Gully to the north and La trobe Road, Yarrambat, to the east. Alan and Ada Stutchbery moved to the valley in 1890, first living in a tent where four children were born. Alfred built a home and outbuildings around 1896. They planted an orchard, then a market garden and developed a dairy. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p179 The dramatic steep-sided Plenty Gorge lies along the divide of two geological areas, and separates the Nillumbik Shire and the City of Whittlesea. On the Nillumbik side are undulating hills and sedimentary rock, and in Whittlesea, lies a basalt plain formed by volcanic action up to two million years ago. This provides the Plenty Gorge Park with diverse vegetation and habitats, making it one of Greater Melbourne’s most important refuges for threatened and significant species. The park, established in 1986, consists of around 1350 hectares, and extends 11 kilometres along the Plenty River, from Greensborough to Mernda. It provides a wildlife corridor for around 500 native plant and 280 animal species. The area’s plentiful food and water attracted the Wurundjeri Aboriginal people and then European settlers. By 1837 squatters had claimed large runs of land for their sheep and cattle. The Plenty Valley was among the first in the Port Phillip District to be settled - mainly in the less heavily timbered west - and was proclaimed a settled district in 1841. But by the late 1880s, the settlers’ extensive land clearing for animal grazing, then agriculture, depleted the Wurundjeri’s traditional food sources, which helped to drive them away. Many Wurundjeri artefacts remain (now government protected), and so far 57 sites have been identified in the park, including scarred trees, burial areas and stone artefacts. Pioneer life could be very hard because of isolation, flooding, bushfires and bushrangers. Following the Black Thursday bushfires of 1851, basalt was quarried to build more fire-resistant homes. Gold discoveries in the early 1850s swelled the population, particularly around Smugglers Gully; but food production made more of an impact. In the late 1850s wheat production supplanted grazing. In the 1860s the government made small holdings available to poorer settlers. These had the greatest effect on the district, particularly in Doreen and Yarrambat, where orchards were established from the 1880s to 1914. Links with a prominent early family are the remains of Stuchbery Farm, by the river’s edge bounded by Smugglers Gully to the north and La Trobe Road, Yarrambat, to the east. The Stuchberys moved to the valley in 1890, and the family still lives in the area. In 1890, Alfred and Ada first lived in a tent where four children were born, then Alfred built the house and outbuildings around 1896. They planted an orchard, then a market garden, and developed a dairy. The family belonged to the local Methodist and tennis communities. Their grandson Walter, opened the Flying Scotsman Model Railway Museum in Yarrambat, which his widow, Vi, continues to run. Wal was also the Yarrambat CFA Captain for 22 years until 1987. Walter sold 24 hectares in 1976 for development - now Vista Court - and in 1990, the remaining 22.6 hectares for the park. Remaining are an early stone dairy and remnants of a stone barn, a pig sty and a well. Until it was destroyed by fire in 2003, a slab hut stood on the Happy Hollow Farm site, at the southern end of the park. The hut is thought to have been built in the Depression around 1893. This was a rare and late example of a slab hut with a domestic orchard close to Melbourne. Emmet Watmough and his family first occupied the hut, followed by a succession of families, until the Bell family bought it around 1948. There they led a subsistence lifestyle for 50 years, despite encroaching Melbourne suburbia. The Yellow Gum Recreation Area includes the Blue Lake, coloured turquoise at certain times of the year. Following the 1957 bushfires, this area was quarried by Reid Quarries Pty Ltd for Melbourne’s first skyscrapers, then by Boral Australia. However in the early 1970s water began seeping into the quarry forming the Blue Lake and the quarry was closed. The State Government bought the site in 1997 and opened it as a park in 1999.This collection of almost 130 photos about places and people within the Shire of Nillumbik, an urban and rural municipality in Melbourne's north, contributes to an understanding of the history of the Shire. Published in 2008 immediately prior to the Black Saturday bushfires of February 7, 2009, it documents sites that were impacted, and in some cases destroyed by the fires. It includes photographs taken especially for the publication, creating a unique time capsule representing the Shire in the early 21st century. It remains the most recent comprehenesive publication devoted to the Shire's history connecting local residents to the past. nillumbik now and then (marshall-king) collection, ada stuchbery, alan stuchbery, dairy, stuchbery farm, farm buildings, yarrambat, plenty gorge park

Video of a fieldwork for teachers, taken by John Ramsdale in 1990, investigating changes along the Plenty River.Part of the John Ramsdale collection of slides and audio visual material.VHS video tape, 2 copies."Chapple E180 videocassette" and "Change in the Plenty corridor unedited 5.12.90"plenty river, plenty gorge

Photograph shows a bridge with van, road is on steep hill. This is the carpark at Middle Gorge Park on Kurrak Road Yarrambat.Part of the John Ramsdale collection of slides and audio visual material.Colour photograph scanned from slide.No caption. Printed maker's mark on slide "Kodak Kodachrome Slide"middle gorge park, kurrak road yarrambat, plenty gorge metropolitan park

Mill Park Farm at Janefield on the Plenty River was established around 1840 by George Coulstock where he grew wheat. His flour mill was one of the first in Victoria, under construction as early as 1841. After bushfires and Coulstock's early death in 1842, the farm and its mill were taken over by local landowners Henry Miller and John Brock. Peter Hurlestone took charge of the mill. With water diverted from the Plenty River to fill the newly built Yan Yean Reservoir which opened in 1857, the Hurlestone family quit and that was the demise of the mill.Four colour photographs showing the ruins of Coulstocks Flour Mill (Janefield Mill), Janefield. 1. Stone wall 2. Old mill 3. Stone remains of old mill 4. Tree near old mill sitemills, flour mills, coulstock, janefield, plenty river, ruins, stone walls, plenty gorge, bundoora

Mill Park Farm at Janefield on the Plenty River was established around 1840 by George Coulstock where he grew wheat. His flour mill was one of the first in Victoria, under construction as early as 1841. After bushfires and Coulstock's early death in 1842, the farm and its mill were taken over by local landowners Henry Miller and John Brock. Peter Hurlestone took charge of the mill. With water diverted from the Plenty River to fill the newly built Yan Yean Reservoir which opened in 1857, the Hurlestone family quit and that was the demise of the mill.Five colour photographs of ruins of Coulstocks Mill, Janefield (Mill Park - Bundoora)mills, flour mills, coulstock, janefield, plenty river, ruins, stone walls, bundoora, plenty gorge

Group of Greensborough Historical Society members at the Blue Lake BBQ in February 2016. Blue Lake is in Yellow Gum Park in the Plenty Gorge. More photos of this event can be found at the GHS Resource Centre.Digital copy of colour photograph.greensborough historical society, plenty river, blue lake, yellow gum park

This edition includes a report on the Progress Association's meeting, A park close to the heart of Greensborough, From the Council Chamber, The Plenty Gorge : can our region's major landscape resource survive? A digital copy of this Newsletter is available from Greensborough Historical Society.Newsletter, 4 p., illus.greenhills and north greensborough progress association, greenhills

Contents: • Next meeting, guest speaker; Meera Govil: Eltham Literary Connections • May Meeting • Plenty Gorge Excursion • War memorials in Australia • Walter Withers in 1903 • Office Bearers 2003/2004 • Subscriptions 2003/2004 • Life Members • Other News The Shire of Eltham Historical Society was formed in October 1967. The first newsletter of the Society was issued May 1978 and has been published continuously ever since on a bi-monthly basis. With the cessation of the Shire of Eltham in late 1994, the Society's name was revised to Eltham District Historical Society and this name first appeared with issue No. 103, July 1995. The collection of the Society's newsletters provides a valuable resource on the history of the Society's activities, office bearers and committee members, guest speakers and subjects of historical interest pertinent to the former Shire of Eltham and the Eltham District.A4 photocopied newsletter distributed to membersnewsletter, eltham district historical society, shire of eltham historical society

Photograph of the site of the 'Willis Vale' homestead, home of the Partington family. The derelict Willis Vale house was destroyed in 1964 when a fire originating from North Plenty Gorge - Kurrak Road - was lit by two teenage boys and made its way several kilometres down to Partington's Flat Greensborough.Digital copy of colour photograph."This house is where Willis Vale homestead was on Partingtons Flat"partington family, willis vale

Photograph of descendants of past owners of Happy Hollow unveiling the commemorative plaque. Includes descendants of Charles Partington, John McLaughlin and Robert Emmett Whatmough. The land was later owned by Mrs Betty Bell and was purchased by Parks Victoria in 1994 to form part of the Plenty Gorge Parklands. This plaque was laid by Plenty Historical Society. Digital copies of 3 colour photographs.happy hollow, plenty river, john mclaughlin, charles partington, robert emmett whatmough, parks victoria

Photograph of descendants of past owners of Happy Hollow preparing to unveil the commemorative plaque. Includes descendants of Charles Partington, John McLaughlin and Robert Emmett Whatmough. The land was later owned by Mrs Betty Bell and was purchased by Parks Victoria in 1994 to form part of the Plenty Gorge Parklands. This plaque was laid by Plenty Historical Society. Digital copy of colour photograph.happy hollow, robert emmett whatmough, charles partington, betty bell, parks victoria

This photograph shows one of the out buildings at 'Willis Vale', a property owned and farmed by the Partington family from the 1870s. The derelict Willis Vale house was destroyed in 1964 when a fire originating from North Plenty Gorge - Kurrak Road - was lit by two teenage boys and made its way several kilometres down to Partington's Flat Greensborough.The hoe of a pioneer Greensborough family.Digital copy of black and white photograph.willis vale, partington family

'Willis Vale' home of the Partington family is shown in this photograph as well as the area now known as Partington's Flat. The area was owned and farmed by the Partington family from the 1870s. The derelict Willis Vale house was destroyed in 1964 when a fire originating from North Plenty Gorge - Kurrak Road - lit by two teenage boys - made its way several kilometres down to Partington's Flat Greensborough.Photograph shows an early view of Greensborough in 1906.Professional photograph in sepia mounted on dark green card. Shows Greensborough township in background with Willis Vale homestead in centre. On back: A.M.Partington Greensborough 1906.willis vale, partington family, greensborough, alan partington

Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works. Yarra 2500 [base map]. 12-24, Municipalities of Whittlesea 239 and Diamond Valley 257. Shows street names, easement sizes, lot numbers, lodged plan numbers, names of prominent features, contour values, creek or river names. Watsonia Railway Station and environs. Prominent streets: Memorial Drive. Includes Plenty River and Blue Lake in the Plenty Gorge.MMBW Map in 1:2500 [scale] series. Cream parchment with green tape reinforcing on edges and punched holes on left edge.mmbw, melbourne and metropolitan board of works, shire of diamond valley, plenty - maps, blue lake

House built by Edward Maygar, Robert Whatmough lived there mid 19th century and later sold to Partington family. It was located on the Plenty River at Partington's Flat Greensborough. The derelict Willis Vale house was destroyed in 1964 when a fire originating from North Plenty Gorge - Kurrak Road - was lit by two teenage boys and made its way several kilometres down to Partington's Flat Greensborough.Willis Vale was one of the earliest homes built in the area.Black and white digital photograph.willis vale, partington family

Willis Vale: House built by Edward Maygar, Robert Whatmough lived there mid 19th century and later sold to Partington family. It was located on the Plenty River at Partington's Flat Greensborough. The derelict Willis Vale house was destroyed in 1964 when a fire originating from North Plenty Gorge - Kurrak Road - was lit by two teenage boys and made its way several kilometres down to Partington's Flat Greensborough.Home of the Partington family.Digital copy of black and white photograph.willis vale, partington family, maygar family, whatmough