Photograph shows bushland near Plenty GorgePart of the John Ramsdale collection of slides and audio visual material.Colour photograph scanned from slide.No maker's marks. No caption on slide.plenty gorge, plenty gorge metropolitan park

Photograph shows a view of the bushland at Plenty Gorge.Part of the John Ramsdale collection of slides and audio visual material.Colour photograph scanned from slide.No maker's marks. No caption on slide.plenty gorge metropolitan park, plenty gorge, bushland

Photograph shows a river through bushland. This is in Plenty Gorge.Part of the John Ramsdale collection of slides and audio visual material.Colour photograph scanned from slide.No maker's marks. No caption on slide.plenty gorge, plenty gorge metropolitan park

Photograph shows a sign accusing MMBW of taking land for mega park - Plenty Gorge ParkPart of the John Ramsdale collection of slides and audio visual material.Colour photograph scanned from slide.No maker's marks. No caption on slide.plenty gorge metropolitan park, plenty gorge, melbourne and metropolitan board of works

Photograph shows a river through bushland; this is the Plenty Gorge.Part of the John Ramsdale collection of slides and audio visual material.Colour photograph scanned from slide.No maker's marks. No caption on slide.plenty river, plenty gorge metropolitan park

Photograph shows a rocky area near river in Plenty Gorge.Part of the John Ramsdale collection of slides and audio visual material.Colour photograph scanned from slide.No maker's marks. No caption on slide.plenty river, plenty gorge

Photograph shows a track through trees and retaining wall. This is Plenty Gorge with blackberries in foreground.Part of the John Ramsdale collection of slides and audio visual material.Colour photograph scanned from slide.No maker's marks. No caption on slide.plenty gorge, blackberries

Community update on rehabilitation of the section of Plenty Gorge Park affected by a bushfire in December 20196 p. text and colour photographs and mapplenty gorge park, bushfires, blue lake, yellow gum park, plenty

This DVD gives some detail of the Plenty Gorge Park, its natural environment and impact of man.1 DVD. plenty gorge park, parks victoria, plenty river

An eerie, blackened landscape remains after a bushfire ripped through more than 40 ha of the Plenty Gorge parklands.News article 2 pages, black text and colour images.plenty gorge park, bushfire

The Parks Division of the Board was responsible for the preparation of a Master Plan for the management of the Plenty Gorge Metropolitan Park, comprising privately owned land and land owned by the Board and councils.The creation of the park by the Victorian government, to be managed by the Board of Works, guaranteed public access to a large area of land adjacent to the Plenty River Gorge.2p. newsletter, black ink on blue paperNewsletter No. 6plenty gorge park, plenty river

Pastel on paperSigned, dated and titled 'Bellany '83 Lower Plenty Gorge' along bottom of drawing.

A quarry was transformed into the Blue Lake. 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, blue lake, plenty gorge park

Pastel on paperTitled, signed and dated 'Bellany '83 Lower Plenty Gorge' in lower right corner of drawing.

Charcoal on paper.Titled, signed and dated 'Lower Plenty Gorge Bellany '83' in lower right corner of drawing.

Pastel on paperTitled, signed and dated 'Lower Plenty Gorge Bellany '83' in lower right corner of drawing.

Pastel on paperTitled, signed and dated 'Lower Plenty Gorge Bellany '83' in lower right corner of drawing.

Pastel on paperTitled, signed and dated 'Lower Plenty Gorge Bellany '83' in lower right section of drawing.

Charcoal on paperTitled, signed and dated 'Lower Plenty Gorge Bellany '83' in lower right corner of drawing.

Charcoal on paperTitled, signed and dated 'Lower Plenty Gorge Bellany '83' in lower right corner of drawing.

Pastel on paperTitled, signed and dated 'Lower Plenty Gorge Bellany '83' in lower right corner of drawing.

Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works. Yarra 2500 [base map] 13-23. Plenty / Middle Gorge. Parish of Morang 3183. Municipalities of Diamond Valley 257 and Whittlesea 239. Prominent streets include: Gorge Road, Kurrak Road and Browns Lane. Features include the Plenty River and Plenty Gorge Park.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, plenty gorge park

The Shire of Whittlesea obtained a grant from the federal government to investigate the potential development of a park to the west of the Plenty River in 1976. A regional tip site and the Shire of Diamond Valley's Yarrambat Park were handed over to the MMBW to form the existing Metropolitan Park in 1986. A long term project to develop the park further is to commence in 1990.2 p. text, map and col. illus."With compliments of Sherryl Garbutt M.P. Member for Greensborough" (rubber stamp)plenty gorge park

Photograph shows creek bed with vegetation, upstream from Plenty Gorge.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"plenty gorge, plenty river, mernda

Account of a dig carried out by Heritage Victoria at the site of the Thomas flour mill, a three-story building with a small cottage built in 1855, which ceased operation in 1863. Article written by GHS member John Gibson.5 p., black text and photographsmoses thomas, flour mill, plenty river

The land surrounding Happy Hollow farm at Plenty was purchased by Francis Wickham in 1840. The land was later subdivided and held by various owners including Charles Partington (1875) and John McLaughlin who leased the property in 1892 to Robert Emmett Whatmough who erected the first dwelling on the property. 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.Happy Hollow was an example of early settlement along the Plenty River.Digital copy of colour photograph. Plaque at Plenty Gorge Parklands.plenty river, happy hollow, happy hollow farm, robert emmett whatmough, betty bell, john mclaughlin, charles partington, parks victoria

Photograph shows an anti- Plenty Gorge Park sign in Gorge Road South MorangPart of the John Ramsdale collection of slides and audio visual material.Colour photograph scanned from slide.No maker's marks. No caption on slide.plenty gorge, plenty gorge metropolitan park, melbourne and metropolitan board of works

Photograph shows house with anti-Plenty Gorge Park sign, Gorge Road South MorangPart of the John Ramsdale collection of slides and audio visual material.Colour photograph scanned from slide.No maker's marks. No caption on slide.plenty gorge, plenty gorge metropolitan park, melbourne and metropolitan board of works

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.Digital copy of colour photographsyellow gum park, blue lake, plenty gorge park