Historical information

Louis Chevalier, brother of popular artist Nicholas Chevalier, opened a sawmill in Beechworth near Spring Creek in Newtown in 1853. This facilitated a boom in building in the town, as materials were much more available than they had been previously. A second sawmill was opened in the town in 1856. Louis Chevalier served on the Beechworth Council as a representative of Newtown between 1858 and 1860. As this photograph is taken in 1859, the mill would have been operating as a sawmill at the time this photograph was taken.

Louis Chevalier’s mill stopped sawing wood and began milling flour at some point between 1860 and 1862. At this time, the Oven’s district was almost self-sufficient, producing considerable quantities of grain, dairy, fodder and meat. Unfortunately, the region experienced poor agricultural yields in the 1880s and 1890s, which lead to the closure of the Beechworth Flour Mills in the 1880s.

Significance

This photograph depicts the first sawmill in Beechworth, which was responsible for making the materials available for other early buildings in the town. The mill race and wheel are also clearly depicted, which may shed light onto how mill wheels of this era and place were constructed

Physical description

Black and white rectangular photograph printed on matte photographic paper mounted on board

Inscriptions & markings

Reverse:
3146 / 1997.2654 /
Louis Chevalier's Flour Mill on /
the Newtown Falls before the /
Bridge /
Est 1853 / this photo 1859 /
84-229-1 / Burke Museum Beechworth /
Page 41 /
81 % /
(Illegible) / (Illegible) 14 /