BACKGROUND

Dights Falls is located in Melbourne, Victoria just downstream of the junction of the Yarra River with Merri Creek. At this point the river narrows and is constricted between 800,000 year old volcanic, basaltic lava flow and a much older steep, silurian, sedimentary spur. The north side also contains abundant graptolite fossils in sedimentary sandstone.

 

Prior to European settlement, the area was occupied by the indigenous Wurundjeri tribe of the Kulin nation. The rock falls would have provided the Aboriginal people with a natural river crossing and place to trap migratingv fish. It was also a meeting place for many clans where they would trade, settle disputes and exchange brides.

 

1803 (January)

Charles Grimes, the deputy surveyor-general of New South Wales, was sent to Port Phillip to survey the area. Sailing on thev schooner Cumberland, under the command of Acting Lieutenant Charles Robbins, when the party entered Port Phillip Grimes explored the Yarra by boat for several miles until he reached Dights Falls on February 8.

 

On a ridge above the falls, 250 metres to the east, is an historic marker commemorating the

"First white men to discover the river Yarra reaching Yarra Falls on 8th February, 1803. Also to make the first crossing near here with the cattle by the first overlanders John Gardiner, Joseph Hawdon and Captain John Hepburn in December 1836".

 

1840s

An artificial weir was built on the natural bar of basalt boulders to provide water to the "Ceres" flour mill, one of the first in Victoria. Situated by the Yarra River in Collingwood is the industrial relic known locally as "Dight's Mill", one of Melbourne's oldest and most significant industrial sites.

 

Early 1840s

John Dight established Melbourne's first water-powered flour mill on the site.

 

1888

'Yarra Falls Roller Mills' built a water-turbine powered mill, which was the largest and most sophisticated of the thirty two water powered mills built in Victoria before 1900.

 

ACCESS

The public area is known as "Dights Fálls Park", and can be readily accessed from the Yarra River Trail, near the Merri Creek Junction, at the Observation Platform. There are good views across the Falls from the Lookout, reached from either the old Pumping Station track from the Johnston St Bridge, or from a foot-track near the Monument on the Yarra Boulevard Loop.

 

The rapid has been used many times for the Victorian Canoe Slalom Championships and has been used regularly for training by Australian Olympian Warwick Draper. When in high flood the weir creates a large surfing area, which can be surfed by numerous paddlers at once.

 

The falls are a major obstacle to fish migration up the Yarra River. A fishv ladder was installed in 1993, but subsequent research found it "is not functioning adequately and will require modifications to improve its

efficiency and effectiveness". Melbourne Water have undertaken works from the end of 2010 to replace the weir and construct a new fishway to address this issue.

 

HISTORICAL

1838

John Dight of Campbell Town acquired portion 88, Parish of Jika Jika, County of Bourke, on 7 November 1838. Over the next few years, he constructed a brick mill on the site and began the production of flour.

 

1843

Ownership of the land passed to John Dight and his brother Charles Hilton Dight.

 

1864

the flour milling use was abandoned and the mill leased to Thomas Kenny.

 

1870s

The site was used by the Patent Safety Blasting Powder Co.

 

1878

The Dight family sold the mill site to Edwin Trennery  and he subsequently subdivided the land.

 

1888

The original mill on the river bank remained unoccupied until 1888, when flour millers Gillespie, Aitken and Scott, operating under the name of 'Yarra Falls Roller Flour Mills' constructed a new mill and associated buildings on the site.

 

The mill race was rebuilt in much the same position on the site using bluestone blocks from Dight's old mill building, and a new mill and associated buildings were constructed some distance from the site of the original mill building.

 

1891

This enterprise was sold to the Melbourne Flour Milling Company, run by the Hon. James Bell.

 

1895

In 1890, the founding Act of the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works was established and the Board issued a licence to the company in 1895 for the construction and maintenance of the weir at the Falls.

 

1909

The Melbourne Flour Milling Co sold ?its mill and plant on the banks of the Yarra at Abbotsford to Messrs John Darling and Son, thewell known millers and wheat merchants of South Australia. John Darling and Son extended the lease with the Board of Works, but for a period of only three months.

 

Within this time, however the mill suffered a disastrous fire and was destroyed. Most of what remained of the mill buildings was dismantled and removed from the site in the twenty years following the fire. The Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works controlled and owned the site for most of the twentieth century. The site consists of the remains of the head race, tail race, turbine house, retaining wall and weir.