-
The Wurundjeri Balluk People
The Wurundjeri Balluk People are the traditional land owners of the Dights Falls area. They speak the woiworung language group and It is believed that they have lived in the woiworung area for up to 40,000 years. The rocky outcrop of Dights Falls was an important meeting place for trade, marriage, dispute resolution and other ceremonies. The river provided a very large supply of fish and other animals which meany that it could sustain these people for a number of weeks at a time. -
Charles Grimes
Charles Grimes was believed to be one of the first Europeans to explore the Yarra River. He was a surveyor General from NSW and led his survey party to the Yarra Falls (Dights Falls) on an expedition in 1803, to report on the suitability of the area for a settlement. -
John Dight's purchase
In 1839 John Dight who worked in the flour milling industry purchased 26 acres of land along the Yarra river which is today known as Dights Falls. -
Port Phillip Bay
After John Dight had bought the 26 acre land and his flour milling business had been operating for a year, John Dight decided to move to Port Phillip Bay. -
The Water Powered Mill
In 1841, the first steam powered flour mill was constructed and invented in Melbourne. In seeing this, soon after, John Dight built his own mill which was powered by water . -
Ownership changing of Dights Falls
In 1864 the dight family decided to withdraw from the flour milling industry and the mill was then leased to Thomas Kenny -
Edwin Trenney
in 1878 the property of the flour milling industry was sold to Edwin Trenney, and from there Edwin decided to sub divide the land. -
Yarra Falls Roller Flour Mills
The original mill, that was abandoned after Thomas Kenney had sub-divided the land was used to construct a new mill, by flour millers, Gillespie, Aitken and Scott who were known as the 'Yarra Falls Roller Flour Mills'. -
The First Wooden Weir
In 1895, a weir, made out of timber was built. It was built at dights falls and it provided water for the flour milling industry. It also set the water level for 16km which meant that any other structures that needed water within a 16km range would rely on the weir. -
The final ownership change
In 1909 for the last time the mill had changed ownership to Messrs John Darling and Son, who were well known for milling and being wheat merchants of South Australia. The father and son extended their lease an extra 3 months but in that time the mill was burnt down as it was destroyed by fire. The mill ruins can still be seen today at dights falls. -
Rock Fishway constructed
In 1993, Melbourne water came to a realisation that fish were no longer able to migrate along dights falls as the weir had become a barrier and the fish had no way to get around the weir. So that was when the first rock fishway was created at dights falls. But even though the fish had a way to get around and it was the best current way for the fish to get around it still wasn't enough for lots of fish had difficulty getting around it. -
The latest construction
Just recently in 2010-2012, the Melbourne water team discovered that the rock fish way/ladder hadn't been very effective in helping the fish to cross the weir. Also, as the weir at dights falls is the barrier between fresh water and salt water so the fish needed a new and unimpeded fishway. This new fishway is proving to be a very successful as there has been many reports now, showing that there is a lot more fish species coming back into the Yarra river as they were able to cross the weir.
