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Dight's family mill
The Dight's family mill and land along the Yarra River changed hands a number of times in the mid to late 1800's. -
Charles Grimes
Charles Grimes, Surveyor General of New South Wales, is believed to be the first European to explore the Yarra river. -
Melbourne was eventually settled in
Land was sub-divided and the first public land sales were held shortly after. -
John Dight
John Dight purchased Melbourne block 88 which included 26 acres of land along Yarra River. -
John Dight leaves
John Dight notified his customers through the Sydney Herald that he was leaving to go to Port Phillip. -
The first steam powered flour mill
was constructed in Melbourne, Dight built his water powered mill soon after, from bricks bought over from Tasmania. -
The dight family abandoning flour mill
The Dight family abandoning flour milling in 1864 -
Edwin Trennery
The property was sold to Edwin Trennery in 1878 and subsequently subdivided the land. -
History of weir
The existing weir at Dights Falls dates back to 1895 when a timber structure was built to provide water to the Melbourne Flour Milling Company (MFMC). -
Repairing the weir
Weir has been repaired a number of times in it's 100 year history and the structure we see today is a combination of materials added over time. -
The first documented reconstruction activity
The first documented reconstruction activity occurred i n1918 when part of the timber weir washed away in flood waters. -
Breach repair
A breach of the weir on 24 December 1940 prompted another rebuild and the distribution of 1.5 tonnes of rock from the edge of the weir downstream. -
Heavy rainfall occurred
A further breach of the weir occurred after heavy rainfall in 1967, most of the timber decking, walings and rock fill had washed away or were irreparably damaged during this flood. -
Fish migration
In 1993 Melbourne water, recognising that the weir was a barrier to fish migration constructed a rock fishway to allow fish to move around the weir.