Marysville Triangle Heritage Walking Trail
Marysville Triangle Heritage Walking Trail was developed after the 2009 bushfires, which caused massive loss of life and devastation in this part of Victoria.
The towns of Marysville, Buxton, Narbethong and Taggerty are rebuilding from the ashes.
This trail takes you to special places that local people want to remember. Some of these are sites of buildings long gone; others the sites of buildings destroyed by the bushfires and places left standing after the fires.
History of the district
Marysville and the other triangle towns have long been famous for their beauty.
Marysville and Narbethong began as small stopovers for diggers travelling to the Woods Point and Jamieson goldfields during the 1860s gold rush. The majestic trees of the ash range soon attracted both tourists and timber-millers to the area and both towns were booming by the 1880s. The towns saw a further influx of visitors from the 1920s onwards as motor vehicles became affordable.
The rolling hills, fertile soils and flowing rivers at Buxton and Taggerty provided ideal conditions for dairying and crop farming and both towns had become thriving agricultural communities by the 1870s. Fishing enthusiasts were also drawn to the towns after trout were introduced to local rivers in the 19th century. They continue to enjoy superb fishing today.
Location of Trail Signage
Keppel's Australian Hotel
The Cumberland
The new Cumberland Guest House offers a standard of living, comfort and warmth unequalled anywhere in Victoria. Rebuilt just a few months ago the New Cumberland has luxury accommodation with bathrooms en-suite to all bedrooms, a wonderfully relaxing lounge and superb food with the very finest in wines, spirits and ales.
Advertisement: The Age, 10 August 1970
The Cumberland Resort, which once stood on this site, is linked to two of Marysville's most prominent families - the Bartons and the Cuzens.
A guesthouse called the Bungalow was built on this land for Emily Ada Barton around 1917. Emily had been a guesthouse proprietress since at least 1915, when she managed the shortlived 'Chestnuts'. She
was certainly well qualified for the job, having raised, cooked and cleaned for a grand total of 16 Barton children! Emily managed the Bungalow until she sold it to WC Walker in September 1923.
Sydney Elliott took over the Bungalow in 1929, changing its name to Cumberland House within the year. After he sold the business in the mid-1930s the Cumberland had a string of new owners until Geoff and Joan Cuzens purchased it in 1946.
Disaster struck in March 1969, when an electrical fault started a fire. Fortunately no-one was hurt, but the building was nearly destroyed. The Marysville community helped Geoff and Joan rebuild the Cumberland in time for the Christmas rush that same year.
Simon and Ann Cuzens upgraded the Cumberland and opened a day spa on the property in 2006. Tragically Cumberland was again destroyed on Black Saturday 2009.
Rendezvous
I had a grandstand view of the disaster from the Kerami balcony without fully realising the calamity of it all. I can vividly recall in the afternoon when checking the remains, turning on a tap and getting scalded with what should have been cold water! Sam Ross
The Rendezvous guesthouse, owned by the Ross family, had a very short life. For, although the guesthouse was built during the early 1920s, it burnt down on 13 January 1934.
The Rendezvous, which was originally located at 67 Murchison Street, was one of many Marysville guesthouses to prosper in the 1920s. According to owner Ernest Ross, the Rendezvous lived up to its name, which meant 'meeting place'. Many families who visited Marysville had a favourite guesthouse, which they would book out a year in advance. The Rendezvous was no exception.
Built of fibro cement, the Rendezvous had 14 bedrooms and at least three open fires - meaning many hours spent chopping wood for Ernest Ross. The guesthouse also had a septic toilet whose tank was a 40-foot mine shaft, but which nevertheless worked well for many years. But its most unusual feature was an amazing electric light system known as the 'Gloria Light System'. The system was run by methylated spirits pressurised with air via a car tyre pump to create gas, from there, the gas travelled through copper pipes to mantle lights in the house. This innovative but risky system enabled the Ross family to offer guests a hot water service in addition to home-cooked meals and roaring log fires.
The cause of the fire that burnt the Rendezvous down in 1934 is unknown, but the gas that escaped from the pipes as the inferno raged sounded like a scream. Thinking his wife and son were trapped inside, Ernest Ross refused to leave the guesthouse and had to be forcibly removed. Nearby residents worked tirelessly in a 'bucket brigade' to douse the flames, but the guesthouse could not be saved.
The Ross family lived in temporary accommodation of sapling and burnt recoverable roofing iron while a new house was built. This remained a family home until it was burnt down in the fires of Black Saturday, 7 February 2009.
Marysville's Early History
This is the traditional land of the Taungurung - the mountain, valley and river people. A tribe of the Kulin nation, the Taungurung have lived in the Triangle region and travelled to and across the mountains from Healesville to conduct marriage ceremonies, swap food and conduct rituals with neighbouring clans for many thousands of years.
BEGINNINGS.
The town of Marysville began as an overnight camp for coaches taking miners along the Yarra Track to the Woods Point, Jordan, Jamieson and Gaffneys Creek goldfields from 1862. John Steavenson, Assistant Director of Roads and Bridges, named the camp Marysville after his wife Mary when he surveyed the area in the early 1860s. The Steavenson River and Steavenson Falls, one of the highest waterfalls in Victoria, are both named in his honour.
The camp became a village from 1863, as publicans and storekeepers began setting up businesses to cater for visiting diggers. The Victorian Government held the first official land sales for Marysville in 1864.
SETTLEMENT
The Bartons, one of Marysville's pioneering families, owned the general store that once stood upon this site. Thomas Barton arrived in Marysville circa 1863 and by 1866 he and partner E Cameron had set up a butcher's and general store on this land. The Bartons later expanded their business into providing transportation to tourists; first operating a stable and then a motor garage.
Marysville flourished and grew in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Timber workers began harvesting the tall mountain ash trees in the 1880s and the area was scattered with sawmills within a few decades. Tourists soon began visiting Marysville to explore the surrounding forests and nearby snowfields and by the late 1920s the town boasted many modern guesthouses.
The fires of 7 February 2009 razed this beautiful tourist town and its forests, causing massive loss of life and property. Marysville and the surrounding towns are now undergoing a process of renewal and rebuilding.
Crossways
The Timber Story
The logs were all cut, of course with a cross cut saw and barked by hand with an axe ... and whoever worked there would be working in mud all the time ... everything was done out in the open no matter how wet it was. John Lloyd Gould, 1985
Kooringa
The Log Cabin
The Mary Chain
Location
Murchison Street, Marysville 3779 View Map
