Upper Yarra Valley Historical and Heritage Tour
The Upper Yarra Valley Heritage Tour covers the towns of Seville, Launching Place, Yarra Junction and Warburton.
Upper Yarra Valley Heritage Tour Map
1. Mont De Lancey Historic Homestead
Address: 71 Wellington Rd, Wandin North
The Wandin & District Historical Museum Society operates Mont De Lancey Historical Home and Museum at Wandin North. Mont De Lancey is part of the 80 acre allotment selected by stonemason Henry Sebire and wife Martha in 1867, when the Parish of Wandin Yallock was first settled. Fruit growing was the main agricultural industry of the area. The museum opened in March 1993 and is based around the Sebire home, a fully restored and furnished 1880s brick building, with a slab kitchen and a small domestic dairy.
2. Intersection of Hunter, Beenak and Quayle Roads, Wandin Yallock
This intersection has three key sites:
(a) The original brick Methodist Church built in 1881 (now Uniting Church).
(b) Jubilee Gates at Wandin Yallock Primary School, dedicated in 1930 to mark the school's Diamond Jubilee. The original 1870 school building is incorporated in the school rebuild.
(c) Soldiers' Monument, dedicated 4 June 1921, with WWII panels unveiled 18 April 1948. Red flowering gums down Beenak Road and along the Warburton Highway are survivors of the Honour Row planted in 1918.
3. Wanderslore Sanctuary
Address: 2180 Warburton Highway, Launching Place
Wanderslore is a 10 ha bushland remnant gifted to the Victorian Conservation Trust (now Trust For Nature) as a sanctuary reserve for the preservation of wildlife and native plants. Artist, poet and teacher Constance Coleman inherited a fishing shack on a small block of land before WWII, and devoted her income to acquiring adjoining bush blocks to create Wanderslore. She painted in watercolour and oils in a studio which had been a Victorian Railways fettler?s hut, and later the office of the Launching Place Railway Station. If you want to visit, keep an eye on Open Days organised by the Friends of Wanderslore group.
4. Upper Yarra Museum
Address: 2415 Warburton Hwy, Yarra Junction
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The Upper Yarra Museum is housed in and around the former Yarra Junction Railway Station (c.1888). The rail line between Lilydale and Warburton was opened in 1901 and the station building was relocated from Lilydale to Yarra Junction in 1913. After the last train completed the journey in 1965, the Upper Yarra Valley Historical Society took over management of the then-derelict buildings. Local history themes such as rail, timber, agriculture, gold, domestic life, transport, and tourism are represented at the Museum in the form of structures, artefacts, documents, photos and digitised material.
5. Walhalla - Former Baker, Bootmaker and Jeweller Shop
Address: 3397 Warburton Hwy, Warburton
During Walhalla's heyday in the 1880-1890s, this building housed the flourishing businesses of Charles Collins the Baker, Samuel Phillips the Jeweller and William Bessell the Bootmaker. As Walhalla's gold mines began to close, William Bessell relocated the building to Warburton in 1913. It continued as a boot shop (shoe shop) until the 1980s, it was then a museum and gallery for a time before becoming a vintage clothing shop
6. Powelltown Union Church
Address: 1650 Little Yarra Rd (Main Rd) Powelltown
Built in 1927, the Powelltown Union Church is one of two remaining Union Churches in Victoria. The Powelltown Church was constructed by the community, using locally donated building materials. Many notable pioneering families were associated with its construction and patronage. Recent restorations have been necessary to prolong the life of this rare and beautiful church.
