WARBY FALLS WEIR AND RACE COMPLEX
BOOTH ROAD TAMINICK, BENALLA RURAL CITY
-
Add to tour
You must log in to do that.
-
Share
-
Shortlist place
You must log in to do that.
- Download report
Statement of Significance
This record has minimal details. Please look to the right-hand-side bar for any further details about this record.
-
-
WARBY FALLS WEIR AND RACE COMPLEX - History
ExplorationThe plains surrounding the Warby Ranges were occupied by Aboriginal people from the Waveroo Language Group or tribe. The local clan, Pallengoillim, were described as belonging to the Ovens tribe by G.A. Robinson and others. The clan's head man was Weeng.er.bil and had met Robinson, the Protector of Aborigines in the Port Phillip District in the early 1840s (Wesson 2000:70).
Both Hume and Hovell and Major Thomas Mitchell, would have passed near this area in 1824-5 and 1835-6 respectively. They found plains of rolling grassland and woodland which were enticing to squatters wanting to take advantage of grazing land for their ever growing flocks of sheep. Mitchell gave the country on the Ovens River the name Oxley's Plains and the hills to the south, Futter's Range. A tree on the Ovens River at Wangaratta supposedly marks his camp site on the return journey of his Australia Felix expedition.
Settlement
The first to follow the Major's Line into his Australia Felix were George and William Faithful who had a number of servants killed by Aborigines and were driven off their run at Bontherambo. Many more Aborigines were killed in subsequent fights and massacres.
The first permanent white settler in the Warby Ranges was Ben Warby (after whom the park and range is named) who had established his pastoral run by 1844. His Taminick Plains Run (No. 110) was gazetted on July 26 1848 with an original area of about 23,000 acres. The run extended from just north of Glenrowan for most of the length of the Warby Ranges, to Gnarite Creek with Killawarra Run to the north and Springs B to the south. Taminick Plains was licensed 12 months prior to the New South Wales Orders-in-Council in October 1847, to Ben Warby.
From 1 June 1858, the Licence was in the name of Benjamin Warby Junior, but was transferred to Evan Evans on 7 July 1871. There followed a period of instability with the run being left out of Lists of Published Rents for December 1873, then transferred to the Bank of New South Wales, suggesting theinsolvency of Evans, and then to William Newcomen of Glenrowan on 5 May 1876 (Spreadborough and Anderson 1983:71).The local tradition has it that Ben Warby constructed the wool scouring plant as well as the weirs and race, fed with water from Warby Falls. This would suggest that the weirs would have to have been commenced before 1875, when the property had passed from Warby to Evans. The current landowner, Cliff Booth is quite clear on this point. According to him, the site was definitely a wool scour, and included a shearing shed beside the creek. Cliff also has said that the circular pit is a sheep dip in which sheep were treated for ticks. The shearing shed had been demolished and little sign remained of the scouring plant by the time Cliff was old enough to have reliable personal recollections. Cliff is now 83, so the shearing shed is unlikely to have survived beyond 1920 or so.
As there was only 25-30 years between the Warby and Booth ownerships with one short and one long occupier between, it is plausible that the historical associations were passed down accurately.
Evan Evans also had the adjoining Ovens Crossing Place run from March 1872. Taminick Plains appears to have originally been part of the Ovens Crossing Place (also known as Wangaratta and Junction). Taken up as early as 1837-8 and held by William Clark (Billis & Kenyon 1974:262).
WARBY FALLS WEIR AND RACE COMPLEX - Archaeological Significance
The site has high archaeological significance
WARBY FALLS WEIR AND RACE COMPLEX - Historical Significance
The site has high historical significance
Heritage Inventory Description
WARBY FALLS WEIR AND RACE COMPLEX - Heritage Inventory Description
First Weir:
The first of the weirs is located immediately below the basin. This is constructed of local stone, mortared with a sand-clay mixture. It stands about 1.5 metres high and is about three metres long. Its sides are battered at about 45% so that it is about 2.5 metres wide at the base and has a formed sill, partly of squared stone blocks 30-cm wide. Most of the stone on both this weir and the water race appears to be natural boulders prised from nearby outcrops.
On the north end of the weir a slightly lower section identifies the spillway, which leads into a stone edged channel 30 cm wide. This would have fed into the water race, which commences just below the weir, although at this point is partly eroded away.
Second Weir:
The bottom of the creek valley opens into a wide flat area in the next 10 - 20 metres. In this wide section, an earth dam has been constructed across the creek, but has been breached in the middle and at both ends. This dam has evidently been built over the stone lined channel which disappears under the northern end then reappears on the down stream side. The dam is now in two sections, each about four metres long and three metres wide at the base, with a two metre wide breach in the middle.
The channel continues further down the gully, but disappears again just short of the third weir, where siltation appears to have buried it.
Third Weir:
The third weir is the most substantial structure in the gully, being formed from roughly dressed stones held in a sand-clay mortar and pointed with a stronger lime-sand mortar. Much finer construction techniques are evident in this weir, with the result being a more formal structure. The wall stands to a maximum height of 2.5 metres over the creek channel, although it is more typically between one and two metres high. The sill is a metre wide and the base about two metres at the widest point - again over the creek channel. This is an estimate as the battered, upstream slope is mostly obscured by accumulation of silt. The dam has filled with silt, washed down from the gully above. This has created a flat, elevated area behind the dam wall about 20 metres across and within a metre of the top of the weir.
Erosion at the breach and near the creek channel has exposed the base of the weir. Tunnel erosion also appears to be occurring under the weir at the point where the creek channel has been crossed. The mortar here has eroded from the stone work and allows passage of water.
Some repairs have been made to the weir with evidence of replaced stone work, and several large areas where the mortar joints have been repointed with a stronger cement or lime mixture.
A collapsed section is located near the north end of the weir, probably at a point where a spillway had been provided across the top of the dam wall. Here a section about one metre high and one metre wide has fallen into a gully on the down stream side of the weir. The spillway may also have provided the outlet for the water race.
Water Race:
A small section of the channel has eroded away, but is traceable 3-4 metres downstream of the weir where it follows the contours of the lower slope on the north side of the creek. The channel is formed by a small cutting on the side of the hill slope, lined on either side by stone slabs. The water channel is 25 cm wide and 20 cm deep. At one point a tree has grown up from a seedling in the base of the channel and subsequently displaced the stones which curve around either side of the trunk.
The tree growing in the middle of the upper channel is now 75-cm diameter, indicating considerable age. The channel could not have operated once this tree had reached two or three years old, indicating that this channel was abandoned a considerable time ago, probably more than 50 years.
The water race reappears about 2-3 metres downstream of the third weir beyond a gully erosion. Stones line this section in a similar manner to that above the weir although the section further downstream is cut into the natural ground and does not appear to have stone lining. A secondary channel joins on to this about 200 metres downstream of the weir, evidently drawing water from the creek channel at a natural pool.
The race follows the contour of the hill about two metres above the valley floor to the boundary fence then continues for a short distance (about 10 metres) to the wool scour site. Here it passes just above the wool scour with two distribution channels running off to the circular pit and brick feature. At this point there is very little stone lining visible in the channel. There is no sign of the race beyond the wool scour site suggesting it did not serve a secondary function of supplying water to the farm or homestead.
Collecting drains run off to the south of both brick features and join to a drain which discharges into the creek channel about 50 metres downstream.
-
-
-
-
-
WARBY FALLS WEIR AND RACE COMPLEXVictorian Heritage Inventory
-
WARBY FALLS WOOLSCOURVictorian Heritage Inventory
-
TAMINICK SPOT MILLVictorian Heritage Inventory
-
-