Having been primarily based in the Upper Yarra Valley since 1983 (with a stint in Sydney), I was amazed that I had heard nothing about the “Yarra Falls”, which are located inside the catchment area of the Upper Yarra Reservoir, until only a few years ago. How you can have what is supposedly the biggest cascaded waterfall in the state and not only be not able to visit it, yet to not even be taught about it when your school was only around 40km from it as the crow flies and your house is less than 20km away from it?

I’ve found a few photos over the years including this one taken around 1915 showing part of the falls, one of a hut near the Falls around 1919 and some photos on these pages which describe a walk into the site in 1997. You can also check out a brilliant old map from 1907 at the National Library of Australia Digital Collection of Maps site which shows the general area and some up close cartography of the falls themselves in detail.

Well…I figure that if i actually want to see Yarra Falls in person, I should probably do something about it and stop dreaming about it…so I’ll keep you all in the loop ;)

I understand the logic of supporting my local community in the Upper Yarra Valley, which has included a logging industry for a very long time, but I find it strange that if you have an area that has been closed to the general public since at least the 1950′s as a protected water catchment area that you can suddenly open it up to logging. From what i understand it’s not only the Armstrong Creek area they are logging (or planning) to log in but also the Cement Creek, McMahons Creek and Starvation Creek areas of the Upper Yarra Valley as well as the Thomson catchment area.

Some people just won’t learn from our previous mistakes unless the numbers are against them, so do something good for the environment, yourself and future generations and grab the pre-prepared letter, which is linked to from the bottom of the article, and send it to the Victorian Premier so he knows what you think.

Check out this Windows Live map of the region for rough locations.