Cambarville is a locality in

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, located within the

Shire of Yarra Ranges The Shire of Yarra Ranges, also known as Yarra Ranges Council, is a local government area in Victoria, Australia, located in the outer eastern and northeastern suburbs of Melbourne extending into the Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges. It has ...

Local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a federated state, state, province, division (politica ...

. Much of its area is part of the

Yarra Ranges National Park Yarra Ranges National Park is located in the Central Highlands (Victoria), Central Highlands of Australia's southeastern States and territories of Australia, state, Victoria (state), Victoria, roughly 107 km (66.5 mi) northeast of Melb ...

. It is notable for its giant mountain ash (''

Eucalyptus regnans ''Eucalyptus regnans'', known variously as mountain ash (in Victoria), giant ash or swamp gum (in Tasmania), or stringy gum, is a species of very tall forest tree that is native to the Australia states of Tasmania and Victoria. It is a straigh ...

'') trees within the Cumberland Memorial Scenic Reserve, and relics from former sawmills and gold mining. The Big Culvert is located nearby on the Marysville -

Woods Point Woods Point is a town in east-central Victoria, Australia and is located on the banks of the Goulburn River. At the , Woods Point and the surrounding area had a population of 33, down from 37 in . History The town began as a general store buil ...

Road, which was historically part of the

Yarra Track The Yarra Track is the former name of the gold fields road from Healesville to the Woods Point and Jordan Goldfields, in Victoria, Australia. History A direct route via the Yarra River and the Great Divide was discovered by Reick in Septe ...

. Cambarville was established as a timber mill town in the 1940s. Timber mill owners A Cameron and FJ Barton named Cambarville. They established the mill to salvage timber from trees destroyed in the 1939 bushfires. It had a one-teacher primary school, which opened on 2 February 1943, closed in 1945 due to lack of pupils, re-opened again in 1946, and shut down for the last time in 1968. The main classroom was used as a community hub for various social activities, like plays, concerts, and dances. Life in Cambarville was said to be particularly difficult, with no access to luxuries like refrigeration and other electrical appliances. Single men were housed in huts provided by the logging company, and were provided with meals from a boarding house on Main Street (sometimes there were more itinerants and single men living in Cambarville than families with children). Main Street was never sealed during its heyday. The main saw mill was destroyed twice by fire, the last time in 1971. The town's population rapidly dwindled after the mill's closure. (All information gleaned from display boards dotted around Main Street, installed by

Parks Victoria Parks Victoria is a government agency of the state of Victoria, Australia. Parks Victoria was established in December 1996 as a statutory authority, reporting to the Victorian Minister for Environment. The ''Parks Victoria Act 2018'' updates ...

). On the night of 3 April 1961, Eric Wilkinson, a keen, young naturalist, saw a

Leadbeater's possum Leadbeater's possum (''Gymnobelideus leadbeateri'') is a critically endangered Phalangeriformes, possum largely restricted to small pockets of Eucalyptus delegatensis, alpine ash, Eucalyptus regnans, mountain ash, and Eucalyptus pauciflora, sno ...

''(Gymnobelideus leadbeateri)'' whilst conducting night surveys near Cambarville. A few hours later, he saw another one. The Museum of Victoria subsequently confirmed the authenticity of Eric Wilkinson's findings, which proved to be extraordinarily significant, considering that the last confirmed sighting of this elusive marsupial was documented back in 1909, and that the species had been declared extinct in 1921. In 1971, the

was proclaimed by the Victorian Government as the state's faunal emblem. A mountain ash tree was planted on Main Street, Cambarville, on 3 April 2011, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the rediscovery of this much-sought after species. (All information derived from a metal plaque and display board installed by

in close proximity to the commemorative tree on Main Street). Cambarville was impacted by the 2009

Black Saturday bushfires The Black Saturday bushfires were a series of bushfires that either ignited or were already burning across the Australian state of Victoria. Saturday, 7 February 2009 was one of Australia's all-time worst bushfire disasters. The fires occurred ...

, and was the location of the death of the only firefighter killed during the fires. David Balfour, 47, from Gilmore, ACT, was killed on the night of 17 February when a burnt-out mountain ash tree fell on him while he was attaching a hose to a fire tanker.

References

Bibliography

* Thomas, Ann. ''Wilks Creek Bridge at Marysville, Victoria''. 1993. * Stacpoole, H. (Ed). ''Tracks to the Jordan''. Lowden, Kilmore, 1973.

External links

{{authority control Towns in Victoria (state) Yarra Valley Yarra Ranges Shire