One day what you see at this location will likely be gone, assuming the ruins will never be restored!
These somewhat un-notice pieces of wall have a story to tell, and its hard to imagine that back in the mid 1800’s there was one of Victoria’s first Flour Mills with one of those fantastic looking wooden water wheels on the side, driven by the Olinda Creek.
At the Location, on the shoreline of Lillydale Lake stand two sandstone walls, which are the remains of a two-story flour mill. The building stood before the area became know as Lilydale. There was a water wheel mounted on the west side, which was driven by the Olinda Creek.
The mill was built by Hugh Kneen of Fitzroy, in the 1850's, then established and run by James Cashin and his family. They milled grain, with production as high as 18,000 bushels (540 tonnes) per annum by 1857. This was a solution to the issue of shipping wheat and oats to Melbourne for milling, saving time and transport costs.
There was no bridge over the Yarra River at that stage, so wheat from the local Corranderk Aboriginal Station at Healesville was carried across a fallen tree over the Yarra River, then loaded on the Cashin's Bullock Dray to be shipped to the mill.
By the end of 1864, production had dropped to 5,000 bushels a year due to insect attack, floods, drought and rust set in after a very wet season. The industry was drawing to a close because of these influences, and finally drew to its end in this region.
The Cashin family had quite and impact on the area as early settlers, the mill was the first industry in the area. Their cottage was built on the hillside above the mill, but is no longer.
Information source:
- Text: https://www.weekendnotes.com/cashins-flour-mill-lillydale-lake/
- Photo courtesy of Lilydale & District Historical Society.
To log this cache you need to:
1) Visit the location.
2) There is a board walk at this location, it has rows of raised gripped sections running along the board walk length. How many row's are there across the width? (One of the end raised grip rows is only 3/4 wide, but it counts as 1.
3) When looking at the ruins, how many prominent sections of wall are standing. (New question due to sign being removed)
Feel free to log the cache prior to me responding to your answers, but I will be checking.
Virtual Rewards 2.0 - 2019/2020
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between June 4, 2019 and June 4, 2020. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 2.0 on the Geocaching Blog.