Marysville 3779 Marysville 3779

Marysville is a scenic township in the Great Dividing Range 75 km. north-east of Melbourne.

The town was surveyed in 1864, by when a store and a butcher's shop existed to supply miners on the Yarra track to the Woods Point and Upper Goulburn goldfields. The Track had, in fact, been surveyed in 1862 by a Government working party, one of whose members John Steavenson, brought his new bride Mary Martha (nee Murphy) to reside in the locality. His name is commemorated by the Steavenson River and Falls and hers by Marysville, which is situated on the river. There was sufficient undulating land at Marysville for grazing and fodder production to supply travellers. A school was opened in 1870.

In 1890 a public hall, library and mechanics' institute were opened. Four hotels operated. However, traffic along the Yarra Track declined as the gold fields petered out and the opening of the railway to Mansfield in the Upper Goulburn region took more traffic away. Marysville instead developed as a tourist destination, and in the 1920s had twelve guest houses. The most famous, and still in existence, was the Cumberland. Tourists were offered views, fern gullies and the Steavenson Falls, all reached by well formed tracks, and the Lake Mountain snow field about 15 km. away. The Marysville Tourist and Progress Association was formed in 1924.

Timber getting in the Marysville district began with paling splitters in the 1860s. Mills were operating by the turn of the century, and one continues in Marysville. A considerable area of old growth forest remains around Marysville, and the Lady Talbot Drive traverses much of the best forest scenery.

Marysville's populations has been about 600 during the postwar period, but it is swollen by visitors and tourists. There are twenty accommodation establishments including the "El Kanah"Cathedral Mountain Christian Centre. In 1972 the first Wirreanda Festival was held, featuring a gymkhana and other displays.

Marysville's census populations have been 75 (1911), 776 (1947), 561 (1971) and 662 (1991).

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