The
Mount Lofty Ranges, which encompass Waterfall Gully, was first sighted by
Matthew Flinders in 1802. The gully itself was discovered soon after the
establishment of Adelaide, and
Colonel William Light, the first
Surveyor General of South Australia, was said to have "decided on the site for Adelaide when viewing the plains from the hills near Waterfall Gully".
Ethnohistory In Australian
Aboriginal mythology, Waterfall Gully and the surrounding Mount Lofty Ranges are part of the story of the ancestor-creator
Nganno. Travelling across the land of the native
Kaurna people, Nganno was wounded in a battle and laid down to die, forming the Mount Lofty Ranges. The ears of Nganno formed the peaks of
Mount Lofty and
Mount Bonython, and the region was referred to as
Yur-e-billa, or "the place of the ears". The name of the Greater Mount Lofty Parklands, Yurrebilla, was derived from this term, An early settler of the neighbouring suburb of
Beaumont, James Milne Young, described the local Kaurnas: "At every creek and gully you would see their
wurlies [simple Aboriginal homes made out of twigs and grass] and their fires at night ... often as many as 500 to 600 would be camped in various places ... some behind the Botanic Gardens on the banks of the river; some toward the Ranges; some on the Waterfall Gully." Their main presence, demarcated by the use of fire against purchasers of land, The land around Waterfall Gully provided the original inhabitants with a number of resources. The bark from the local
stringybark trees (
Eucalyptus obliqua) The attempt was unsuccessful, but in July 1837, Hutchinson wrote about the gully through which they had travelled. Waterfall Gully he wrote, had proven difficult, as the plants were so thickly grown as to provide a significant barrier to their progress. Near the point of surrender, Hutchinson described how they were "agreeably surprised by seeing a wall of rock about fifty or sixty feet [fifteen to eighteen metres] high, which stretched across the ravine, and from the top of it leapt the brook which had so long been [their] companion". The brook was First Creek, and the waterfall they sighted is today known as First Falls. Nevertheless, Hutchinson was not the first to see First Falls. The first known recorded sighting of the waterfall by a colonial was that of John William Adams, an emigrant of in early January 1837, who named it "Adams' Waterfall". He was traveling with his wife, Susanna and a party consisting of Nicholson's and Breaker's who had the use of a
dray to go into the hills. Adams states "we were opposite the spot where the Eagle on the Hill now is, and the question was put, who would volunteer to go down the hillside to try for water".
Development The area soon became a tourist attraction for the early South Australian colonists, and was a popular destination for picnickers. In 1851 Francis Clark wrote that "Waterfall Gully is the most picturesque place for a picnic that I have ever visited", and by the 1860s the area had become known throughout Adelaide. The position of the Eagle on the Hill hotel proved advantageous for this, as it permitted visitors to stop by for lunch before walking down the hill in the afternoon. Other parts of the Waterfall Gully area were subdivided, though, and much of the area was owned by
Samuel Davenport. Davenport used the land for timber, grazing, and the cultivation of various crops, including olives and grapes for
wine production. Other local residents ran market gardens and
nurseries. For example, local residents Wilhelm Mügge and his wife Auguste Schmidt operated "one of the best nurseries and market gardens near Adelaide", and gained a reputation for the cheeses produced from their local dairy farm. Along with farming, the hills and creek were prized areas for the
sawyers and splitters, Of greater success was stone quarrying in Chambers' Gully, which began in 1863 and increased in scale in 1912. In the late 1830s, Thomas Cain built a
watermill on First Creek for John Cannan, which was then employed to power a sawmill on Cannan's property. Cannan operated the mill as the "Traversbrook Mill" for approximately two years before selling the venture to a Mr. Finniss. Finniss opted to run the mill as a flour mill instead, and the mill was rebuilt and renamed "Finnissbrook Mill". The mill continued to operate under a variety of owners until the late 1850s, but it was dismantled during the 1880s, and today only traces of the earthworks remain. visible in the foreground During this period the population of the nearby village of
Burnside was expanding and required a new water supply. First Creek—which runs down Waterfall Gully and enters the River Torrens near today's
Botanic Gardens—was seen as the perfect solution to the water shortage. A
weir was built during 1881 and 1882, and was made to hold approximately two megalitres (530,000 US gallons) of water. A pipeline was constructed to the reservoir at Burnside South, and from there the water was used throughout the surrounding area. As a side effect, the weir also reduced the volume of water available to the local market gardeners, and over many years that aspect of the region disappeared. While the route to the falls from Eagle on the Hill was on public land, the alternative route along the gully was through private properties. Nevertheless, many visitors chose this route, and a combination of public demand and a desire from some of the landowners for improved access to and from their properties—especially from the Mügge family—led to pressure to build a road through the gully. Although there was opposition from some of the locals, the Waterfall Gully road was built in the late 1880s. The completion of the road led to an increase in visitor numbers. visitors could now catch the
horse tram to the start of the gully, and walk, cycle or ride to the falls. To provide for tourists, the area gained a number of road-side kiosks and produce stalls, and the Mügge family erected the two-storey Waterfall Hotel along the path. Furthermore, in 1912 the government opened a kiosk at the base of First Falls, The hotel is a private residence today, but the kiosk continues to operate. the government of the day chose to retain control of a significant portion of Waterfall Gully. Thus it was not until 1884 that the remaining land was transferred to the control of the Burnside Council, eventuating largely through the efforts of Samuel Davenport and G. F. Cleland. Initially the reserve was placed under the jurisdiction of the National Parks Advisory Board, but later it was moved to the Tourist Bureau, before finally becoming part of the National Park Commission's portfolio. In 1945, much of the area that is today's
Cleland National Park was purchased by the
State Government, largely thanks to the efforts of
Professor Sir John Cleland. Most of this land was combined in 1963 to create the park that extends eastwards up the gully to the summit of
Mount Lofty and northwards to Greenhill Road. Waterfall Gully Reserve was added to the park in 1972. Significant floods occurred in 1889 and 1931, and, on the night of 7 November 2005, Waterfall Gully was one of several areas in Adelaide to experience severe flooding. Waterfall Gully was one of the hardest hit suburbs: Bob Stevenson, Duty Officer of the
State Emergency Service (SES), commented that "There's an area called Waterfall Gully Road, in the foothills, where one of the creeks comes down, and there's quite a few houses affected there ... there was 40 or so houses affected on that one road alone." Properties were flooded, two bridges nearly collapsed, and of road was washed away. Burnside council workers, the
Country Fire Service (CFS) and the SES repaired the initial damage on the night while reconstruction of infrastructure commenced in late November. Much of the road had been inaccessible, and the suburb was closed except to residents and emergency workers for the remainder of the month. == Geography ==