Following a significant show of support by the community, the Warburton Waterwheel is looking for new board members to help continue its ongoing legacy.
With only enough funds to last until the lease’s expiry in May 2026 and not enough full-time members to apply for grants, the Warburton Waterwheel risks going under if it fails to recruit any new members.
Warburton Waterwheel Steering Committee chair Nikki Murray said Warburton would lose an important piece of history were the Waterwheel to shut down.
“The waterwheel… and the place was built from donated wood many years ago, all with a vision that it was going to become a hub… a space where people would all gather.
“If we were gonna lose that to tender… [it’d be] a real pity,” Ms Murray said.
The provisional Steering Committee formed after a meeting on Tuesday 18 March which saw over 85 people attend.
The meeting demonstrated a strong desire from the community to keep the Warburton Waterwheel in the hands of the locals – but now the board are in need of new members to support the organisation and “carry the baton”.
“Some of the existing board finally wanted to hang their hats up, and they wanted to bring more blood, more ideas, more vigour,” Ms Murray said.
The board needed new members: specifically, new permanent board members and other part-time members with expertise in specialised fields.
In order to be able to apply for grants, the Warburton Waterwheel needs more permanent members to meet grant requirements.
Otherwise, the business won’t have the financial means to continue into the future.
“There are a lot of people who have retired potentially out of a business career who could really help, so we’re interested in finding more of those people,” Warburton Waterwheel supporter John Ridley said.
Aside from permanent roles, the board wanted to establish what it called subgroups: people who don’t have the time to commit to a full-time role but can still contribute through smaller, more specialised jobs.
“So we only need them for a short amount of time, and then they can go back to their lives,” Ms Murray said.
“But subgroups are really helpful in the fact that people are still offering their experience, they’re still offering where they’ve come from.
“They’re helping and they’re still part of it.”
Ultimately, the Warburtoon Waterwheel’s future relies on the community as a whole rather than a couple of individuals.
“We need everyone in the community to help. We don’t just need the people who can stay forever. We need the people who can stay for a little amount of time.”
Ms Murray explained the importance of the Warburton Waterwheel through the metaphor of a tree.
“It’s the root of the tree. So the tree has many branches, which is already out there, but people don’t realise that they need to come back to the root to unify it all,” she said.
The other branches of the tree represented the different community groups around Warburton and its surrounding towns, and the Waterwheel represented the root.
Ms Murray was hopeful the Yarra Ranges Council would recognise the significance of the Warburton Waterwheel and not remove it from the community’s hands.
“I think the council really just want to know that we have a direction, that we’re pursuing a vision and that we’ve got feet on the ground, ready to move.”
Mr Ridley said he hopes the community’s support for the Warburton Waterwheel will show the Yarra Ranges Council the value they place in the information centre.
“We might be able to persuade council that they don’t need to go to tender, although… they might be obliged, in fact, to go through a tender process,” Mr Ridley said.
“But they aren’t obliged to accept the highest bid.”
