About the Hub ›
The pulse point of the Upper Yarra.
A volunteer-led visitor hub for Warburton — a working high street, a bend in the river, and a community that decided to keep its own time.
“We weren’t trying to make a destination. We were trying to make a place where the next generation might still want to stand.”
— Founding chair, opening speech, 2021
Warburton, autumn 2024 · Photo · J. Kemper
Our story
A working mill, then a quiet decade, then us.
The waterwheel itself has been turning, on and off, since 1898 — first to grind grain for the Upper Yarra hop farms, then as the romantic backdrop to a roadside tea-room nobody under sixty quite remembers. By 2018 the building had been empty for the better part of a decade.
A handful of locals — makers, growers, two former teachers, a retired park ranger — leased it back from Council in 2021 with a simple idea. Make it useful again. Make it ours. Five years on, the Hub is volunteer-run, member-owned, and quietly busy: a shopfront for sixty-odd handmakers, a meeting room for the working groups, a café when the kettle’s on, and a starting point for almost every walk in the valley.
This page tells you who’s behind it. The rest of the site tells you what we’re up to.
Mara Jensen
Chair · Warburton Waterwheel Inc.
The five pillars
Everything we do answers to one of these.
Adopted by the membership in 2023; reviewed every two years. The full strategy lives at /strategy.
01
Tourism & visitor welcome
One door, one map, one familiar voice. Information that’s actually current, from people who live here.
Pillar 01
02
Arts & handmakers
A working shopfront for local makers — fair margins, plain pricing, no exclusivity clauses, ever.
Pillar 02
03
Heritage & story
The wheel, the river, the township — recorded honestly, including the parts that are uncomfortable.
Pillar 03
04
Environment & place
Living-nature programmes, sustainability targets, and Landcare partnerships up and down the valley.
Pillar 04
05
Community & gathering
The reason any of the others matter. Markets, screenings, working bees, a kettle that’s always on.
Pillar 05
By the numbers · 2025
Five years of slow, deliberate work.
Audited annually. Full report available to members.
Handmakers stocked
64
Across ceramics, textiles, paper, wood, painting and preserves.
Volunteer hours · 2025
11,420
Front desk, working groups, events, environmental and curation.
Visitors welcomed
38k
Day-trippers, school groups, returning seasonals.
Returned to makers
A$412k
Direct-to-maker, after our small operating margin.
Four ways in ›
Stand a little closer to the wheel.
Build your own plan, visit on a weekend, become a member, or stand a shift.