Atimber mill operated in Foster Road for many years. It was established by the Thorburns in the 1880’s. The Dyers took over from Thorburns and Kevin Tyers took over from Dyers. The lease expired in the 1990’s and the land reverted to the Department of Sustainability & Environment (DSE). The mill site occupies 5 acres and is bounded by State Forest. There were a number of popular walking tracks through the bush but these had been covered in regrowth since the fires and so the area was not being used. The Boolarra South Landcare Group (BSLG) had done some planting on the site before the fires but many of these trees had been burnt. We decided to replant and began removing weeds and collecting seed so we could establish local plant species.
In February 2010 we were fortunate to have the help of 5 Korean volunteers with a supervisor from Conservation Victoria. They routed-out lots of blackberries and made a significant contribution to our seed bank.
As work progressed at the site we realised we had a wonderful asset right on our doorstep. The bush is a beautiful area with some lovely fern gullies and a dam. As the terrain is relatively flat we decided we could make walking tracks, a picnic area and carpark which would be of benefit to our community.
