The Warburton Advancement League was created to represent and lobby on behalf of the town. WAL came into being after a meeting was called in 1953 to bring all the local community committees together to form a single identity. There was a similar progress group started after WW2 but information abut this is sketchy.

    Warburton was a timber and tourist destination town but it was missing a lot of the required infrastructure needed for a further growth. Apart from being famous resort town Warburton also supported the Upper Yarra Dam construction.

    WAL started with the construction of the Caravan Park and the timber royalties from the trees removed put WAL in a good  financial position to do so much more in the coming decades. 

    Below is a small sample of projects WAL was heavily involved with apart from all the lobbying and promotion of Warburton:

    • Swimming Pool
    • Purchasing picture theatre (now the MECA) saving it from demolition
    • Saving the Mechanics Hall
    • Arranging for a transmitter on Mt Victoria to greatly improve TV signal
    • Redwood (Army) Bridge
    • The Skate Park
    • Huge Easter Carnivals and wood-chops
    • Winterfest
    • Harmony Festival
    • Eastern 80 
    • Up and Running
    • Millgrove war memorial
    • Town entrance timber sign
    • River walk trail (6Km)
    • Carols by Candlelight
    • … And much more

    All of our records since the start have been collected and are being digitised and they will be available in the near future for in our website.

    • Maintaining the river tracks made by Ted Chisholm to his high standards  
    • Operating our Community bus
    • Keeping the old Sanitarium factory in a presentable state
    • Working with the owner of the factory to turn it into a tourist resort supporting local employment
    • Driving the Cerini Centre affordable housing project (punching well above our weight on this)
    • Auspicing groups for funding purposes
    • Graffiti removal 
    • And many other projects