Curtis Falls, Mt Tamborine, Queensland

Curtis Falls were named after the Curtis family. Several siblings moved to Tamborine Mountain in the late 1870s, not long after the first Europeans arrived on the plateau. Before and after settlement, timber getting was a means of earning a living and several timber mills were established at various times. In 1889 the Curtis brothers, Sydney, Edgar and Clifford built a small steam mill with a 73m water wheel about 40 to 60m upstream of the falls. For the steam mill to work, the brothers dammed the creek a further 20m upstream each night, releasing it each morning. Water flowed through a flume made of split hollow logs and onto the wheel generating 10 horsepower enough to power their mill. Water flow was rain dependent if it was a dry winter and the creek stopped flowing some orders had to wait until the summer months when more rain came. Some of the milled timber included cedar, beech, bolygum, hoop pine and hardwooods. The mill closed in the mid 1890s due to poor timber prices and the water wheel was left to be reclaimed by the rainforest.