MARYSVILLE Marysville will be encounted when taking the small diversion from the Healesville to Alexandra route. Marysville is now renowned for all of the wrong reasons. The original town was wiped out in the Black Saturday bush fires in February 2009. Searing temperatures, a wind change and a valley waiting to explode devastated the town. The town was established as a stopping point on the Yarra Track, the route to the Woods Point and Upper Goulburn goldfields, with a butcher's shop and store in existence by the time the town was surveyed in 1864. By the 1920s, Marysville had become a tourist destination, with the Marysville Tourist and Progress Association formed in 1924. Attractions promoted at the time were fern gullies, views, and walking tracks to Steavenson Falls. The town, which previously had a population of around 500 people, was devastated by the Black Saturday Bushfires on 7 February 2009. On 19 February 2009 the official death toll was 45. Around 90% of the town's buildings were destroyed. The entire town was declared a crime scene and was effectively closed off while Victorian and Federal police recovered bodies and conducted investigations. It was reopened to the public on 23 March. The town had previously came under serious threat during the Black Friday bushfires in 1939 The Ash Wednesday fires of 1983 also came close to Marysville but burnt around the town and caused no damage to property. And then again on 7 February 2009, a bushfire destroyed most of the town, including the primary school, police station, The Cumberland, and almost all of its houses. The town is still viewable in Google Maps Street View which provides a virtual time-capsule tour of the area. The Anglican Church replacement remains in limbo. The Catholic Church now operates from a ‘portable’ classroom. The pub has not yet been replaced. The War Memorial has been ‘upgraded’. The new Marysville is a town with lots of information from the very old past. For all the wrong reasons Marysville is a must visit town. Every visitor will hope with the locals that they can pull off a rebuild miracle.