Yarra River
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Melbourne as seen from south-east side along the Yarra River, home of many rowers and active crew teams |
The
Yarra River is a river in southern
Victoria (Australia); it is the river on which the city of
Melbourne was founded.
The river was called
Birrarung by the
Wurundjeri people who occupied the Yarra valley prior to European settlement. It was given the name
Yarra Yarra in 1835 by
John Helder Wedge of the
Port Phillip Association, in the mistaken belief that this was the aborginal name for the river. Wedge wrote:
'On arriving in sight of the river, the two natives who were with me pointed to the river, and called out at it "Yarra", "Yarra", which at the time I imagined to be its name. But I afterwards learnt that the words were what they used to designate a waterfall, as they gave the same designation to a small fall in the Werribee River, as we crossed it on our way back to Indented Head.'
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As seen from Kanes Bridge |
The Yarra's lower reaches travel through central
Melbourne. It is approximately 242 kilometres in length, with a mean annual flow of 718,000 megalitres. It is the most westerly snow fed river in Australia. The total catchment area is approximately 4000 square
kilometres. Some of the Yarra's major tributaries include the
Maribyrnong River,
Plenty River, the
Merri Creek,
Darebin Creek and the
Moonee Ponds Creek.
The upper reaches
The river's source is a series of
swamps in the upper reaches of the
Yarra Ranges National Park, directly to the east of the
Baw Baw plateau a thickly forested subalpine park, which are entirely closed-off to all except the employees of
Melbourne Water. The park features extensive stands of
mountain ash, a very tall
eucalypt,
tree ferns, as well as patches of remnant rainforest.
The
Upper Yarra Dam, one of a number of dams in the Yarra Catchment that supply most of
Melbourne's water, is the furthest upstream point on the river visible to the general public (though the dam itself is closed off).
The first settlement the still-young river passes through is the small town of Reefton, but most of the river is surrounded by hills covered temperate forest until the subalpine resort town of
Warburton. The
Woods Point Road follows the river through this section.
Downstream of Warburton, the Yarra Valley gradually opens out and farms begin to appear, including beef and dairy farms, and by the town of
Woori Yallock and the river's turn north increasingly large areas are covered by vineyards, forming the
Yarra Valley wine region.
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Yarra crossing, Punt Road. by W. Liardet,1840 |
At
Healesville, the river turns west again and the stream bed becomes increasingly silty, reducing the clarity of the water, and by the commuter town of
Yarra Glen it begins to take on the brownish color that the lower reaches are known for.
The middle reaches
The river enters Melbourne's suburbs proper at
Chirnside Park, but virtually all the river's length is surrounded by parkland, much retaining (or having been replanted with) extensive native vegetation. A
bicycle and walking trail begins at
Warrandyte and becomes the
Yarra River Trail, and in the lower reaches, the
Capital City Trail. The river is used extensively for kayaking at
Templestowe, and canoes can often be seen throughout the suburban section. Whilst the water is not particularly clear, its quality is sufficient for edible fish to swim within it. Some small hobby farms are located in the floodplain area of the river, surprisingly close to central Melbourne and almost completely surrounded by suburbs.
Heidelberg formed the home of the
Heidelberg School, widely considered the first European painters to accurately capture the Australian landscape and its distinctive features. The walking trail features placards displaying some of their paintings at the settings they were actually painted; some features depicted remain clearly recognisable today.
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View of the Yarra River as it flows through Central Melbourne at night, with the central business district on the left and Southbank on the right |
The lower reaches
Below
Dights Falls at
Yarra Bend Park in inner Melbourne, the river becomes increasingly estuarine as it passes along the southern side of the central business district. This area forms the venue for the annual "
Moomba" festival, which notably features an annual
water skiing competition which attracts a huge crowd. The lower stretch of the river from
Docklands to the
Melbourne Cricket Ground was part of the final path of the
Queen's Baton Relay of the
2006 Commonwealth Games.
Many of Melbourne's private schools, located close to the river, train their
rowing crews on it.
The lower reaches feature a number of boat cruises, using especially low-roof boats to go under the many bridges across this section of the Yarra. The final section passes through the
Port of Melbourne and under the
Bolte Bridge and the
West Gate Bridge.
The river flows into
Port Phillip Bay, the site being extensively altered as part of the Port of Melbourne, Australia's busiest
seaport.
Most of the inner metropolitan section of the river remains contaminated from industrial and domestic waste dumping dating from Melbourne's early settlement. The worst of this was eliminated through the 20th century, and since the 1980s a concerted effort to clean up the river has reduced pollution markedly, though not enough to permit swimming below
Dights Falls at present. The major source of bacterial contamination at present appears to be human sewerage leaking from Melbourne sewer system, as well as dog excrement being washed into the river [
1].
*
Otto, K;
Yarra, Melbourne: Text Publishing, 2005, (ISBN 1-920885-78-1)
