The Yarra Valley

Yarra River 

The Yarra River forms the boundary of the City to the north. At its western end are the Yarra Valley Metropolitan Park and two municipal reserves, which occupy former farmland.

Vegetation varies from site to site but includes remnant indigenous trees, mature exotic trees from farm plantings, and recent park plantings of indigenous species or exotic decorative species.

The parks have car access and are designed mainly for family, passive recreation with bike paths, picnic areas, barbeques and children's play equipment.

At the eastern reach of the river is Warrandyte State Park which extends upstream well beyond the municipal boundary. Nonetheless, there are large tracts of parkland within the municipality both along the river edge and inland.

Individual park sites vary in facilities provided but share regional and local significance for their scenic, biological and cultural values which include remnant bushland, native animals and birds, access for water sports and former gold mining sites.

Excerpt from: City of Doncaster and Templestowe Heritage Study 1991 Richard Peterson p. 21
http://www.manningham.vic.gov.au/file/26126/download 

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The Yarra Valley

A combined meeting of our Society and the Doncaster and Templestowe Conservation Society was held at Templestowe in March. The subject for the evening was the Yarra Valley.

The early history of the valley was told by the Secretary who read a description of Bulleen and Templestowe in 1841. Templestowe was described as wooded hills and well grassed river flats. The flats and bends of the Yarra were composed of a deep black fertile loam, eminently suited for orchards, cereals, and root crops.

In the area where Thompsons Road now meets Bulleen Road was a river flat heavily timbered with gum and honeysuckle and deep reed-fringed lagoons. The only denizens of that period were a pair of sawyers, thither attracted by the unusual size and straightness of the timber which grew in the flats and bends of the winding Yarra. Owing to the prevalence and sinuous shape of the lagoons, coupled with the dense nature of the thickets, it was no easy matter for a stranger to find his way through the maze.

The deepest lagoon, later called the Bulleen Lake, was fringed with a wide border of reeds, growing in deep water. It had in the centre a clear lakelet or ìmereî, upon the waters of which disported the black duck, the wood duck, the magpie goose, the mountain duck, the greater and lesser diver, while among the reeds waded or flew the heron, the sultana hen, a red-billed variety of the coot, the bittern, the land rail, and in season an occasional snipe.

Mr. Chris Bailey speaking for the Conservation Society said that when riding a bicycle along Bulleen Road in 1908, he came upon a big lake. He was amazed by the number of birds, including the black swan. He said the aborigines called the Yarra area "Birra Arun", which roughly translated means "river flowing through land of mist and leafiness". Mr. Bailey told a story about a vineyard in Munich when the people were asked how they could afford to have a vineyard in the heart of the valuable land, they said that they could not afford to not have a vineyard in that area. Like the people of Munich, the people of Doncaster-Templestowe cannot afford to not conserve the Yarra Valley.

1974 05 DTHS Newsletter