Doncaster Templestowe Historical Society: Tales of the Yarra River - Green

Introduction and Background:

Shortly before he died in 1997, Irvine Green began a project to write a book of historical stories about the Yarra River. It was to include many historical photographs, especially of bridges along the river.

Irvine’s research notes for the project were lost after he died, but what remains is a collection of material that could benefit anyone undertaking research on the Yarra River.

Images the Irvine Green was considering for inclusion in the final text can be viewed here.

The collection includes:

A rough first draft of his proposed text (~42,000 words) covering the period from the river's discovery by Europeans until ‘present day’ (ie 1997). The text is arranged in chapters that each cover a different time period. The writing comprises:
Summaries of historical records
Personal accounts taken from interviews
Irvine’s own recollections of events
Electronic copies of 44 images (jpeg format). They comprise:

Original photos taken by Irvine (and some by his father Heber Green).
Copies of historical photos
Copies of historical drawings and illustrations
Hard copies of a further 25 photos, comprising the same mixture of sources as above. Most have details written on the reverse, and these are used as names for the electronic copies of the photos. The provenance of most images and photos is marked on them, but we assume that Irvine had copyright for all of them. All of the ‘recent’ photos were his, taken either as part of the project, or during the course of his career as a professional photographer. The date and location of some images was not given, however, I have managed to deduce the details in most cases.

The text especially should be regarded as ‘copyleft’; that is, it can be freely used and copied with due

acknowledgement to the original author Irvine Green.

I am submitting all these materials to the Historical Society in the hope that they will prove useful for historical research and education.

David Geoffrey Green

November 2024.

Draft of original unfinished manuscript.

“It is perhaps the finest river I have seen in N.S.W.” Wrote Governor Bourke when he visited Port Phillip in 1837. Bourke inspected the settlement and walked around the country to the north and east he then named the town `Melbourne’, in honour of the British Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne.

Chapter Period Title

1 1800-1834 Discovery
2 1835-1851 Settlement
3 1851-1865 Gold and Growth along the River
4 1865-1892 To the Boom then Depression
5 1892-1914 Recreation on the River
6 1919-1939 Between the Wars
7 1940-1970 The River in Depression
8 1970-2000 Life Returns to the River
9 2001-Today TBA

~80 historical photographs and drawing

Tales of the Yarra - Photos of large prints

Tales of the Yarra - Digital images

Source: Tales of the Yarra River - Irvine Heber Green. Unpublished Manuscript.

Images for Inclusion

Images below were collected by Irvine Green for possible inclusion in the finished text of "Tales of the Yarra River").

The file names are based on notes written on the back of the images.

To view the below images at higher resolution click on an image. The original resolution images are also available here.

190- Upper Yarra River c1900

185-1st Princes Bridge opened 1850 View from south bank St Pauls Chruch in Background

20-- Newport Ferry mid20C

19-- Yarra at Kew Ivanhoe Aerial view late 20C

19-- Family on camping holidayn Christmas early 20th C Big Pats Creek upper reaches of the Yarra Photo J.F. Strickland

18-- Punt on the Yarra 1800s

18-- Docks lower Yarra Late 1800s

18-- Botanical Gardens Bridge Sketch 1800s

1851 David Lennox

1855 or 1860 Unknown bridge

1856 Unknown Bridge - Crimean War ???

1857 river fishing boating

1865 Warrandyte

1881 Swan Street Wallen Rd

1884 Victoria Street

Yarra c1910 Thames River boats

1922 South Yarra with Forrest Hill Bridge

1934 MacRobertson Bridge YarraBoulevard TwickenhamFerry

1952 Swan Street Bridge foggy morning

1957 Johnston Street Bridge

1960 Banksia Street Bridge

Banksia Street bridge. Photograph 1970 betore it was enlarged. The pipe bridge at the top right used to carry water from the 'Shanassy Reservoir to Surrey Hills. Water now runs in the opposite direction from the Upper Yarra Dam to Heidelberg.