History of our rivers and creeks

The arrival of Europeans turned waterways into a dumping ground for waste. This spread disease, forcing people to buy clean water from door-to-door carts.

Melbourne’s first decades were marked by flooding: first on Christmas Eve in 1839, then throughout the 1860s as the city expanded into the Yarra River’s natural flood zone. Disaster struck with the Great Flood of 1891, leaving 3,000 people homeless.

Did you know? Elizabeth Street in the city was built over a creek. A drain ran beside it that was wide enough to fit a horse and carriage!

After the Victorian Gold Rush and population boom, people began looking for farmland near Melbourne. Land was made available at Carrum Carrum Swamp – but the area flooded without drainage. A channel was dug to drain the swamp into Port Phillip Bay, where Patterson River is today.

The government bought 100,000 hectares of land at the beginning of the Yarra River to turn into protected water supply catchments. This ensured Melbourne had pristine drinking water as it grew.

But downstream it was a different story. The falls across the river (where Queens Bridge is today) were blasted away so ships could travel further upstream. This increased the river’s salt levels, greatly changing the environment.

Early attempts to control waterway pollution were ignored by society, until the government held an inquiry into Melbourne’s waste problems. Werribee Farm was built as a result, and in 1897 began treating sewage that was previously dumped in the Yarra River.

Melbourne grew quickly in the early to mid-1900s, further changing the landscape. Many wetlands were drained or filled to make way for housing. Some rivers and creeks were also modified to reduce repeated flooding.

But little had been done to create a drainage system, until the Metropolitan Drainage and Rivers Act passed in 1924. Work began to dredge, widen and stabilise the Yarra and Maribyrnong rivers. This continued into the 1930s.

Extreme storms in 1934 caused widespread and record flooding: leaving 6,000 people homeless, 18 dead and many bridges swept away. A better drainage system was clearly needed.

Large-scale drainage works began in 1937, paid by cheap loans and unemployment relief funds.

The end of World War II ushered in boom times for the city, which rapidly expanded thanks to a love of motorcars. But many new areas lacked drainage or sewerage. Waterway pollution increasingly became an issue.

This period saw construction start on many underground drains and concrete-lined channels. Land was also acquired for retarding basins, to help contain water during heavy rain.

The Environment Protection Act was passed after widespread environmental concern – especially over the ‘dying Yarra’. This drove major improvements to the health of rivers – which were no longer a dumping ground for waste. Industrial waste was treated, and many outer suburbs and rural areas were connected to the sewerage system.

Flash flooding in the Maribyrnong River, Moonee Ponds Creek and Merri Creek caused havoc. In response, sensors were installed inside drains to measure water flows. These were linked to a telemetry system to provide early warning of floods.

The system was tested when heavy flooding again struck the Maribyrnong in 1993. It was a great success, giving homeowners ample time to take action.

The Drainage of Land Act helped prevent building on flood-prone land. This also changed the focus of drainage, which had relied on concrete channels to carry away floodwaters as fast as possible. Instead, a more natural approach aimed to slow down floodwaters through retarding basins and floodplains.

The Western Treatment Plant was listed as a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention. This recognised its status as a sanctuary for plants and animals – including threatened species and tens of thousands of birds.

The Edithvale-Seaford Wetlands was listed as a Ramsar wetland in 2001.

Major advances in waterway management saw the return of native fish and platypus. The opening of the Main Yarra Trail also brought people, allowing them to walk or ride along the river.

In 1992 the first litter traps were installed in Sandringham and St Kilda drains to protect Port Phillip Bay. Within weeks, one trap captured 16 cubic meters of rubbish – or about 200 rubbish bins’ worth.

In 1993 the Waterwatch volunteer program began. It encouraged people to care for their local rivers and creeks by monitoring water quality, platypus, waterbugs and frogs. 

Did you know? A 2015 survey of platypus found a 21-year-old male in Belgrave – the oldest found in Australia in the wild! 

An $11 million, five-year study into the health of Port Phillip Bay began in 1996. The first of its kind, it recommended reducing nitrogen that entered the bay from sewage and stormwater runoff.

The $130 million Healthy Bay Initiative was then announced in 1999. It saw major improvements at the Western Treatment Plant, and 10 new wetlands (totalling 200 hectares) to treat stormwater pollution in Melbourne's southeast growth corridor.

Councils and developers also helped, with drainage, wetlands and water sensitive urban design added to all new urban developments from 1998.

The Water Act was reformed, creating the environmental water reserve – and for the first time, rivers have a legal right to their own water. The reserve aims to protect the health of rivers and groundwater ecosystems, and the plants and animals that depend on them.

The groundbreaking Yarra Strategic Plan was released to protect and enhance the Yarra River. It is the first plan to treat the river and its parklands as one living and integrated natural entity – and aims to protect environmental and cultural values while enabling outstanding experiences.

Did you know? The Yarra River is known as the Birrarung by the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people, meaning ‘river of mists and shadows’.