Merri Creek

One of the many sites of geological interest[2] along the Merri valley is the rocky cliff face on the eastern side of Merri Creek visible from the shared path in Clifton Hill. Its tall, cracked (or jointed) basalt columns, formed by cooling lava, are clearly visible and the weathering evident in the rocky riffles midstream where columns have collapsed and tumbled into the stream. Some of the vertical fractures at the top of the cliff appear to be leaning, forming a striking radial pattern.

Merri Creek at Lake Reserve Coburg April 2021

As native vegetation has been regenerated, some species of native wildlife has returned to the creek including Kookaburras, Kingfishers, Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos, Echidnas, frogs and reports of platypuses in the upper northern regions and now further south in Coburg.[3] Merri Creek is abundant in edible plants for those trained to identify them. Edible species include dandelion, dock, fennel, jerusalem artichoke, numerous brassicas, blackberry nightshade, sorrel, catsear, sowthistle, nettle and many others. Great care in identification should be taken when harvesting fennel and other members of the family Apiaceae, as Poison hemlock has been found growing in some areas of the creek.

Many archaeological sites found contain scattered stone artefacts from old campsites, and scarred trees from which traditional people removed slabs of bark to make canoes, containers and shields. The artefact scatters are found because erosion of some sort has exposed the implements which were covered with sediment. The scarred trees are often on the creek bank, fence line or road reserve where they escaped the clearance process. Both site types exhibit traces of the hunting and gathering lifestyle of pre-contact Victoria, and are a fragile and non-renewable historical resource. Aboriginal sites are protected under the Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006.

Aboriginal on Merri Creek by Charles Troedel, 1865

The Wurundjeri-willam were the original occupants of what are now the northern suburbs of Melbourne. Their name comes from the Aboriginal word Wurrun meaning "white gum tree". The Wurundjeri-willam was a clan consisting of a number of extended families. During the first years of contact with Europeans, the Wurundjeri-willam people were represented by influential senior men such as Billibellary, a respected elder. Billibellary’s clan lived on the northern bank of the Yarra and their territory extended from Yarra Bend northwards along the Merri Creek.

The creek supplied the Wurundjeri-willam with an abundance of food such as eel, fish, and duck. Women waded through the Merri with string bags suspended around their neck, searching the bottom of the stream for shellfish. Emu and kangaroo were hunted in the surrounding grasslands. In the forests and hills, possum was also a staple source of food and clothing, The flesh of the possum was cooked and eaten, while the skin was saved to be sewn into valuable waterproof cloaks.

1880s impression of the Treaty being signed

In May 1835 an historic meeting took place between John Batman and prominent members of the Wurundjeri-willam and other clans. Billibellary and the other clan elders signed a document, which came to be called Batman's Treaty, the only treaty ever struck between the European settlers and the indigenous people of Australia. These unique negotiations took place, wrote Batman, by the banks of a "lovely stream of water" which twentieth century historians suspect to be the Merri Creek. This treaty was declared invalid by Sir Richard Bourke, the Governor of N.S.W., who was unwilling to recognize and allow the aborigines the right to use and control their own land as they saw fit, thus implementing the doctrine of terra nullius.

The largest recorded meeting of Aboriginal people in Victoria occurred at Merri Creek in January 1844. The Wurundjeri-willam hosted an immense gathering of tribes which came from all over central Victoria. An estimated 800 people journeyed to the district to witness important judicial proceedings carried out according to traditions of Aboriginal law.

Since European settlement, the lower reaches of the creek have been seriously degraded by human activity. In the early history of Melbourne, numerous quarries were established along the creek to extract bluestone for the construction of many of the city's buildings and paving for roads and lanes. These quarries were later used as landfill for waste. Numerous environmental weeds, such as prickly pear and weeping willows, invaded the banks and stormwater from suburban streets drains directly into the creek bringing rubbish and other pollutants.