The Carrum Carrum Swamp was a historic

coastal wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The p ...

encompassing with a

catchment area In human geography, a catchment area is the area from which a location, such as a city, service or institution, attracts a population that uses its services and economic opportunities. Catchment areas may be defined based on from where people are ...

of that . It had four drainage outlets into the

Port Phillip Bay Port Phillip (Kulin: ''Narm-Narm'') or Port Phillip Bay is a horsehead-shaped enclosed bay on the central coast of southern Victoria, Australia. The bay opens into the Bass Strait via a short, narrow channel known as The Rip, and is completel ...

, including the modern-day Kananook Creek/Eel Race Drain,

Patterson River The Patterson River is a partly man-made urban river of the Port Phillip catchment in the Australian east coast state of Victoria, located in the outer southeastern suburbs of the Greater Melbourne region. Under the name "Patterson", it is t ...

and Mordialloc Creek (a

distributary A distributary, or a distributary channel, is a stream that branches off and flows away from a main stream channel. Distributaries are a common feature of river deltas. The phenomenon is known as river bifurcation. The opposite of a distributar ...

of the Patterson River's upper section, the

Dandenong Creek The Dandenong Creek ( Aboriginal Bunwurrung: ''Narra Narrawong'' or ''Dandinnong'') is an urban creek of the Port Phillip catchment, located in the eastern and south-eastern Greater Melbourne region of the Australian east coast state of Vic ...

). Explorer

William Hovell William Hilton Hovell (26 April 1786 – 9 November 1875) was an English explorer of Australia. With Hamilton Hume, he made an 1824 overland expedition from Sydney to Port Phillip (near the site of present-day Melbourne), and later explored the ...

discovered "a very extensive fresh water marsh, from 12 to 15 miles long and 11/2 to 6 broad, and only separated from Port Phillip by a narrow ridge or bank of sand not more than from two hundred to three hundred yards wide." A painting titled "Lagoon in the Carrum Carrum Swamp – evening 1872" by James W Curtis is held at the National Gallery of Australia. Due to modern

land development Land development is the alteration of landscape in any number of ways such as: * Changing landforms from a natural or semi-natural state for a purpose such as agriculture or housing * Subdividing real estate into lots, typically for the purpose ...

s and drainage measures only remnants of the swamp remain, such as the

Edithvale-Seaford Wetlands The Edithvale-Seaford Wetlands is a collection of principally freshwater swamps and marshlands totalling in southeastern Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, about southeast of Melbourne CBD. It is the largest natural wetland of its type in t ...

History

Carrum Swamp's waters came from the Dandenong Creek (with headwaters in the moist Dandenong Ranges, and the Eumemmerring Creek with headwaters at Narre Warren. The swamp occupied 5260 ha, extending almost from Mordialloc to Frankston, and had a water catchment of 737 sq km. In its natural state it was covered with dense ti-tree, and it had ineffective outlets to Port Phillip Bay by the Mordialloc Creek and the Kananook Creek. The Carrum Carrum Swamp was

drained ''Drained'', (Portuguese: ''O Cheiro do Ralo'') is a 2006 Brazilian dark comedy film based on a novel by Lourenço Mutarelli. It was directed by Heitor Dhalia, and stars Selton Mello. The film was produced by Geração Conteúdo, Primo Filmes & ...

in 1879 when the Patterson Cut (formed in 1876) and other drainage measures were undertaken to prevent flooding of the

Eumemmerring Creek Eumemmerring Creek is an urban creek of the Port Phillip catchment, located in the southeastern Greater Melbourne region of the Australian east coast state of Victoria. It joins the Dandenong Creek (of which it can be considered a tributary) ...

, which overflowed into the swamp. When the Patterson Cut was dug, the area that is now occupied by

Patterson Lakes Patterson Lakes is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Kingston local government area. Patterson Lakes recorded a population of 7,793 at the 2021 census ...

was turned to

farmland Agricultural land is typically land ''devoted to'' agriculture, the systematic and controlled use of other forms of lifeparticularly the rearing of livestock and production of cropsto produce food for humans. It is generally synonymous with bot ...

with mainly

dairy cattle Dairy cattle (also called dairy cows) are cattle bred for the ability to produce large quantities of milk, from which dairy products are made. Dairy cattle generally are of the species ''Bos taurus''. Historically, little distinction was mad ...

. By the late 1960s, farming activities had just about ceased, and the area became popular with

fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

and rabbit shooters.

References

External links

Parks Victoria: Search results for "Carrum Carrum Swamp"
Geography of Melbourne {{Melbourne-geo-stub