The Island is located at Thompson Bend on the
Yarra River at
Warrandyte,
Victoria,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
, approximately north-east of
Melbourne. It was created by gold miners in 1859–60, during the
Victorian gold rush. They dug a diversion channel to alter the course of the Yarra River, providing access to the alluvial gold in the exposed river bed.
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The canal was widened by subsequent flooding becoming the main river course, with the previous river bed becoming a willow-choked backwater.
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Mining Registrars and Surveyors Reports for the St. Andrews Division[ date the diversion of the river into a canal as May–July 1859. The work cost £7,000. There was more work in November 1859 and February 1860.
The nearby Pound Bend Tunnel was cut for a similar purpose in 1870. Two other tunnels,
the Big Peninsula Tunnel and the Little Peninsula Tunnel, were dug further upstream in the 1860s.
The site is listed in the Victorian Heritage Inventory.
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]
References
Yarra River
Victoria (Australia) gold rush river diversions
Heritage sites in Melbourne
River islands of Australia
Shire of Nillumbik
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