Waterways is a suburb in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

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 ...

, south-east of Melbourne's

Central Business District A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

, located within the

City of Kingston The City of Kingston is a local government area in Victoria, Australia in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, its northern boundary lying approximately 15 km from the Melbourne city centre along the north-eastern shorelines of Port P ...

local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a State (administrative division), state, province, divi ...

. Waterways recorded a population of 2,422 at the 2021 census. Originally a

housing development A housing estate (or sometimes housing complex or housing development) is a group of homes and other buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to country. Popular throughout the United States ...

, it is surrounded by the much larger suburbs of

Braeside Braeside, meaning ''hillside'' in the Scots language, may refer to: * Braeside, Aberdeen, Scotland * Braeside, Greenock, Scotland * Braeside, Victoria, Australia * Braeside, Ontario, Canada * Braeside Observatory, Flagstaff, Arizona * Breaside, Chic ...

Aspendale Gardens Aspendale Gardens is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 27 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Kingston local government area. Aspendale Gardens recorded a population of 6,427 at th ...

Keysborough Keysborough is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 27 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Greater Dandenong local government area. Keysborough recorded a population of 30,018 at the . ...

and

Bangholme Bangholme is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Greater Dandenong local government area. Bangholme recorded a population of 749 at the . Located adjac ...

, and the

Mornington Peninsula Freeway The Mornington Peninsula Freeway is a freeway in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, that provides a link from south-eastern suburban Melbourne to the Mornington Peninsula. Whilst the entire freeway from Dingley Village to Rosebud is declared by ...

traverses the western side of the suburb. It is

's only suburb that's 20%

park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...

land and 40%

water Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as a ...

, and over of

wildlife sanctuary A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or o ...

were artificially created in and around the old

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 ...

s along the

Mordialloc 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 ...

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 lower

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 ...

), hence the suburb's name. The suburb's location is environmentally sensitive as it is situated directly between two important

conservation area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...

s, the

Braeside Park Braeside Park is a metropolitan, recreational and conservation park in the south-eastern Melbourne suburb of Braeside. History Before European settlement, the Bunurong people lived in and around the area for thousands of years. In 1851, the Colo ...

and Edithvale Wetlands. Planning permits are strictly regulated and gardens monitored to prevent the

introduction Introduction, The Introduction, Intro, or The Intro may refer to: General use * Introduction (music), an opening section of a piece of music * Introduction (writing), a beginning section to a book, article or essay which states its purpose and g ...

of foreign species that may become invasive and threaten the abundant native wildlife in the area. The

Mornington Peninsula The Mornington Peninsula is a peninsula located south of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is surrounded by Port Phillip to the west, Western Port to the east and Bass Strait to the south, and is connected to the mainland in the north. Geogra ...

branch of the Bird Observers Club of Australia o
PENBOC
have documented 105 different species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

s in the area, and

domestic cat The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members o ...

s are also forbidden for this reason.

History

Construction on Waterways Estate began in May 2000, due to end within five years. The name "Waterways" comes from a number of man-made

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') a ...

s and

s in and around the estate, which form an interconnected

waterway A waterway is any navigable body of water. Broad distinctions are useful to avoid ambiguity, and disambiguation will be of varying importance depending on the nuance of the equivalent word in other languages. A first distinction is necessary b ...

to the Mordialloc Creek and a

wildlife corridor A wildlife corridor, habitat corridor, or green corridor is an area of habitat connecting wildlife populations separated by human activities or structures (such as roads, development, or logging). This allows an exchange of individuals between ...

connecting

to its north and the Edithvale Wetlands to its south.

Melbourne Water Melbourne Water is a Victorian Government-owned statutory authority that controls and manages much of the water bodies and supplies in metropolitan Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, including the reservoirs, lakes, wetlands, canals and urban cree ...

uses these waters as a filtration system for the (typically polluted) urban water flowing down from Dandenong and Mordialloc Creeks then into

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 ...

. Although the development was due to be completed in 2006, the developer applied for, and was subsequently granted permission from Kingston Council to increase the suburb's size. The final stage of the development, called Argyle, was completed in July 2011. Waterways was rated higher than Toorak, Brighton or Canterbury – or anywhere else, apart from the 63 people living on South Wharf – in an index of socio-economic advantage compiled from the 2011 census.

Water bodies

Waterways have multiple

bodies of water A body of water or waterbody (often spelled water body) is any significant accumulation of water on the surface of Earth or another planet. The term most often refers to oceans, seas, and lakes, but it includes smaller pools of water such as p ...

interconnected by

channel Channel, channels, channeling, etc., may refer to: Geography * Channel (geography), in physical geography, a landform consisting of the outline (banks) of the path of a narrow body of water. Australia * Channel Country, region of outback Austral ...

s, underground aqueducts and wetlands, all surrounding an elongated land known as "the Island". Going clockwise from the northwest are the following: * Sunset Lagoon — east of the

Mordialloc Freeway The Mornington Peninsula Freeway is a freeway in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, that provides a link from south-eastern suburban Melbourne to the Mornington Peninsula. Whilst the entire freeway from Dingley Village to Rosebud is declared by ...

, northwest of the island and immediately south of Governor Road. * Portland Lagoon — west of Bowen Parkway and north of Portland Place, separated from Sunset Lagoon by a wetland and

boardwalk A boardwalk (alternatively board walk, boarded path, or promenade) is an elevated footpath, walkway, or causeway built with wooden planks that enables pedestrians to cross wet, fragile, or marshy land. They are also in effect a low type of bridge ...

. * Waterways Lake — east of Bowen Parkway, north of the Island and south of Waterside Drive, the only waterbody of Waterways that allows

boating Boating is the leisurely activity of travelling by boat, or the recreational use of a boat whether Motorboat, powerboats, Sailing, sailboats, or man-powered vessels (such as rowing and paddle boats), focused on the travel itself, as well as sp ...

. * St. Clair Lagoon — east of the Island and west of

Springvale Road State (Bell/Springvale) Highway, also known as Bell Street/Springvale Road State Highway (after its longest constituent parts), is the longest self-contained urban highway in Melbourne, Australia, linking Tullamarine Freeway and Nepean Highway ...

, separated from Waterways Lake by Island Point Avenue (an U-bend of Waterside Drive). * Pelican Lagoon — north of

and south of the Island, separated from St. Clair Lagoon by a small peninsula. * Black Swan Lagoon — north of Mordialloc Creek, southwest of the Island and east of Bowen Parkway, separated from Pelican Lagoon by a wetland and boardwalk. * Parkway Lagoon — north of Mordialloc Creek, east of Bowen Parkway and partly overpassed by the Mordialloc Freeway, separated from Black Swan Lagoon by an

isthmus An isthmus (; ; ) is a narrow piece of land connecting two larger areas across an expanse of water by which they are otherwise separated. A tombolo is an isthmus that consists of a spit or bar, and a strait is the sea counterpart of an isthmu ...

with a dirt/muddy

trail A trail, also known as a path or track, is an unpaved lane or small road usually passing through a natural area. In the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, a path or footpath is the preferred term for a pedestrian or hiking trail. Th ...

, the smallest of all lagoons. * Westbridge Lagoon — east of Mordialloc Freeway and west of Bowen Parkway and the Island, separated from Sunset Lagoon by a grassland that can serve as a retarding basin in case of

flooding A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrolog ...

. * Mordi Yallock Lagoon — west of (and separated from the other waterbodies by) Mordialloc Freeway and north of Mordialloc Creek, the largest of all lagoons.

Gallery

File:Waterways_Main_Lake_from_Cafe_path.jpg, Waterways Lake, viewed from the lakeside cafe File:WaterwaysEast.jpg, Waterways Lake, viewed from the eastern end File:Sunset_Lagoon.jpg, Sunset Lagoon, viewed from the

pier image:Brighton Pier, Brighton, East Sussex, England-2Oct2011 (1).jpg, Seaside pleasure pier in Brighton, England. The first seaside piers were built in England in the early 19th century. A pier is a raised structure that rises above a body of ...

File:Waterways aerial shot towards Port Phillip Bay.jpg, Aerial shot of western Waterways (prior to construction of the Peninsula Freeway), viewing southwest towards

File:Waterways aerial shot towards Frankston.jpg, Aerial shot of eastern Waterways (prior to construction of the Peninsula Freeway), viewing southeast towards

File:Sunset_at_Waterways_Lake.jpg, Sunset at Waterways Lake, viewed from the main pier on the north shore near Waterways Boulevard File:Waterways1.jpg, Lakeside residence, viewed across the lake from the main pier File:Waterways2.jpg, The boardwalk traversing the Portland Lagoon wetlands, viewed from the pier branch at the eastern end of Sunset Lagoon File:Waterways3.jpg, Portland Lagoon, viewed from the western boardwalk File:Waterways.jpg, Pier at eastern end of Waterways Lake File:Waterways4.jpg, Waterways Art File:Waterways Aerial Main Lake.jpg, Aerial shot of Portland Lagoon (near) and Waterways Lake (far), viewed from the west

References

{{City of Kingston suburbs Suburbs of Melbourne Suburbs of the City of Kingston (Victoria) Constructed wetlands in Australia