The West Melbourne Swamp also known as Batman's Swamp, was a large saltwater wetland located to the west of the city of Melbourne, Victoria. It was an important resource for Aboriginal people. Surveyor Charles Grimes observed the swamp when he climbed a nearby hill during his 1803 voyage to chart

Port Philip 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 comp ...

. It became known as Batman's Swamp, after pioneer settler John Batman, who built a house at the base of the nearby

Batman's Hill Batman's Hill in Melbourne, Australia was named for the Vandemonian adventurer and grazier John Batman. Now removed, the 18-metre-high hill was located to the south of today's Collins Street and Southern Cross railway station, and is the site o ...

in April 1836, where he lived until his death in 1839. In 1912, George Gordon McCrae (son of diarist

Georgiana McCrae Georgiana Huntly McCrae (15 March 1804 – 24 May 1890) was an English-Australian painter and diarist. Early life Born in London, she was the illegitimate daughter of George Gordon, the Marquess of Huntly, son and heir to Alexander, 4th Duk ...

) described it as being, in 1841: ''a real lake, intensely blue, nearly oval, and full of the clearest salt water''. The lagoon was also described as; ''having a bottom of solid blue clay and laying at the high water level while the flats surrounding it were about one metre above high tide...'' Because of its distance from the city and its unsuitability for residential development, the land in the area became the location for many noxious industries, such as abattoirs, fellmongeries,

tanneries Tanning may refer to: *Tanning (leather), treating animal skins to produce leather *Sun tanning, using the sun to darken pale skin **Indoor tanning, the use of artificial light in place of the sun **Sunless tanning, application of a stain or dye t ...

and rubbish depots. In 1873, a Royal Commission into the development of the area described the swamp as "a disgusting swamp as repulsive in its present aspect as it is pestilent in its influence". The Commission recommended some residential development to the immediate west of the city, the reservation of areas along the

Yarra River The Yarra River or historically, the Yarra Yarra River, ( Kulin languages: ''Berrern'', ''Birr-arrung'', ''Bay-ray-rung'', ''Birarang'', ''Birrarung'', and ''Wongete'') is a perennial river in south-central Victoria, Australia. The lower s ...

for docks, warehouses and industry, with the rest of the land being given over to agriculture and parkland. Drainage of the swamp was considered from the mid-19th century, but did not commence in earnest until about 1877, when a steam-operated pump was set up near Brown's Hill at South Kensington, and drains dug along Swamp Road, which was later reconstructed as Dynon Road, connecting to West Melbourne. Draining began in earnest from around 1890, under the design and supervision of

Public Works Department (Victoria) The Public Works Department was a government agency which operated in Victoria between 1855 and 1987. Over its long history, the department had various responsibilities, many of which were later devolved to other departments or authorities. Thes ...

engineer

William Thwaites (engineer) William Thwaites (1853–1907) was a civil engineer working in Melbourne, Australia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He was responsible for the design and supervision of construction of Melbourne's sewerage system. Early lif ...

. At the same time, the outlet of

Moonee Ponds Creek Moonee is a coastal suburb of the Central Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. It is part of the local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for ...

was widened to become Railway (Coal) Canal, diverting flood waters from the swamp, and providing direct water access for colliers from the coal port of

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

to the coaling facilities at the North Melbourne locomotive depot of the

Victorian Railways The Victorian Railways (VR), trading from 1974 as VicRail, was the state-owned operator of most rail transport in the Australian state of Victoria from 1859 to 1983. The first railways in Victoria were private companies, but when these companie ...

Appleton Dock Appleton Dock is an international shipping facility in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It was opened in about 1956 by the Melbourne Harbor Trust, and is named after MHT commissioner William Thomas Appleton (1859-1930), who was a staunch advocat ...

was constructed in the 1950 at the outlet of Moonee Ponds Creek (Railway Canal). In 1907, the Footscray contractor, Michael Walsh, won a large state government contract to undertake further drainage. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the swamp margins and the bottom of Dudley Street became the site of a shantytown built by the unemployed, known as

Dudley Flats Dudley Flats was a locality in Melbourne, Australia, in the 1920s–1950s, which supported a homeless camp during the Great Depression. Location It was located near the Melbourne docks beyond Dudley Street, south of Footscray Road, and on ...

References

{{coord, 37.813378, S, 144.9330, E, region:AU-VIC_type:landmark, display=title Geography of Melbourne Swamps of Australia

See also

References