Yarra Bend Park park in the
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 ...
suburb of
Kew
Kew () is a district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its population at the 2011 census was 11,436. Kew is the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens ("Kew Gardens"), now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace. Kew is a ...
. Located 4 km northeast of
Melbourne's CBD
The Melbourne central business district (also known colloquially as simply "The City" or "The CBD") is the city centre and main urban area of the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, centred on the Hoddle Grid, the oldest part of the city la ...
, it is the largest area of natural bushland left in inner Melbourne.
The most notable feature of the park is 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 stre ...
which flows for 12 km through it. The park hosts two golf courses, two historic boathouses, sheds and a number of cycle and walking trails. It receives approximately 1.5 million visitors per year.
History
The park's location at the joining of the Yarra River and
Merri Creek
The Merri Creek is a waterway in southern parts of Victoria, Australia, which flows through the northern suburbs of Northcote. It begins near Wallan north of Melbourne and flows south for 70 km until it joins the Yarra River at Dights Fa ...
has been an important site for the
Wurundjeri
The Wurundjeri people are an Australian Aboriginal people of the Woiwurrung language group, in the Kulin nation. They are the Traditional Owners of the Birrarung (Yarra River) Valley, covering much of the present location of Narrm (Melbourne ...
Aboriginal people for a long time prior to the arrival of Europeans in Melbourne, which is commemorated by the Koori Garden on the western edge of the park, near
Dights Falls
Dights Falls is a rapid and weir on the Yarra River in Melbourne, Victoria, just downstream of the junction with the Merri Creek. At this point the river narrows and is constricted between 800,000-year-old volcanic, basaltic lava flow and a mu ...
. The park was officially reserved in 1877, and in 1929 it joined with Studley Park to the south to cover the whole of the area today.
[ From 1848 until 1925 the park was home to Yarra Bend Lunatic Asylum, which took up most of the area of the park with buildings, vegetable gardens and a cemetery.
In 1904, the Queen's Memorial Infectious Diseases Hospital was established along Yarra Bend Road, Fairfield. Later simply known as "Fairfield Hospital", it closed in 1996. The southern portion of the site now accommodates the Thomas Embling Hospital, opened by the Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health in April 2000, with the majority of the buildings in the northern portion converted for use by NMIT Fairfield.
The Mission of St James and St John opened a Venereal Disease Clinic named
"Fairhaven" in 1927 on the northern section of land previously occupied by the Yarra Bend Asylum, including the asylum's main buildings. The clinic closed in 1951 and the site was temporarily used by the adjacent Fairfield Hospital as staff quarters and storerooms.
In 1953, the former "Fairhaven" site was acquired by the Prisons Division for conversioninto a female prison. ]HM Prison Fairlea
HM Prison Fairlea was an Australian female prison located on Yarra Bend Road in the suburb of Fairfield, Victoria, Australia. The first all-female prison in Victoria, it was built on the site of the Yarra Bend Asylum, with remnants of the wall ...
was officially opened in 1956 and closed in August 1996.
In 1972 the Eastern Freeway was constructed through the middle of the park, crossing both the Merri Creek
The Merri Creek is a waterway in southern parts of Victoria, Australia, which flows through the northern suburbs of Northcote. It begins near Wallan north of Melbourne and flows south for 70 km until it joins the Yarra River at Dights Fa ...
and 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 stre ...
. Parts of the Yarra were relocated and the Deep Rock Basin was completely demolished. This was highly controversial at the time, heightened by the destruction of rich history of not only Wurundjeri
The Wurundjeri people are an Australian Aboriginal people of the Woiwurrung language group, in the Kulin nation. They are the Traditional Owners of the Birrarung (Yarra River) Valley, covering much of the present location of Narrm (Melbourne ...
origin but European as well.
Features
There are a number of shared use tracks for cyclists and pedestrians. The Capital City Trail
__NOTOC__
The Capital City Trail is a shared use path in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, which circles the city centre and some inner eastern and northern suburbs. It is 29km in length, and mostly consists of sections of other trails, such a ...
and Yarra River Trail
__NOTOC__
The Yarra Trail is a shared use path for cyclists and pedestrians, which follows the Yarra River through the north eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
The trail follows the river from near its mouth, through the city a ...
both pass through the park. Organised bushwalking and birdwatching tours are available and there is even a tour to the flying fox
''Pteropus'' (suborder Yinpterochiroptera) is a genus of megabats which are among the largest bats in the world. They are commonly known as fruit bats or flying foxes, among other colloquial names.
They live in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Aust ...
colony. Some areas of the park are designated dog exclusion zones but dogs can be walked in on-Lead and off-lead zones. Canoes and boats can be hired from the Studley Park Boathouse.
There are a number of sports grounds including the Corben Oval, W.T. Long Oval, Sir Herbert Olney Oval, Westfield South Oval and Westfield North Oval. The Fairlea West Oval, Fairlea East Oval and W.J. Cox Oval synthetic pitches can be hired for social matches.
There are several picnic areas with electric barbecues and toilets. Westfield, North Rotunda and South Rotunda shelters close to picnic facilities can be hired, as can the grassed picnic areas at Deep Rock and Loop Road. Studley Park and Bellbird picnic areas are also available for public use. Fishing is excluded within the flying fox colony zone at Bellbird picnic area.
A world class fly-casting pool is located (since 1978) beside the Fairlea East Oval.
Regular fly casting tournaments, local and intrastate take place here particularly during the winter months.
Wildlife
The park is home to many species of birds, bats and other mammals, reptiles (tiger snakes and blue tongued lizards are common) insects and fish (esp. carp and eels) also regularly found are rainbow lorikeet
The rainbow lorikeet (''Trichoglossus moluccanus'') is a species of parrot found in Australia. It is common along the eastern seaboard, from northern Queensland to South Australia. Its habitat is rainforest, coastal bush and woodland areas. Six ...
s, red-rumped parrot
The red-rumped parrot (''Psephotus haematonotus''), also known as the red-backed parrot or grass parrot, is a common bird of south-eastern Australia, particularly in the Murray-Darling Basin.
Taxonomy
The red-rumped parrot was described by Joh ...
s and yellow-tailed black cockatoo
The yellow-tailed black cockatoo (''Zanda funerea'') is a large cockatoo native to the south-east of Australia measuring in length. It has a short crest on the top of its head. Its plumage is mostly brownish black and it has prominent yello ...
s, water rats and brush-tail and ringtail possums
Possum may refer to:
Animals
* Phalangeriformes, or possums, any of a number of arboreal marsupial species native to Australia, New Guinea, and Sulawesi
** Common brushtail possum (''Trichosurus vulpecula''), a common possum in Australian urban a ...
.
Yarra Bend Park is also home to a colony of federally and state listed vulnerable grey-headed flying fox
The grey-headed flying fox (''Pteropus poliocephalus'') is a megabat native to Australia. The species shares mainland Australia with three other members of the genus ''Pteropus'': the little red ''Pteropus scapulatus, P. scapulatus'', spectacle ...
es. The colony took up residence in the Royal Botanic Gardens in 1986 but were relocated to the more natural setting of Yarra Bend Park in 2003. The population is nomadic and migratory and varies in size from 3000 (winter) to 30,000 (summer). The protected bats pollinate and disperse the seeds of native trees. The colony roosts in native hardwoods and can easily be seen from the lookout at Bellbird Picnic Reserve. The evening flyout is a fascinating wildlife event.
In April 2020, local Victorian MP Tim Smith made a public call for the bat colony to be "moved away", because "people and bats don't mix" following the outbreak Coronavirus in Australia. The scientific basis for this claim remains unclear. In response, one of Australia's leading bat experts described calls for the colony to be relocated or culled as "ridiculous".
Notes
External links
Parks Victoria: Yarra Bend Park
Satellite image of Yarra Bend Park
{{Yarra River Crossings
Parks in Melbourne
Yarra River
City of Boroondara