There's the top of the hill....
......and the bottom
...... the High Street...
...and the mall...
the merri creek.....the merri trail
Just 5 minutes away through open fiels you bump into the Merri Creek and the Merri Trail.
The creek borrows its name from the Wurundjeri-willam phrase Merri Merri meaning "very rocky", this was later abbreviated to Merri Creek by early European settlers.
The large number of pre and post-contact archaeological sites demonstrate a heavy usage of the area by Indigenous Australians. The creek and surrounding valley was the site of many large gatherings of Aboriginal people and is suspected to be the site of one of the earliest land treaties between Aboriginals and Europeans.
The creek borrows its name from the Wurundjeri-willam phrase Merri Merri meaning "very rocky", this was later abbreviated to Merri Creek by early European settlers.
The large number of pre and post-contact archaeological sites demonstrate a heavy usage of the area by Indigenous Australians. The creek and surrounding valley was the site of many large gatherings of Aboriginal people and is suspected to be the site of one of the earliest land treaties between Aboriginals and Europeans.
The Wurundjeri-willam were the original occupants of what are now the northern suburbs of Melbourne. Their name comes from the Aboriginal word Wurrun meaning "white gum tree".
The Wurundjeri-willam was a clan consisting of a number of extended families. During the first years of contact with Europeans, the Wurundjeri-willam people were represented by influential senior men such as Billibellary, a respected elder. Billibellary’s clan lived on the northern bank of the Yarra and their territory extended from Yarra Bend northwards along the Merri Creek.
The creek supplied the Wurundjeri-willam with an abundance of food such as eel, fish, and duck. Women waded through the Merri with string bags suspended around their neck, searching the bottom of the stream for shellfish. Emu and kangaroo were hunted in the surrounding grasslands. In the forests and hills, possum was also a staple source of food and clothing, The flesh of the possum was cooked and eaten, while the skin was saved to be sewn into valuable waterproof cloaks
Painting: Aboriginal people fishing and camping on Merri Creek. Tinted lithograph by Charles Troedel, 1864
The Wurundjeri-willam were the original occupants of what are now the northern suburbs of Melbourne. Their name comes from the Aboriginal word Wurrun meaning "white gum tree".
The Wurundjeri-willam was a clan consisting of a number of extended families. During the first years of contact with Europeans, the Wurundjeri-willam people were represented by influential senior men such as Billibellary, a respected elder. Billibellary’s clan lived on the northern bank of the Yarra and their territory extended from Yarra Bend northwards along the Merri Creek.
The creek supplied the Wurundjeri-willam with an abundance of food such as eel, fish, and duck. Women waded through the Merri with string bags suspended around their neck, searching the bottom of the stream for shellfish. Emu and kangaroo were hunted in the surrounding grasslands. In the forests and hills, possum was also a staple source of food and clothing, The flesh of the possum was cooked and eaten, while the skin was saved to be sewn into valuable waterproof cloaks
Painting: Aboriginal people fishing and camping on Merri Creek. Tinted lithograph by Charles Troedel, 1864
In May 1835 an historic meeting took place between John Batman and prominent members of the Wurundjeri-willam and other clans. Billibellary and the other clan elders signed a document, which came to be called Batman's Treaty, the only treaty ever struck between the European settlers and the indigenous people of Australia. These unique negotiations took place, wrote Batman, by the banks of a "lovely stream of water" which twentieth century historians suspect to be the Merri Creek. This treaty was declared invalid by Sir Richard Bourke, the Governor of N.S.W., who was unwilling to recognize and allow the aborigines the right to use and control their own land as they saw fit, thus implementing the doctrine of terra nullius.
Cycling,walking and jogging are all part of the Merri Trail.
Within minutes from home you can be in native bush land. A great introduction to the local flora.
Perfect for younger kids as well. Why not have a barbecue in a bush land setting.
Yarra Bend National Park
Just a walk away is a fabulous national park on the edge of the city. You can take river trail walks, play golf, hire row boats at two historic boat houses, eat at kiosks, restaurants or barbecue at riverside sites, attend a play at a riverside amphitheater and watch local sports or visit a local plant nursery.
Local Farmer's Market
Farmer's Market at Collingwood Children's Farm
View from Rucker's Hill in winter.
The Convent around the corner
