City of Darebin Heritage Study Volume 1 Draft Thematic

VOLUME 2: THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORYSummerhill Village), Ruthven and the higher parts of Bundoora Park. These areas had deepsandy soils. The lower areas had been covered by flow after flow of lava, or by sedimentsdeposited recently in the valleys. The soils which developed on the lava flows were heavy blackcracking clays. The recent sediments formed the best soils, deep and well watered, suitable formarket gardening. The mid slopes usually had soils built on Silurian siltstones and sandstoneswhich tended to form thin poor soils. Refer to Map 2: Geology, for more detail.1.2 WaterwaysThe topography of Melbourne’s northern suburbs slopes generally downward from north tosouth, draining the southern slopes of the Great Dividing Range. Streams therefore generallyflow southward, and in the 2 million years since the area was last under the sea, creeks cutvalleys as they ran south to the sea.After their valleys were filled with lava flows many times, the creeks flowed largely through andover the basalt, but sometimes were pushed up against the Silurian sides of the valleys by a lavaflow, or blocked completely for a while by a lava flow. One flow from Hayes Hill nearDonnybrook flowed down Darebin Creek all the way to the Yarra at present day Alphingtonwhere it dammed the Yarra, encouraging it to form a broad floodplain which extended upDarebin Creek. Merri Creek was blocked a number of times and formed a number of swampswhich became floodplains - in what is now the Sumner Estate, the Northcote Golf Course andupstream to Goodwin Street, and in the vicinity of its tributary Edgars Creek.After having been pushed around by the lava flows, Merri and Darebin creeks as they now arehave cut the valleys which define Darebin and controlled its early history. The valleys left abroad ridge running down the middle of the municipality through Reservoir, Preston,Thornbury and Northcote.The Merri and Darebin creeks were fed by a network of smaller tributaries. The tributarieswere sometimes fed by springs where rain water soaked through the porous Brighton sands orthe heavily cracked basalts and accumulated on top of the impervious Silurian mudstones.Because of these springs both creeks retained pools of water even if they stopped flowing in thedriest weather. The creeks formed reliable water sources for the Aborigines, and so acted asmovement corridors north and south through the land.Figure 1Early engraving “On the Merri Creeknear Craigieburn”[National Library of Australia, an8737396]The basaltic nature of the Merri Creek meant that it was full of basalt boulders, and indeed theAboriginal name is thought to have been “Merri Merri”, meaning very rocky.The Merri Creek was described by one early settler in these terms: “the flashing water, verdanttrees...rocks, reeds and bushes all combine to produce a succession of scenes in the highestdegree picturesque” (Australian News 27/12/1877, p 202 in “The Merri Creek Study” PIRG1975).11