First Class Travel on the Koo Wee Rup Swamp (State Library of Victoria)

The Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp was a large freshwater swamp located to the south east of

Melbourne, Victoria 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 metr ...

. It drained an area of

West Gippsland West Gippsland, a region of Gippsland in Victoria, Australia, extends from the southeastern limits of metropolitan Melbourne and Western Port Bay in the west to the Latrobe Valley in the east, and is bounded by the Strzelecki Ranges to the so ...

, with several waterways including

Cardinia Creek The Cardinia Creek is a freshwater stream southeast of Melbourne, Victoria that flows from the Cardinia Reservoir in the Dandenong Ranges into the Western Port Bay between Tooradin and Koo Wee Rup. The creek forms majority of the boundary ...

and the Bunyip River.'A Brief Description of the Land Use in the Koo-Wee-Rup and Cranbourne Regions' Victorian Resources On-line
/ref> The Koo-Wee-Rup swamp originally covered more than 40,000 hectares of dense swamp paperbark (

Melaleuca ericifolia ''Melaleuca ericifolia'', commonly known as swamp paperbark, is a plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and the genus ''Melaleuca'', native to south-eastern Australia. It is a rather variable species and some specimens resemble ''Melaleuca armi ...

), with some open grasslands, reed beds (

Phragmites ''Phragmites'' () is a genus of four species of large perennial plant, perennial reed (plant), reed Poaceae, grasses found in wetlands throughout temperate and tropical regions of the world. Taxonomy The World Checklist of Selected Plant Famil ...

australis) and bullrushes (

Typha ''Typha'' is a genus of about 30 species of monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Typhaceae. These plants have a variety of common names, in British English as bulrush or reedmace, in American English as reed, cattail, or punks, in ...

spp). Known as ''The Great Swamp'', it was an impassable barrier for travellers between

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 metr ...

and

Gippsland Gippsland is a rural region that makes up the southeastern part of Victoria, Australia, mostly comprising the coastal plains to the rainward (southern) side of the Victorian Alps (the southernmost section of the Great Dividing Range). It cover ...

. Although the fringes of the swamp had been settled by the mid-19th century, farming was not possible on much of the land because of frequent flooding, and the rapid re-growth of paperbark and other swamp vegetation. However, in the 1870s, efforts were made by the Victorian Department of Lands to drain the swamp and open up the area for agriculture. A Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp Drainage Committee was formed by local landowners and, in February 1876, excavation of the main channel was commenced, to take water from

. That channel, leading into

Western Port Western Port, (Boonwurrung: ''Warn Marin'') commonly but unofficially known as Western Port Bay, is a large tidal bay in southern Victoria, Australia, opening into Bass Strait. It is the second largest bay in the state. Geographically, it is ...

at Moody's Inlet, was 8 km long and 1.2 m deep. Other drains were also dug, including those for Toomuc Creek and the Bunyip River.

Weblinks

45 photos in the State Library Victoria

Channels and channel excavation in the Lang Lang (Koo-wee-rup) district

Map of Strzelecki railway line, around 1925

Drains of Koo-Wee-Rup Flood Protection District, 1951

References

Bodies of water of Victoria (Australia) Swamps of Australia {{VictoriaAU-geo-stub

See also

Weblinks

References