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 st ...

is a

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

in East-Central

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

that flows through the city of

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

. This article contains explanations and lists of the river's

tributaries A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream ('' main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which the ...

and other

geographic feature In geography and particularly in geographic information science, a geographic feature or simply feature (also called an object or entity) is a representation of phenomenon that exists at a location in the space and scale of relevance to geograph ...

s. The river flows atop layers of silt that built up within an ancient river valley around 10,000-15,000 years ago. The river's major

are the

Plenty River The Plenty River is a perennial river of the Port Phillip catchment, located in the north-eastern Greater Melbourne region of the Australian state of Victoria. Course and features The Plenty River rises in the forested slopes of Mount Disapp ...

Merri Creek Merri Creek is a waterway in southern parts of Victoria, Australia, which flows through the northern suburbs of Melbourne. It begins near Wallan and flows south for 70 km until joining the Yarra River at Dights Falls. The area where th ...

Darebin Creek Darebin Creek is a creek that runs through the northern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is the main watercourse of the Darebin Valley and a major tributary of the Yarra River. For tens of thousands of years it was used as a food a ...

Diamond Creek Diamond Creek is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 23 km north-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Shire of Nillumbik local government area. Diamond Creek recorded a population of 12,503 at the 20 ...

Gardiners Creek Gardiners Creek, originally known as Kooyongkoot Creek, is an urban stream in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, and part of the Yarra River catchment. Apart from a few sparse surviving remnant riparian bushlands, the majority of the creek's leng ...

Mullum Mullum Creek Mullum Mullum Creek is a creek in the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is the main watercourse of the Mullum Mullum Valley, a tributary of the Yarra River and Yarra Valley. For tens of thousands of years it was used ...

and the

Moonee Ponds Creek The Moonee Ponds Creek is a creek and major tributary of the Yarra River running through urban Melbourne, Victoria, Australia from northern to inner suburbs. In 2004 a reporter for ''The Age'' described it as "arguably the most abused tributar ...

. It hosts a wide range of

s including; bends,

rapids Rapids are sections of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep stream gradient, gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence. Flow, gradient, constriction, and obstacles are four factors that are needed for a rapid t ...

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river. Floodplains stretch from the banks of a river channel to the base of the enclosing valley, and experience flooding during periods of high Discharge (hydrolog ...

billabong In Australian English, a billabong ( ) is a small body of water, usually permanent. It is usually an oxbow lake caused by a change in course of a river or creek, but other types of small lakes, ponds or waterholes are also called billabongs ...

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

s, etc. Most features have been named after translated

Woiwurrung The Woiwurrung, also spelt Woi-wurrung, Woi Wurrung, Woiwurrong, Woiworung, and Wuywurung, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Woiwurrung language group, in the Kulin alliance. The Woiwurrung people's territory in Central Victoria ex ...

phrases or have European, particularly

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

, origins. The Yarra River has two other names "the upside down river" and "Birrarung". The Yarra was for say nicknamed the upside down river because of the way some of it looked. Birrarung was the first name that the Indigenous Australians gave it.

Tributaries

The Yarra River has about 50 named tributaries; 6 rivers, 42 creeks and 2 gullies. At its most easterly point, it is fed by many small unnamed creeks and streams that begin in the

Yarra Ranges The Shire of Yarra Ranges, also known as Yarra Ranges Council, is a local government area in Victoria, Australia, located in the outer eastern and northeastern suburbs of Melbourne extending into the Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges. It has an ...

within the

Yarra Ranges National Park Yarra Ranges National Park is located in the Central Highlands (Victoria), Central Highlands of Australia's southeastern States and territories of Australia, state, Victoria (state), Victoria, roughly 107 km (66.5 mi) northeast of Melb ...

, which are sometimes fed by snowfalls. Below is a list of its tributaries (from downstream to upstream):''Melway'', Edition 35, 2008

Geographical features

The Yarra River hosts a wide range of geographical features, perhaps the most plentiful of which are

s, of which there are over 100, particularly in the floodplains near Yering,

Yarra Glen Yarra Glen is a town in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, 55 km north-east from Melbourne, Melbourne's Melbourne city centre, central business district, located within the Shire of Yarra Ranges Local government areas of Victoria ...

and

Coldstream Coldstream () is a town and civil parishes in Scotland, civil parish in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland. A former burgh, Coldstream was where the Coldstream Guards, a regiment in the British Army, originated. Description Coldstream li ...

. Being a considerably thin river for almost its entire length, there are very few

islands This is a list of the lists of islands in the world grouped by country, by continent, by body of water, and by other classifications. For rank-order lists, see the #Other lists of islands, other lists of islands below. Lists of islands by count ...

s. In the middle reaches there are a few rapids of easy to moderate difficulty, however these are sparsely distributed. Below is a list of the river's geographical features, including tributaries (shown in bold) and man-made features or townships (shown in italics), for bearings (from downstream to upstream): * Entrance to Yarra River in

Hobsons Bay Hobsons Bay is a small open bay in Victoria, Australia, and is the northernmost part of the larger Port Phillip Bay. Its western and eastern boundaries are marked by Point Gellibrand in and Point Ormond in respectively, and defines the coas ...

* ''

West Gate Bridge The West Gate Bridge is a steel, box girder, cable-stayed bridge in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, spanning the Yarra River just north of its mouth into Port Phillip. It carries the West Gate Freeway and is a vital link between the Melbourn ...

'' *

Stony Creek Stony Creek may refer to the following waterways or communities: Waterways Australia * Stony Creek, a tributary of the Allyn River, in the Hunter region of New South Wales * Stony Creek, a tributary of the Brogo River, in the South Coast region ...

Maribyrnong River The Maribyrnong River is a perennial river of the Port Phillip catchment, located in the northwestern suburbs of Melbourne, in the Australian state of Victoria. Course The Maribyrnong River draws its headwaters from near Mount Macedon within ...

Coode Island Coode Island is a former island at the convergence of the Yarra and Maribyrnong Rivers, 4 km west of central Melbourne, Australia. The island was formed by the excavation of the Coode Canal in 1887, and became connected to the mainland ...

(created in 1880s) * Fishermans Bend (created in 1880s) *

Victoria Harbour Victoria Harbour is a natural landform harbor, harbour in Hong Kong separating Hong Kong Island in the south from the Kowloon Peninsula to the north. It acts as both a major trading hub and tourist attraction of Hong Kong in general. Lying in ...

(created in 1892) *

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

(levelled in mid-19th century) * Turning Basin * ''

Melbourne CBD The Melbourne central business district (colloquially known as "the City" or "the CBD", and gazetted simply as Melbourne) is the city centre of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. As of the 2021 census, the CBD had a population of 54,941, and is ...

'' * ''

Princes Bridge Princes Bridge, originally Prince's Bridge,, ''...he wished that it might be distinguished by the name of "Prince's Bridge," in honour of the Prince of Wales, whom he hoped would yet be the Sovereign of their colonies...'' is a bridge in centra ...

'' *

Birrarung Marr Birrarung Marr is an inner-city park between the central business district in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia and the Yarra River. It was opened in 2002. The name refers to the bank of Birrarung, the 'river of mists', in the Woiwurrung languag ...

* Ornamental Lake * Punt Hill * Herring Island * Burnley Harbour and Wetlands *

* Burnley Bend * '' Hawthorn'' * Yarra Bend (Ends) *

Dights Falls Dights Falls is a Rapids, rapid and weir on the Yarra River in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, just downstream of the junction with the Merri Creek. At this point the river narrows and is constricted between 800,000-year-old volcani ...

* Galatea Point * ''Studley Park Boathouse'' * Flying Fox Lookout * ''Fairfield Boathouse'' * Yarra Bend (Begins) *

Johnston Street Bridge Johnston Street Bridge is a concrete road bridge crossing the Yarra River between the Melbourne suburbs of Abbotsford and Kew. The current bridge was constructed in 1954-6 by the Victorian Country Roads Board The Country Roads Board was ...

* Kew Billabong *

* Glass Creek * Turner Street, Abbotsford Yarra Flats (Ends) *

Koonung Creek Koonung Creek (or Koonung Koonung Creek) is a small tributary of the Yarra River in Melbourne's east. The creek originates in Nunawading near Springvale Road, and flows to join the Yarra at the border between Ivanhoe East, Bulleen and Balwyn ...

* Bolin Bolin Billabong (cut off in 1100) * Annulus Billabong * Salt Creek * Sills Bend * ''

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

'' * Yarra Flats (Begins) * Banyule Creek * Banyule Flats and Billabongs *

* ''

Templestowe Templestowe is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 16 km north-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Manningham local government area. Templestowe recorded a population of 16,966 at the . The ...

'' *

Ruffey Creek Ruffey Lake Park (locally Ruffeys) is a park in the City of Manningham, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is situated around Ruffey Lake in a portion of a valley through which the Ruffey Creek runs, forming the border between Doncaster and T ...

* Kestrel Creek * Westerfolds Rapids * ''Fitzsimons Lane Bridge'' *

* Sweeneys Flats *

* Tikalara * Pound Bend (Ends) * Bobs Wetlands *

Pound Bend Tunnel The Pound Bend Tunnel, or the Evelyn Tunnel, is a diversion tunnel on the Yarra River at Warrandyte, Victoria, Warrandyte, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, approximately 24 km north-east of Melbourne. The tunnel is 145 metres lo ...

* Stony Creek * Pound Bend (Begins) *

Andersons Creek Andersons Creek is a Stream, creek in Warrandyte and Park Orchards, Victoria, Park Orchards, east of Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. It is a tributary of the Yarra River. For tens of thousands of years it was used as a foo ...

* Fourth Hill * Whipstick Gully * ''

Warrandyte Warrandyte ( ) is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, 24 km north-east of Melbourne's Melbourne City Centre, Central Business District, located within the City of Manningham Local government areas of Victoria, ...

'' * Scotchmans Hill * The Island * Parson Gully * Black Flat * Jumping Creek * Blue Tongue Bend * Warrandyte Gorge * Pigeon Bank Gully * Kangaroo Ground Rapids * Watsons Creek * Bend of Isles * Moniques Island * Brushy Creek * Mount Lofty * Bob's Rock * Canoe Slalom Rapids * Christmas Hills Rapids * Yering Gorge * Yering Billabongs * Olinda Creek * ''

'' * Yarra Flats Billabongs * Steels Creek * Coldstream Flats and Billabongs * Pauls Creek * ''

Healesville Healesville is a town in Victoria, Australia, 64 km north-east from Melbourne's central business district, located within the Shire of Yarra Ranges local government area. Healesville recorded a population of 7,589 in the 2021 census. H ...

'' *

Watts River The Watts River is a perennial river of the Port Phillip and Western Port catchment, located in the Healesville area, in the Central region of the Australian state of Victoria. Location and features The Watts River rises below Mount Vinegar ...

Badger Creek Badger Creek is a suburb of Healesville in Victoria, Australia, 53 km north-east from Melbourne's central business district, located within the Shire of Yarra Ranges local government area. Badger Creek recorded a population of 1,610 at th ...

* Warramate Hills *

Woori Yallock Creek Woori Yallock Creek is a tributary of the Yarra River. It rises on the eastern slopes of the Dandenong Ranges, then flows north to join the Yarra River near Woori Yallock Woori Yallock is a town in Victoria, Australia, east of Melbourne's ...

* Woori Yallock Flats and Billabong * Ure Creek * ''

Launching Place Launching Place is a town in Victoria, Australia, 54 km east of Melbourne's central business district, located within the Shire of Yarra Ranges local government area. Launching Place recorded a population of 2,495 at the . Launching Place ...

'' * Hoddles Creek * Don River *

Little Yarra River The Little Yarra River is a perennial river of the Port Phillip catchment, located in the Greater Metropolitan Melbourne region of the Australian state of Victoria. Location and features The Little Yarra River rises in native forests in the Ya ...

* Don Creek * ''

Yarra Junction Yarra Junction is a town in Victoria, Australia, east from Melbourne's central business district, located within the Shire of Yarra Ranges local government area. Yarra Junction recorded a population of 2,875 at the . The township sits at the ...

'' * Don Creek * Platts Creek * Frenchman Creek * Yankee Jim Creek * Dee River * Scotchmans Creek * '' Warburton'' * Four Mile Creek * Pheasant Creek * Starling Creek * Big Pats Creek * Dead Horse Creek * Cement Creek * Braham Creek * McDonald Creek * Crooked Creek * Starvation Creek * ''

Little Peninsula Tunnel The Little Peninsula Tunnel is a small river diversion tunnel on the upper Yarra River near McMahons Creek, around 80 km East of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The tunnel was dug in the 1860s by alluvial gold miners to provide access to ...

'' * ''

Big Peninsula Tunnel The Big Peninsula Tunnel is a small river diversion tunnel on the upper Yarra River near McMahons Creek, around 80 km east of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The tunnel was dug in 1864, during the Victorian gold rush, by alluvial gold miner ...

'' * McMahons Creek * ''Upper Yarra Dam'' *

Upper Yarra Reservoir The Upper Yarra Reservoir is located east of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, beyond Warburton within the locality of Reefton. Water from Upper Yarra Reservoir supplies towns in the upper Yarra Valley, and Silvan Reservoir, which transfers water ...

(created in 1957) * Armstrong Creek * Alderman Creek * Walsh Creek * Baker Creek * Woods Creek * Mmbw Channel

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yarra River, Geography Lists of river tributaries Yarra River

Tributaries

Geographical features

See also

References