The Mount Emu Creek (
Aboriginal Australian
Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands.
Humans first migrated to Australia 50,000 to 65,000 year ...
:''Tarnpirr''), a
perennial creek of the
Glenelg Hopkins
Hopkins is an English and Welsh patronymic surname derived from the personal name Hopkin and the genitive ending -''s''. Hopkin is itself a pet form of the name Hobb, a shortening of Robert (with alteration of the initial consonant). Notable peop ...
catchment, is located in the
Western District of
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 ...
.
Course and features
The Mount Emu Creek is a
waterway
A waterway is any Navigability, navigable body of water. Broad distinctions are useful to avoid ambiguity, and disambiguation will be of varying importance depending on the nuance of the equivalent word in other ways. A first distinction is ...
and is the longest creek in Victoria. The creek rises near and flows generally south by southwest, joined by six tributaries, before reaching its
confluence
In geography, a confluence (also ''conflux'') occurs where two or more watercourses join to form a single channel (geography), channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main ...
with the
Hopkins River
The Hopkins River, a perennial river of the Glenelg Hopkins catchment, is located in the Western District of Victoria, Australia.
Course and features
The Hopkins River rises below Telegraph Hill near , and flows generally south, joined by tw ...
, northeast of
Warrnambool
Warrnambool (; Eastern Maar, Maar: ''Peetoop'' or ''Wheringkernitch'' or ''Warrnambool'') is a city on the south-western coast of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. At the Census in Australia#2021, 2021 census, Warrnambool had a populati ...
. The river descends over its
course
Course may refer to:
Directions or navigation
* Course (navigation), the path of travel
* Course (orienteering), a series of control points visited by orienteers during a competition, marked with red/white flags in the terrain, and corresponding ...
.
[ Mount Emu Creek is the major waterway within the Hopkins basin.
The waterway starts as a series of creeks and waterways that merge to form the Mount Emu Creek, which flows through areas around , , Darlington, and . It joins the Hopkins River, which eventually leads out to sea at Warrnambool.
The Baillie Creek drains ]Lake Burrumbeet
Lake Burrumbeet is a large but shallow eutrophic lake in central western Victoria, Australia. Located west of Ballarat and west of Melbourne, the lake has been progressively emptying since 1997 and was declared completely dry in 2004. Howeve ...
and flows into the Mount Emu Creek west of . The Elingamite Creek drains Lake Elingamite and flows into the Mount Emu Creek south of Terang.
The creek is traversed by the Western Highway near Trawalla, the Glenelg Highway
Glenelg Highway is a rural highway in south-eastern Australia, linking the major regional centres of Mount Gambier in south-eastern South Australia with Ballarat in western Victoria.
Route
Glenelg Highway commences at the intersection with Pri ...
at Skipton, the Hamilton Highway
Hamilton Highway is a rural highway through the Barwon South West region of Victoria, Australia, linking Geelong and the town of Hamilton.
Route
Hamilton Highway commences at the intersection of Latrobe Terrace and Portarlington Road in Geel ...
at , and the Princes Highway
Princes Highway is a major road in Australia, extending from Sydney via Melbourne to Adelaide through the states of New South Wales, Victoria (Australia), Victoria and South Australia. It has a length of (along Highway 1) or via the former ...
near Terang.
Platypuses
Mount Emu Creek abounds in redfin and is the home of many platypus
The platypus (''Ornithorhynchus anatinus''), sometimes referred to as the duck-billed platypus, is a semiaquatic, egg-laying mammal endemic to eastern Australia, including Tasmania. The platypus is the sole living representative or monotypi ...
es. Surveys in 1991 and 1996 confirmed that platypus are breeding successfully right in the heart of Skipton township, where on a bend in the creek at Stewart Park in the centre of town is a platform built on the banks of the creek from which to observe them. An all night research session along the Mount Emu Creek was conducted by the Australian Platypus Conservancy in August 2003, in collaboration with Skipton's Stewart Park Committee. A baby female was one of six platypuses found in the section of the creek. Weighing in at , the tiny juvenile had probably only first ventured out of her burrow a week or so previously. Geoff Williams, a biologist with the Conservancy, said that the youngster was in really good condition and her presence confirmed that successful breeding is taking place in the township.
Murdering Gully massacre
The Murdering Gully massacre
Murdering Gully, formerly known as ''Puuroyup'' to the Djargurd Wurrung people, is the site of an 1839 massacre of 35–40 people of the Tarnbeere Gundidj clan of the Djargurd Wurrung in the Camperdown district of Victoria, Australia. It is ...
occurred in a gully on Mount Emu Creek, where a small stream adjoins from Mérida station (near Camperdown) in early 1839. Between 35 and 40 men, women and children of the Tarnbeere gundidj clan were shot dead by Frederick Taylor and other shepherds for the killing of several sheep.
See also
*
References
{{Authority control
Glenelg Hopkins catchment
Rivers of Barwon South West (region)
Rivers of Grampians (region)
Western District (Victoria)