Yarra River
Muddy waterway winding through the city, named from a translation mix-up over a vanished waterfall.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Yarra River follows surveyor John Helder Wedge onto its bank in September 1835, notebook in hand, asking two Kulin guides what the water was called and writing down an answer that wasn't quite what they meant. You'll hear what yarra yarra actually described, and the older name, Birrarung, given by the Wurundjeri people who had fished and camped along these banks for thousands of years before Wedge's notebook error stuck. Look at the water now, and picture the rocky waterfall that once stood downstream.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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