Past and Present Waterscapes of Tooradin and Koo Wee Rup Swampland
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WATERFRONT: PAST AND PRESENT WATERSCAPES OF TOORADIN AND KOO WEE RUP SWAMPLAND PRIMER: A selection of readings about the landscape of the old swamplands of Koo Wee Rup and the coastal shores of Tooradin and Westernport. Compiled by Monash Urban Lab Waterfront is proudly presented by Centre for Architecture Victoria | Open House Melbourne, in partnership with DELWP and East Gippsland Shire Council. Waterfront is part of Melbourne Design Week 2021, an initiative of the Victorian Government in collaboration with the NGV. CONTENTS: MAP FOR A VANISHED LANDSCAPE BY LIAM DAVISON p.6 Davison, Liam. “Map for a Vanished Landscape.” Griffith Review, 44 (2014): https://www.griffithreview.com/articles/map-for-a-vanished-landscape/ THE SWAMPY LOWLANDS OF MELBOURNE BY CATHERINE MURPHY p.23 AND NIGEL BERTRAM Murphy, Catherine, and Nigel Bertram. “The Swampy Lowlands of Melbourne”. In In Time With Water: Design Studies of 3 Australian Cities, edited by Nigel Bertram and Catherine Murphy, 79-153. Perth: UWAP, 2019. ECOLOGY OF THE KOOWEERUP SWAMP AND ASSOCIATED p.42 GRASSLANDS BY JEFFREY YUGOVIC Yugovic, Jeffrey. “Ecology of the Kooweerup Swamp and associated grasslands.” Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, no 123 (2, 2011): 172-188. WESTERNPORT BAY, FRENCH ISLAND AND PHILLIP ISLAND BY ERIC p.63 C. F. BIRD Bird, Eric C.F., The Coast of Victoria: The Shaping of Scenery, Carlton.: Melbourne Source: Monash Urban Lab UniversityPress, 1993, 192-231. COMPILED BY: Monash Urban Lab Department of Architecture Monash University https://www.monash.edu/mada/research/monash-urban-lab For research purposes only. Copyright held by authors or publishers. Except as permitted by the Copyright Act, no part of the material in this reading primer may be re- produced in print or reproduced or utilised in any digital or printed form, without permission from the authors or publishers, as listed below. Source: Monash Urban Lab 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Source: Monash Urban Lab 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 Source: Monash Urban Lab 31063_rsov_proceedings_128.2 21:02:11 12-01-30 Black Yellow Magenta Cyan Sect 2 Front Sect 2 Front Black Yellow Magenta Cyan 21:02:11 12-01-30 31063_rsov_proceedings_128.2 ECOLOGY OF THE KOOWEERUP SWAMP AND ASSOCIATED GRASSLANDS 173 ECOLOGY OF THE KOOWEERUP SwAMP AND ASSOCIATED GRASSLANDS JEFFREY V. YUGOVIC Biosis Research, 38 Bertie Street, Port Melbourne, Victoria 3207 YUGOVIC, J.V., 2011. Ecology of the Kooweerup Swamp and associated grasslands. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria 123(2): 172-188. ISSN 0035-9211. An understanding of the ecology of the Kooweerup Swamp is obtained from historical maps and survey plans and modern soil mapping. The probable boundary of the former largest swamp in Victoria is 31063_rsov_proceedings_128.2 determined. The immense swamp had distinct zones formed by inner and outer swamps: the inner swamp was a permanently inundated reedswamp with emergent sand ridges and a descending series of lake-like cells, while the fringing outer swamp was largely paperbark scrub subject to frequent flooding. Grassland and Acacia woodland were locally extensive adjacent to the swamp in areas of periodic flooding. The inner 21:02:11 12-01-30 swamp boundary was probably flood controlled while the outer boundary was probably fire controlled on the plains and topographically controlled by hills to the east. Small areas of swamp scrub and grassland remain, with significant examples at The Inlets in Koo Wee Rup. Key words: Kooweerup, Koo Wee Rup, Koo-Wee-Rup, swamp, grassland Black THE KOOWEERUP SWAMP, also known as The official place name of the town on the former edge of Great Swamp, The Great Marsh and Kuwirap, was the swamp. the largest swamp in Victoria (Fig. 1). Draining and The Kooweerup Swamp was effectively impass- Yellow Magenta Cyan clearing the immense swamp for agriculture was a able and formed part of the boundary between the in- Fig. 1. The Great Swamp, map of Australia Felix (Ham 1849). major undertaking commencing in 1876 and con- land Woi wurrung and the coastal Bun wurrung peo- Sect 2 Front tinuing in stages to 1962, imposing hardship on ple. The northern edge was inhabited by the Bulug early settlers and drainage workers. The major drain willam clan, meaning ‘swamp dwellers’ from buluk case of Urquhart (1847), Mount Ararat and Cannibal Plan Rail 84C2 (1873) is the Bunyip Main Drain which was constructed in = swamp and willam = dwelling place. The southern Hill. Swamp and grassland boundaries were digitally Railway survey map of the eastern swamp edge from 1889–1893 and later enlarged. There have been sev- edge was inhabited by the Yallock balug clan of the traced and combined on one composite map. Garfield to Yannathan, uniquely covers a large area eral attempts to drain the swamp during which time Bun wurrung, meaning ‘river people’ from yallock = Map data and information sources were: but relatively small scale. there have been at least 14 floods. The Cora Lynn river and bulluk = people (Clark 1990). Survey map of Urquhart (1847) Map of Torbonarach and Red Bluff (Moore and Mar- spillway, constructed in 1962, was the last major In order to understand this unique ecosystem Map of the western and northern edge of the swamp tin’s Yallock stations)(no date) and adjacent open plains from Tooradin to Garfield, Sketch map of the Yallock area in Gunson (1968), not drainage project (Roberts 1985) but the swamp is not and locate remnant vegetation, historical sources are Sect 2 Front entirely tamed as there have been significant floods used here to map the outer boundary of the swamp. remarkable detail with chainage points shown, with to scale but informative. Black since then. The natural swamp was destroyed without Soil mapping allows a glimpse of the inner swamp. annotations on vegetation. Map of land subsidence of Hills (1942) Yellow Magenta Cyan any detailed account of its original condition (Hills Further analysis is in Yugovic and Mitchell (2004, Survey map of Foot (1855) Remarkable map of early land subsidence, overlaying 1942) so what is known of its ecology is based on 2005). This paper updates and expands upon Yugovic Map of the southern swamp edge from The Inlets early contours with 1914 contours. Subsidence was fragmentary and often indirect evidence. and Mitchell (2006) and includes a clear map of the to Yallock, shows crown allotments allowing better due to shrinkage and loss of up to about eight feet of The Aboriginal name Kuwirap is said to mean reconstructed swamp boundary. resolution and registration with the base map, with peat from drainage, fires, wind erosion, compaction ‘blackfish swimming’, from kowe = water and wirap annotations. and oxidation. The distribution of the former peat or werup = blackfish (Database of Aboriginal Pla- Survey map of Callanan (1859) deposit is assumed to indicate the extent of the inner METHODS cenames of Victoria 2002). Surveyor William Ur- Map of the northern swamp edge from Cardinia to swamp. Points where contour lines from the two quhart (1847) recorded the name of the swamp. His Pakenham, shows allotments, with annotations. surveys converge indicate no subsidence and the field book states that the swamp was called ‘Cowir- Copies of historical and maps survey plans were Plan K118 (1866) edge of the deposit. Coverage is not complete so the rip’ by the ‘Natives’. The name of the swamp is obtained from Land Victoria and the State Library Map of the southern swamp edge in the Yallock area, entire deposit is not indicated. Map also appears in spelt in several ways. Kooweerup and Koo-Wee- of Victoria. Mapping was undertaken using GIS shows allotments, with annotations. Hills (1975). software. Plans were scanned and registered as Rup are official historical place names. The spelling Plan L3335 (1866) Soil map of Sargeant et al. (1996) 21:02:11 12-01-30 Kooweerup is more in keeping with the Aboriginal accurately as possible, using reference points such Map of the near-coastal swamp edge and The Inlets, Primary source on the extent of the former peat name and is applied here. Koo Wee Rup is now the as creek alignments, land boundaries and, in the shows allotments, with annotations. deposit and thus the inner swamp. Map units Koo- 31063_rsov_proceedings_128.2 172 42 43 31063_rsov_proceedings_128.2 21:02:11 12-01-30 Yellow Magenta Cyan Black Sect 2 Back 174 J. YUGOVIC Wee-Rup peaty clay (Ko) and Koo-Wee-Rup peaty boundary is inferred from soil mapping and is clay with sandy ridges (Ko/sr) indicate the former indicative only. extent of peat (I. Sargeant pers. comm.). These soils The Koo Wee Rup Plain included a number of are developed on alluvial deposits that pre-date the swamp complexes (Rosengren 1984): swamp. Apart from some of the higher sandy ridges, • Kooweerup Swamp these deposits were below the original peat layer and • Dalmore Swamp, contiguous with above, to the now incorporate ploughed-in residue from the peat, west hence the description ‘peaty’ (Hills 1942; Goudie • Tobin Yallock Swamp, effectively separate from 1942). both of the above, to the south Hills (1942) indicates a larger area of peat Grasslands and woodlands were locally extensive on deposit but Sargeant et al. (1996) is adopted for the the margins of these swamps. inner swamp boundary due to its complete coverage; however, soil map units Ko and Ko/sr may represent Kooweerup Swamp a minimum estimate. The present organic or peaty content of soil is expected to be lower towards the edge of the former peat deposit where the overlying The Kooweerup Swamp was joined with the Dal- peat would have been shallow.