Banyule Billabong and Swamp

Photos of May 26, 2018, starting at the Banyule Recreation Reserve  car park, This passed through the fenced Native Wildlife Habitat, adjacent to the dry Banyule Billabong, and returned past the Banyule Swamp. Many colored fungi had appeared for the winter! Sunny and warm, 21 degrees!

Banyule Billabong Circuit Hike

The Historic Windmill next to the Yarra

These pix were taken on Feb 16 2015.

They show the scenery and environment on a 2 km circuit hike around the Banyule Billabong, next to the Yarra, following the Main Yarra Trail, the Windmill Track, and the Banyule Billabong Track.

Exploring the Banule Swamp and Billabong

These pix were taken on October 22, 2012, on a 3 km hike around the Banyule Swamp and Billabong, 15 km east of central Melbourne.

Banyule Flats and Warringal Swamplands are lowland riverine flood plains that are among the most threatened landscapes in Victoria.

Banyule Swamp is the most intact and biologically significant shallow freshwater marsh in the Lower Yarra.

Both are key wetland areas in maintaining the viability of populations of water birds and wetland ecosystems in the Lower Yarra. They contain a number of rare, vulnerable and threatened fauna, 23 species of water birds, 125 species of native birds, 11 species of native mammals and 4 bat species.

The Victorian government has been planning to build a freeway right through the middle of Banyule Flats and Warringal Swamplands. The Liberal government has not yet confirmed whether it will continue on the same path and refuse to consider public transport solutions for Banyule, a municipality which is chronically under-serviced.

This freeway, the so-called North East Link, will not ease congestion but will destroy one of the most precious environmental and historical assets in the City of Banyule: the birthplace of the iconic Heidelberg School of Painting, the first internationally recognised Australian Art Movement.

Banyule Homestead (or Banyule House) was constructed for the overlander and grazier Joseph Hawdon in several stages, with the main two-storey mansion constructed in 1846. In its commanding position overlooking the Banyule Flatlands below, it is one of the few remaining pre-Gold Rush mansions in Melbourne.

See a Slide Show of all of the photos of my visit!