Destroying to Replace: Witnessing Settler Transformations of Naarm/Melbourne

After less than 80 years since the first arrival of British settler-colonists, Melbourne was unrecognisable from the wetlands, forests of wattle, gum and lakes, creeks and rivers that had defined the landscape previously.

The Falls

It was a sultry Saturday afternoon on January 11, 1845, when a little boy of eight or nine and his elder sister went to play at the Yarra Falls.