A Moonee Ponds Creek Meander: Some Then, Now, and Next

Come for a Sunday morning meander along the lower reaches of the Moonee Ponds Creek with our tour guide Geoff Leach

Come for a Sunday morning meander along the lower reaches of the Moonee Ponds Creek (MPC), starting at Alfred St, to Flemington Bridge and then to just beyond Arden St, about 2km, or do a shortened version to Macaulay Rd, about 1.5km. About an hour and a half. You have to make your way there and home, tram to Boundary Rd and train or bus back from Macaulay Station or a possibility. Or walk or ride your bike.

See it now, and see, or imagine, it then - through old photographs, maps and stories. See the MPC second last pond on Alfred St, and possibly the last remaining bluestone V gutter in Melbourne. See the now Flemington Rd Bridge and imagine Main’s 1839 Log Bridge, imagine the original  “end of the creekbed”, after which the MPC is “swamp and marshy land”, and the nearby “boundary post” marking the north-west boundary point of North Melbourne.  See the outlet  into the MPC of the undergrounded Ievers Creek(let), aka North Melbourne Drain, never recognised with a proper name, but a story in itself.  See three bridges built by Sir John Monash’s concrete company. Then at the finish, if at low tide, the cut-off wooden stumps of the first train bridge to Geelong, shown in J. Calder’s 1860s painting.  Look across at the original North Melbourne Station, not where it is now, and the now huge fig trees.  Imagine the Macaulay Terrace transformation of the MPC, a future vision for the Macaulay Urban Renewal area.And also imagine the North Melbourne Marsh, Ponds and Swamp, before colonisation and settlement, now recognised as part of the area of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung People.

Geoff Leach is a long time resident of North Melbourne of 34 years with a strong interest in local history, including the Moonee Ponds Creek - where he has been running regularly from when, and a bit before, Citylink began construction around 1996.  He has been a member of the Hotham History Project for most of his time in North Melbourne, participating in, organising and giving walks and talks, and finally joining the HHP committee a couple of years ago.  You might see him riding around on his bright yellow pushbike, or out on one of his runs.  He can be contacted on geoffrey.ian.leach@gmail.com.