An underground current

Beneath the streets of Belmont lies a largely-forgotten waterway, but one which bears a name familiar to all Geelong Residents - Kardinia Creek. The name Kardinia has been suggested as having a couple of different meanings although most agree that it is an indigenous word meaning "sunrise".
This little creek was for many years, an open waterway which ran from the high ground near Ceres, across what are now the suburbs of Wandana Heights and Highton to Belmont, where the creek formed the western border between the latter two suburbs. It discharged into the Barwon on the bend at the place Yollinko Aboriginal Park now stands, catching runoff water from around 1050 hectares of land.

An aerial photo of parts of Belomt and Highton prior to development, with
the course of Kardinia Creek marked by arrows. Image from the Highton
Facebook page courtesy of  Ross Rawson

Prior to the suburban sprawl, Kardinia Creek wound its way through open fields, crossing the Barrabool Hills Road (Barrabool Road) near its confluence with the Barwon. Today, vestiges of the creek's course can be seen in some of the surrounding open space such as the Highton Retarding Basin off Thornhill Road
To the Wathaurong people, it was a source of food and water for over 5,000 years. They would camp near the confluence during winter, a fact attested to by a nearby midden where various artifacts have been found. Its sheltered position provided protection from the elements and was within reach of good hunting grounds on the opposite bank of the Barwon.
When European settlers arrived in the region, they too used the area as a meeting place. Initially, the land formed part of Dr Alexander Thomson's property named "Kardinia", then in 1850 Dr Thomson offered a number of allotments for sale as "Belmont Town". They were located between Roslyn and Mt Pleasant Roads. This fledgling town, took its water from a pump located on the south bank of the Barwon, very near the confluence of Kardinia Creek and the Barwon.

Pump on the Barwon used by the early residents of Belmont with the original
Prince Albert Bridge in the background. A 1938 print of an 1860s negative held by
The State Library of Victoria

Not surprisingly, European arrival had a catastrophic effect on the well being of the Wathaurong. Stock introduced by the settlers damaged the surrounding land, with the loss of root crops - which they relied upon for food - contributing to malnutrition followed by disease.

A modern sign marking the position of the pump

the site of the pump

As the population of Belmont and the surrounding districts increased, infrastructure was needed and in 1852 funds became available to establish a roads board in the region. Then, in 1853 the Barrarbool (sic) Roads District (later the Barrabool District Roads Board then the Shire of Barrabool) was established. Some of the funds at the Board's disposal were allocated for the construction of a bridge on Barrabool Road across Kardinia Creek. Tenders were called for and then in 1854 it was reported by the Geelong Advertiser and Intelligencer that a substantial bridge had been built across the creek to carry traffic on the road heading to Ceres and beyond. An earlier mention of a bridge over the creek in 1852 being in need of repair suggests that this new bridge was not the first on the site, however I can find no further mention of the earlier structure.
With the completion of the bridge in 1854 - and presumably other works in the district - ongoing funding was required by the Roads Board. In this era, much of that funding was supplied by toll roads so by December, 1855, the Barrabool District Roads Board were calling for tenders for a contractor to operate the Kardinia Creek toll gate on Barrabool Road.
Things changed again in 1861 with the opening of the nearby Prince Albert Bridge which provided competition for the tolled Barwon (aka Kardinia) Bridge on Moorabool Street, which was the only bridge at that time and located some distance away near the end of Barrabool Road. Initially, the Prince Albert Bridge did not have a tollgate, however competition between the shires of South Barwon and Newtown and Chilwell saw the bridge first fenced off, then with a tollgate at either end before the situation was eventually resolved. What impact this had on the Kardinia Creek tollgate, is not clear.

View from the original Prince Albert Bridge looking towards Newtown and what
I suspect is the tollgate (centre) erected by the Newtown and Chilwell Council
c1860s-1870s

There was little mention of the creek after the 1870s until 1910, when plans were discussed in the Geelong Advertiser to repair the "footbridge" over the creek at the same time reforming a part of Robert Street (presumably today's Roberts Road). By 1913 the issue was still being discussed, then in 1915 there were claims (and denials of responsibility) that the "wing walls" of the bridge over Kardinia Creek had been damaged by contractors Jas McCoy and Son.
Nor perhaps was the state of the bridge the only problem with Kardinia Creek at that time. A nostalgic look back at the 1850s in December, 1918 by the Geelong Advertiser declared that tree clearing had significantly reduced rainfall in the area, with the result that the creek, which once flowed continuously now had a much reduced flow.
Regardless of flow levels, the creek was - and still is - integral to the drainage of water from the high ground south of the Barwon, up towards Ceres. Until the 1960s it performed this function as an open creek, however early in that decade, the decision was made to move the creek underground to allow for the expansion of the Highton shopping centre and help deal with flooding. Since then, the creek - whose original course ran along Bellvue Avenue - has flowed underground via a series of main drains, fed by catchment points, eventually discharging into the Barwon at a "trash rack" designed to trap litter, near the original confluence.

Outflow of Kardinia Creek

Whilst this may have been useful at the time, it has proven problematic over the years. The age of the drains, population growth and the lack of adequate surface drainage, means that the catchment area is prone to flooding during periods of heavy rain and many local properties suffer damage and erosion as a result.

The above diagram shows the areas of flooding within the Kardinia Creek catchment area. Image
adapted from the Highton Drainage/Flood Study Draft Final Report, commissioned by the City of
Greater Geelong, Prepared by BMT WBM Pty Ltd

A recent study undertaken on behalf of the City of Greater Geelong to consider means of flood mitigation for the area, reached the conclusion that any of the three proposals considered would be prohibitively expensive and of minimal effectiveness. It was suggested instead that a land buy-back scheme along with initiatives to assist individual property owners to minimise their flood-risk would be more useful.
Time will tell if these measures are successful.

What's in a name?

As European settlement spread along the Barwon River, through Wathaurong territory, the new arrivals needed names to identify their surroundings and the new structures they were building. Sometimes - as in the case of the Barwon River - they used derivatives of local Wathaurong names such as Barre Warre N Yallock or  Jillong (Geelong). Connewarre is derived from the Wathaurong Koo N Warre meaning mud oyster.

The edge of Reedy Lake

These names were descriptive. Sometimes descriptive names were given in English too; Reedy Lake is indeed reedy, Salt Swamp is salty, a breakwater was constructed at Breakwater and the Barwon Bridge on Moorabool Street in Geelong was so named I presume, as it was the first bridge built across the river, however it was also known as Kardinia Bridge. Kardinia is an indigenous word meaning sunrise.
Often, the colonists named their places and structures for important colonial or European figures. As I have mentioned, the current bridge across the river on Shannon Avenue is the Princes Bridge - named for Prince Albert, consort to Queen Victoria and shortened from the original Prince Albert Bridge. Queen's Park and its bridge were named for Queen Victoria herself.
It seems that there was some dispute even at the time these structures were being built, over the adoption of names. There were those who favoured the "Old Country", preferring to use familiar names which reminded them of home and the people there, then there were those who preferred the use of traditional aboriginal names such as Balyang for the bridge at Shannon Avenue or other names of local significance such as Levien's Bridge for the Bridge at Queen's Park. (B.G. Levien was an early settler who operated a punt on the site.) This article published in the Geelong Advertiser on 12th December, 2011 gives a great description of the passions which were ignited amongst the locals when it came to the battle over naming rights, with the Addy leading the charge against the monarchists. 150 years later and history clearly shows who was the winner of that particular battle!

Baum's Weir in Flood

The area a little upstream of Baum's Weir was known to the Wathaurong people as Boonea Yallock meaning a place to catch eels. Whilst I know that the weir was built to supply water through the channel which runs to the paper and flour mills downstream of Buckley's Falls, I have not been able to discover who the weir was named for. And of course, the falls themselves were named for the escaped convict William Buckley who lived in the area with the Wathaurong people for many years.
 Likewise, Pollocksford and the bridge now located there, were named for an early squatter in the district.
This tradition of naming structures and places after people of significance or using Wathaurong names, continues today. But who were these people? The McIntyre Bridge is named for John M McIntyre, Engineer-in-chief of the Geelong Water Works. The Yollinko Aboriginal Park and Yollinko Wetlands directly across the river take their name from the Wathaurong word meaning yesterday.
This site was of particular significance both to the indigenous population who harvested plants and hunted in the area and to the European settlers who took their water from a pump on the west bank of the river between Yollinko Park and Prince's Bridge.
As the walking trails were developed along the river's edge through Geelong, a number of other names were adopted. Beginning near Yollinko Park is the Stan Lewis Walk. It extends along the west bank of the river as far as Queen's Park. So, who was Stan Lewis? Stan was the superintendent of maintenance - I presume for either Barwon Water or its precursor, the Geelong Water Works.
On the opposite side of the river, downstream of Queen's Park is the Rotary Walk, which recognises the contribution of the Geelong West Rotary Club to the development of recreational facilities for the community along this part of the river. Upstream of Queen's Park and on the same side of the river is the Zillah Crawcour Park. This space recognises the contribution made to the City of Newtown from 1957 to 1977 by Priscilla Crawcour who held a seat on the council and was also elected as mayor during this period. Upon her death in March, 1977, she was serving her third term in the office. Zillah recognised the importance of women in government through her role on the Victorian Branch of the Australian Local Government Women's Association (ALGWA) which was established in 1963, following on from a similar earlier organisation.
Heading back downstream, we come to Landy Field - the major athletics venue for the region. The facility is named for John Landy who was the most prominent Australian athlete of his day. Born in Melbourne, Landy was educated at Geelong Grammar after which, he joined the Geelong Guild Athletic Club, of which he became a life member in 1958. It was here in 1949 that his running career really took off. In 1954, Landy was the second man in the world behind his toughest rival Roger Bannister, to run a sub-four minute mile which he did in world record time. Landy Competed at both the 1952 and 1956 Olympic Games, taking the Olympic Oath on behalf of the athletes at the latter games.
In addition to his running, Landy held a number of positions, including his appointment as Governor of Victoria on 1st January, 2001. He held the post until 7th April, 2006. Fittingly, he is a keen naturalist and served on the Land Conservation Council of Victoria during the 1970s. No doubt he approved of moves which were afoot to develop public open spaces along the banks of the Barwon River.
The development of the trail which now links Baum's Weir to the Breakwater, was in no small part due to the efforts of one man - Wal Whiteside, whose name is remembered in the "Wal Whiteside Walk" which stretches down towards Breakwater from Landy Field.
Wal Whiteside (or Wally Whiteside as I always heard the name as a child) was chairman of the Geelong and District Water Board from 1971, being re-elected in 1979 and 1983, having previously worked for the Board as a senior engineering assistant, prior to being elected as a commissioner on the Board in 1959 with one Len Sprague (more of whom later). Whiteside and Sprague were part of a new wave of up and coming  commissioners whose enthusiasm and skill drove the development of many of the projects established during the 1960s and beyond, which secured the water supply for the Geelong region. The largest and most far-reaching of these projects was surely the construction of the West Barwon Dam which was completed in 1965 after more than 14 years of planning and construction at a cost of 2.5 million pounds. The dam today provides the majority of Geelong's water and was the largest project undertaken by the board to that point in time. Another important project was the overhaul of the Black Rock water treatment plant which occurred in 1988.

End of the Wal Whiteside Walk at Breakwater

They were also at the heart of controversial issues such as the decision as to whether Geelong's
As time passed, the public became more interested in the recreational opportunities provided by the river and also the various water storage facilities. This was reflected in the introduction of public amenities at West Barwon Dam and various other sites. In recognition of his contribution to the Board over many years, the picnic facilities at West Barwon Dam were named the Len Sprague Reserve.
Along the length of the river in Geelong, significant effort was produced to buy back land which would be used as a public facility. It was this initiative which resulted in the walking trail which today extends from Baum's Weir and Buckley's Falls to Breakwater, including the reclaimed and re-vegetated section of industrial wasteland which now bears his name.