HISTORY

The Bolin Bolin (Bulleen) BIllabongs were an important territory for the Manna Gum people for approximately 5,000 years.

 

The land was formerly known as Lake Bulleen, or Bulleen Billabong.

 

Generations had lived on the river flats when wild fish and ducks were abundant. Bolin was the largest lake/billabong in the area and was a significant ritual meeting place for the aborigines, where numerous corroborees were held either by the billabong or on the hills.

 

POST-EUROPEAN SETTLEMENT

In 1841 Frederic Unwin, a Sydney solicitor, purchased 5,120 acres, or eight square miles of land, including all of the present suburb of Bulleen. The land was purchased from the Crown for one pound an acre under the terms of the short-lived Special Survey regulations. The area was sometimes known as Unwin's Special Survey.

 

LOCATION AND ACCESS

Bolin Bolin Billabong is a shallow, eutrophic and turbid oxbow lake located on the lower Yarra River floodplain. It actually comprises two billabongs, connected by an isthmus. The larger billabong is at the west, and dry (as at Feb 2015). The smaller billabong is active.

 

The complex is bounded by Bulleen Rd, the Veneto Club and the Yarra.

 

A 2 km circuit hiking track may be followed around the billabongs. The main walking access point is off Bulleen Rd where there is a small car parking area and information board.  A econdary access point is behind the Veneto Club - car parking is available there next to the soccer ground.

 

A sequence of illustrated information boards may be viewed along the track, reached by walking anti-clockwise from the Bulleen Rd gate. These depict the culture and heritage of the Aboriginal people.

 

The billabongs may also be reached by a walking track which follows the Yarra from Manningham Rd.

 

A small billabong survives in the grounds of the Trinity Grammar Sporting Complex, opposite the Bullen Rd access point. This low-lying land has been impacted in recent years by flooding from the Yarra..

 

SEDIMENTATION ISSUES

A combination of radiometric dating, historical data, fossil markers and mineral magnetics has been used to develop a sediment chronology for the billabongs that extends from about AD 1120 to the present.

 

The initial period of European occupation was characterized by catchment disturbance with high levels of erosion and sedimentation. Sedimentation rates in the post-European contact period appear to be 30 times higher than prior to European settlement. Evidence suggests that the Yarra River was not naturally turbid. Changes to the diatom assemblage, reflective of water quality perturbation following European contact, were dramatic and unprecedented. Following an initially high sedimentation rate in the post-European contact period, the sedimentation rate gradually slowed towards the present day.

 

The increase in nutrients available to the diatom assemblage appears to have been moderate from European contact (c.AD 1840) to until around AD 1920, then more pronounced from this point onwards.