OVERVIEW

The Newman family at Pontville south of the Yarra River – Mullum Mullum Creek confluence, and the Sweeney family to the north of the confluence, were among the first Europeans to occupy land in this region in the 1830s. Post-contact heritage includes structures such as Pontville Homestead, Banyule Homestead and Westerfolds Manor, pastoral landscapes at Pettys Orchard, and various sites with significant heritage vegetation and landscapes such as those at Viewbank, Warringal Park and Tikalara Park. Local government heritage overlays protect a number of significant trees. 

 

Pontville Homestead is listed in the Victorian Heritage Register and the National Trust Register. Pontville was constructed in the 1840s on part of a large 1830s pastoral holding at the confluence of the Yarra River and the Mullum Mullum Creek

 

Pontville now comprises a house constructed between about 1843 and 1850 and extended inthe 1870s, along with remnant plantings, cottage foundations, outbuildings, bridge foundations, tracks, and a range of other features associated with farming. Pontville is architecturally important for elements surviving from the original homestead building.  Public access to the property is restricted.

 

Land around Heidelberg Township reserve was subdivided and sold in 1838. Large estates were developed, and tenant farmers intensively cultivated the Yarra River flats until devastating floods in the 1860s. Viewbank was one of the first of these estates to be developed. The site of the demolished Viewbank homestead was the subject of anarchaeological investigation by Melbourne Parks and Waterways in 1994.

 

Chinese market gardeners began cultivating the river flats as market gardens from the late 19th century, but this activity diminished after the 1934 flood.

 

WINDMILLS

At least three of these survive to the present, in the Banyule Parklands, Yarra Flats Park, and opposite Bob's Rapids (North Warrandyte). These were constructed to pump water from the Yarra for irrigation purposes. See Heritage Buildings and Structures for further details.

 

THE ARTS

Many of the parks’ spectacular landscapes were the subject of paintings by members of the influential ‘Heidelberg School’ of artists. Most areas of importance to the Heidelberg School are in the Yarra River valley downstream from the Plenty River confluence. The Heide Museum of Modern Art beside Banksia Park is culturally significant as one of the birthplaces of Australian modernism

 

Melbourne Parks & Waterways and local councils created an artists trail through the Yarra Valley in the 1990s, including signs and interpretation of significant paintings. This enables visitors to view the landscape from the artist’s perspective from approximately where they created their paintings.