2. Post-Contact Environmental Impact Study
- Historic Background
- Post-Contact Environmental Impact
The highly urbanised environment of the study area that can be seen today is the result of 163 years of European impact to the area. In 1839, the first known European squatter in the area, Thomas Napier, was recorded (see Aboriginal Background Information). While Napier's short stay in the area would have been of minimal impact to the environment, those that followed had a more substantial impact. Small runs were set up along the west side Dandenong Creek in the 1840s, with larger runs along Scotchmans and Gardiners creeks covering the majority of the study area.
The impacts on the environment at a time of contact between Aboriginal and Europeans led to direct consequences for the local Boon wurrung and Woi wurrung clans in the Melbourne region. In the early 1840s, initial impacts on the environment of the study area included the clearance of vegetation, stock grazing and the building of residences for squatters or their shepherds. While land was not initially fenced and squatting boundaries were frequently little more than plough furrows or a blazed tree, the impact of grazing and vegetation removal on the resource-rich area would have had an affect on the Boon wurrung and Woi wurrung clans that lived there. The clearance of vegetation meant a decrease in habitat for native animals and in flora species in the area, which would in turn limit supplies of these resources to the Boon wurrung and Woi wurrung people.
The Boon wurrung and Woi wurrung would have had to compete with the stock for staple foods such as the murnong (or Yam Daisy). Stock grazing also affected the amount of kangaroo grass available, depriving Aboriginal people of an important resource, and impacted on watercourses by trampling (Broome 1984: 30; Gott n.d. 4). Tree clearance would have also meant that bark and medicinal resources as well as arboreal animals, such as possums, which provided meat for food and fur for cloaks, became scarce. At the same time, clothing, salted meat, flour and blankets were being introduced to local Aboriginal populations. The impact of these changes substantially altered the lives and future of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung people.
Since settlement of the area by Europeans in the 1830s, significant changes have occurred to the study area and the Dandenong Creek floodplain. The dominant changes are associated with pastoral and horticultural activities (such as clearing of vegetation, cultivation of land) residential development, road and levee bank construction and installation of services. Throughout the study area, several service installations exist including underground water and telecommunications. The major impact European land use activity has had on the banks of Dandenong Creek and adjacent floodplain is an increased level of alluvial erosion and deposition. The re-alignment, channeling and underground installation of Scotchmans, Gardiners and Damper creeks, as well as the construction of recreational facilities and bicycle/walking tracks, have substantially altered the original condition of the majority of these creek lines. Dandenong Creek has incurred major alteration.
Prior to European settlement and the progressive changes in hydrology, Dandenong Creek comprised a major and several minor stream channels in a large wetland area that would have extended during peak flows to the nearby lower hill slopes. The hydrological changes that have occurred since European settlement has created a single major stream channel, making the minor channels redundant except in periods of major flood. The net effect of the European impact on Dandenong Creek is that it now has the appearance of a single creek channel with vastly reduced wetland areas.
The combined effect of major hydrological changes, increased runoff due to urban and residential development and vegetation removal, has caused Dandenong Creek to behave more like a drain than a natural watercourse. The drain-like quality the creek now possesses is that instead of generally having a slow velocity, that in time of flood inundated the vast plain and then slowly subsided, the creek now has flash floods that quickly subside, and less frequently inundates adjacent flood plains.
This more recent characteristic has the effect of scouring the creek bank and immediate floodplain of alluvial deposits and depositing this material further downstream. The result is the current creek bank soil deposit (silt) is highly unlikely to resemble its pre-Contact state. Extensive wetland developments downstream of the study area have been recently constructed in an attempt to mitigate the drastic impact European occupation has had on Dandenong Creek and its floodplain.
Several artificial wetland areas have been created along Dandenong Creek, such as Jells Lake and the Bushy Park wetlands. The only natural wetlands in this area are at Mulgrave Reserve. Some areas, such as Drummies Bridge Reserve, are former tip sites that have been landscaped and re-vegetated (James Patterson pers. comm. 27/5/02).
In areas where land clearance did not include the banks of the Dandenong Creek, pockets of native vegetation have become infested with exotic plant and animal species. The City of Monash's Indigenous Reserve Corridors conservation and Management Plan assessed threats to indigenous flora in corridors at Scotchmans (including Valley Reserve), Dandenong, Gardiners (including Damper) creeks, which indicated that weed invasion, eucalyptus dieback, trampling of native vegetation, uncontrolled runoff and modifications to the hydrology regimen affected one or all of these areas (Quin et al 2000: 1-2).
Extensive native tree clearance has been undertaken throughout the study area since the 1840s. In the early 1840s, the northwest section of the study area was part of the Allen's Creek Run and contained the 'Stringy Bark Ranges', which brought timber cutters, and sawyers to the area for stringy bark, a good building timber (Priestly 1979: 6). The wood carted to Melbourne was also used as firewood for bakeries, brick kilns and private homes (Priestly 1979: 45). Many early settlers in the area carted wood to Melbourne and returned with food from the markets or manure to cultivate their land (Priestly 1979: 45; Wilde 1996:12). Market gardening and dairying were the main industries around the Clayton area from the late 1800s. By the early 1900s, particularly around Glen Waverley (Black Flat), the main rural industry included fruit orchards and market gardens. After tree clearance, the land was drained, fenced and ploughed or furrowed for planting crops and fruit trees (Wilde 1996: 26, 42-43; Early Waverley Pamphlet n.d: 7-8; Hassell Planning et al 1991: 38).
In addition to rural industries, mining industries operated throughout the study area from the 1880s. In 1885, brick and tilemaking were the main industries in the Oakleigh Shire, with quarries throughout the area (Hassell Planning et al 1991: 37-38). The brickmaking industry used Silurian mudstone and clay extracted from around Scotchmans Creek. In 1953, 20% of Melbourne's clay supply came from the Parish of Mulgrave. Extensive extraction of sand deposits around Clayton and South Oakleigh were used in the concreting and building industries. Quarries in the study area were later used as municipal rubbish tips (Wilde 1996: 25, 35). Some of these were later rehabilitated into parks including Brickmaker's Park, Scotchman's Run, Reg Harris Reserve, Heatherton Park and Talbot Park (Hassell Planning et al 1991: 3-4).
A short-lived gold mining boom during the depression years of the mid-1890s saw renewed activity at Scotchmans Creek and the gullies that sloped into Dandenong Creek. Scotchmans Creek proved to be a false lead, but the area around the Mountain View Hotel had small yields for high effort and was mined on and off by a few hopeful prospecting parties supplementing their farming incomes until the early 1900s (Priestly 1979:102-106; Early Waverley Pamphlet n.d: 7).
Ochre mining was also undertaken at Black Flat when Eastmund Barnes was digging for water on his farm and found yellow ochre. As he had previous experience in the pigment manufacture industry in London, Barnes recognised the potential for this discovery. Barnes mined the deep ochre (or mudstone) deposits by hand and found bands of various colours that he either used raw or altered through processes such as roasting, crushing and washing, or adding acid. In 1897, Barnes had 66 pigment shades to choose from and mixed paints that were sun-resistant. By 1905, his ochre resources had been exhausted (Priestly 1979:106-108; Early Waverley Pamphlet n.d: 7). The mining activities all contributed to a substantial alteration to the original land surface in the City of Monash.
The City of Monash is now a highly urbanised environment with very little of the land surface west of the Dandenong Creek floodplain in its original condition. Residential development rapidly expanded into the study area after World War II era, particularly in the 1950s and 1960s, as the area changed from rural to urban (Hassell Planning et al 1991): beginnings of the environmental movement and with an increased awareness of the necessity to re-vegetate areas, while botanists and zoologists identified the need for long corridors of indigenous vegetation to provide habitat and travel routes for native animals. Local protests against freeways led the Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works (MMBW) to present a number of planned major urban parks, which included Dandenong Creek.
Jells Park was expanded to 127ha as the first stage of the Dandenong Creek Metropolitan Valley. Thousands of native (not necessarily indigenous) trees were planted throughout Jells Park and the City of Monash. Some locals had begun planting natives on their private blocks prior to the 1950s and the trend increased in the later subdivisions further east.
In 1975, the Council bought a property at Westall Road to protect remnant heath vegetation (Wilde 1996: 94, 98, 101). But this awareness did not extend to the Aboriginal heritage of the study area or the Aboriginal sites that would have existed here. The construction of houses, factories, drainage and roads, as well as recreational facilities, trails and landscaping, all contribute to the alteration of the landscape to an extent that the majority of Aboriginal sites could not have remained intact.
The overall impact of European settlement would have adversely impacted on any sites that may have existed. In many instances, cultural material (such as stone tools) would have been disturbed, re-deposited, or even destroyed. Many scarred tree sites, which existed prior to tree clearance, would have been destroyed. The impact of European settlement in the study area largely negates the possibility of locating any in situ Aboriginal or historic cultural heritage sites or artefacts. The only landform that has potential for in situ sites is buried within creek bank alluvium.