Merri Creek Kid

Merri Creek flows about 60 km from Australia’s Great Dividing Range through Melbourne’s northern suburbs to join the Yarra River in Abbotsford.  At the time of white settlement, the creek belonged to a clan of Woiwurrung speaking Wurundjeri-willam, led by a clan head named Billibellary. The Merri Merri Creek, as it was known originally, was surveyed in April 1839 by Thomas Henry Nutt. Nutt was one of two surveyors appointed to assist Robert Hoddle survey of Victoria. The name Merri is believed to mean “stony.” (source: Darebin Heritage)

This creek also provided Aboriginal people with many of the essentials of their day-to-day lives including water, timber and bark for building shelters, plant life for food and medicinal purposes and animals for food.
We respectfully acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation as the traditional and ongoing custodians of the Merri Merri and pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging, and recognise that sovereignty has never been ceded.