Long Island

Visit Long Island

Spend some time here, imagining this place before colonisation.

Traces of the original course of Yarra River, Birrarung can be seen – a precious remnant within today’s heavily modified river. The original riparian habitat has been recovered through careful selection and planting of species that once grew here.

Groups from the Kulin Nation, whose Country this is, contribute to this special collection through their storytelling and teaching about these plants and their traditional use.

Long Island is also the perfect place for some peaceful birdwatching.

Notes from our team

"Long Island is a curated space created by people, but it reflects this landscape and what it was and what it continues to be as well. I spend a lot of time in this space, I come down here not only to work but also to sort of contemplate, to connect and disconnect." Jakobi, Aboriginal Programs Learning Facilitator (from Sonica Botanica Episode 4: Southern China Collection, Long Island and the Water)

Walk Long Island wih Jakobi

Connecting to Country 

This Collection is on the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people. As you explore the Gardens you will see four colours and four words in Woi-wurrung language on the signs to reflect the Traditional Owners’ connection to Country and this particular place. The word baan means water in Woi-wurrung and the signs in this area have blue highlights.

Listen to Sonica Botanica

Discover the waterbodies that sustain life in the Gardens, their history and significance to the living collections in Episode 4 of Sonica Botanica: Southern China Collection and Long Island (28m 43s). Perfect to listen to through your headphones whilst wandering through these two living collections. 

Listen to Episode 4

Love Long Island?

Visit the Living Collections page for the Lower Yarra River Habitat to learn more about the native species planted on Long Island.

Lower Yarra River Habitat

Listen to Sonic Snippets: from the Sonica Botanica archive

Did you know that the Yarra River once flowed through the Northern part of the Botanic Gardens? Landscape Architect Andrew Laidlaw gives you the background.
1m21s

[Intro] Sonic Snippets: from the Sonica Botanica archive

[Andrew Laidlaw]: My name's Andrew Laidlaw and I'm the Landscape Architect for the Royal Botanic Gardens.

 We've done quite a lot of map overlaying and we know that Long Island as we see it today, was actually the southern bank of the Yarra River. We've done some underground contouring, and the contour of this part of the lake is the old riverbed. And it would flow in there and then it hit this large sedimentary wall of rock, and then headed back out on its course to the sea.

Because there was so much flooding, what ended up happening, which is natural because they basically built Melbourne on a flood plain, all of Melbourne would flood, including the Botanic Gardens. And so that's why they decided to straighten the river, somewhere between 1890 and 1899. They felt by straightening the river and getting that water out more quickly, we'd have less of a flooding issue in Melbourne.

 

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