Geography of the Yarra River

The Yarra River is a river in East-Central Victoria, Australia that flows through the city of Melbourne. This article contains explanations and lists of the river's tributaries and other geographic features. The river flows atop layers of silt that built up within an ancient river valley around 10,000-15,000 years ago.

The river's major tributaries are the Plenty River, Merri Creek, Darebin Creek, Diamond Creek, Gardiners Creek, Mullum Mullum Creek and the Moonee Ponds Creek. It hosts a wide range of geographic features including; bends, rapids, lakes, islands, floodplains, billabongs, wetlands, etc. Most features have been named after translated Woiwurrung phrases or have European, particularly British, origins.

The Yarra River has two other names "the upside down river" and "Birrarung". The Yarra was for say nicknamed the upside down river because of the way some of it looked. Birrarung was the first name that the Indigenous Australians gave it.

Tributaries
The Yarra River has about 50 named tributaries; 6 rivers, 42 creeks and 2 gullies. At its most easterly point, it is fed by many small unnamed creeks and streams that begin in the Yarra Ranges within the Yarra Ranges National Park, which are sometimes fed by snowfalls. Below is a list of its tributaries (from downstream to upstream):

Geographical features
The Yarra River hosts a wide range of geographical features, perhaps the most plentiful of which are billabongs, of which there are over 100, particularly in the floodplains near Yering, Yarra Glen and Coldstream. Being a considerably thin river for almost its entire length, there are very few islands or lakes. In the middle reaches there are a few rapids of easy to moderate difficulty, however these are sparsely distributed. Below is a list of the river's geographical features, including tributaries (shown in bold) and man-made features or townships (shown in italics), for bearings (from downstream to upstream):


 * Entrance to Yarra River in Hobsons Bay
 * West Gate Bridge
 * Stony Creek
 * Maribyrnong River
 * Coode Island (created in 1880s)
 * Fishermans Bend (created in 1880s)
 * Moonee Ponds Creek
 * Victoria Harbour (created in 1892)
 * Batman's Hill (levelled in mid-19th century)
 * Turning Basin
 * Melbourne CBD
 * Princes Bridge
 * Birrarung Marr
 * Ornamental Lake
 * Punt Hill
 * Herring Island
 * Burnley Harbour and Wetlands
 * Gardiners Creek
 * Burnley Bend
 * Hawthorn
 * Yarra Bend (Ends)
 * Dights Falls
 * Merri Creek
 * Galatea Point
 * Studley Park Boathouse
 * Flying Fox Lookout
 * Fairfield Boathouse
 * Yarra Bend (Begins)
 * Kew Billabong
 * Darebin Creek
 * Glass Creek
 * Yarra Flats (Ends)
 * Koonung Creek
 * Bolin Bolin Billabong (cut off in 1100)
 * Annulus Billabong
 * Salt Creek
 * Sills Bend
 * Heidelberg
 * Yarra Flats (Begins)
 * Banyule Creek
 * Banyule Flats and Billabongs
 * Plenty River
 * Templestowe
 * Ruffey Creek
 * Kestrel Creek
 * Westerfolds Rapids
 * Fitzsimons Lane Bridge
 * Diamond Creek
 * Sweeneys Flats
 * Mullum Mullum Creek
 * Tikalara
 * Pound Bend (Ends)
 * Bobs Wetlands
 * Pound Bend Tunnel
 * Stony Creek
 * Pound Bend (Begins)
 * Andersons Creek
 * Fourth Hill
 * Whipstick Gully
 * Warrandyte
 * Scotchmans Hill
 * The Island
 * Parson Gully
 * Black Flat
 * Jumping Creek
 * Blue Tongue Bend
 * Warrandyte Gorge
 * Pigeon Bank Gully
 * Kangaroo Ground Rapids
 * Watsons Creek
 * Bend of Isles
 * Moniques Island
 * Brushy Creek
 * Mount Lofty
 * Bob's Rock
 * Canoe Slalom Rapids
 * Christmas Hills Rapids
 * Yering Gorge
 * Yering Billabongs
 * Olinda Creek
 * Yarra Glen
 * Yarra Flats Billabongs
 * Steels Creek
 * Coldstream Flats and Billabongs
 * Pauls Creek
 * Healesville
 * Watts River
 * Badger Creek
 * Warramate Hills
 * Woori Yallock Creek
 * Woori Yallock Flats and Billabong
 * Ure Creek
 * Launching Place
 * Hoddles Creek
 * Don River
 * Little Yarra River
 * Don Creek
 * Yarra Junction
 * Don Creek
 * Platts Creek
 * Frenchman Creek
 * Yankee Jim Creek
 * Dee River
 * Scotchmans Creek
 * Warburton
 * Four Mile Creek
 * Pheasant Creek
 * Starling Creek
 * Big Pats Creek
 * Dead Horse Creek
 * Cement Creek
 * Braham Creek
 * McDonald Creek
 * Crooked Creek
 * Starvation Creek
 * Little Peninsula Tunnel
 * Big Peninsula Tunnel
 * McMahons Creek
 * Upper Yarra Dam
 * Upper Yarra Reservoir (created in 1957)
 * Armstrong Creek
 * Alderman Creek
 * Walsh Creek
 * Baker Creek
 * Woods Creek
 * Mmbw Channel