A Bend in the Yarra: A history of the Merri Creek Protectorate Station

The Yarra Bend Park marks one of the most important post-contact places in the Melbourne metropolitan area, and is of great significance to Victorian Aboriginal people, particularly the Wurundjeri Aboriginal community. At this site was located the Merri Creek Aboriginal School, the Merri Creek Protectorate Station, the Native Police Corps Headquarters and associated Aboriginal burials. The historical landscape marks one of the most significant post-contact Aboriginal places in the Melbourne metropolitan area. The confluence continued to hold significance to Aboriginal people after the 1840s, linking pre- and post-contact histories and geographies. The place has added importance in the early twenty first century, as Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australian address the legacies of our contact past.