Geography
Over 400 million years ago the sea covering the area receded. It left behind a layer of yellowish marine siltstone and sandstone rocks. Around 65 million years ago non-marine sediments left a sandy layer behind. Over time the ancestral valley of the Merri Creek developed, eroding through these sediments. Then, from 0.8 to 4.6 million years ago volcanoes such as Hayes Hill (about 5 km east of Donnybrook) and Mt Fraser (near Beveridge) erupted, sending lava on a journey along the ancestral valleys of the Merri and Darebin Creeks and into the valley of the Yarra River as far as the CBD.
The modern day Merri Creek was formed over many years, by incising through the lava surface. Today, the creek begins in Wallan north of Melbourne and flows in a southerly direction for 70 km until it joins the Yarra River in Fairfield near Dights Falls and subsequently flows into Port Phillip Bay. Its tributaries include; Wallan Creek, Mittagong Creek, Taylors Creek, Malcolm Creek, Aitken Creek, Curly Sedge Creek, Merlynston Creek and Edgars Creek. It flows through, or forms a part of the borders between the suburbs of Wallan, Kalkallo, Donnybrook, Craigieburn, Wollert, Epping, Somerton, Campbellfield, Lalor, Thomastown, Fawkner, Reservoir, Coburg North, Coburg, Preston, Thornbury, Brunswick East, Northcote, Westgarth, Fitzroy North, Clifton Hill and Fairfield before meeting the Yarra River just upstream of Dights Falls.
Read more about this topic: Merri Creek
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