My Yarra I live in the conservation belt along the Yarra River between Eltham and Warrandyte. Just 700 m due south from my house is the boundary of the the Warrandyte State Park. This section of the Park is notionally closed – but entry can be gained readily. Inside – the Park is lightly timbered, with the Yarra River below. There a gurgling sound, as the river is running through the minor rapids, called Laughing Waters.

Looking down from the high bank of the Yarra near my home.

Swimming hole above Laughing Waters

WILDLIFE
I haven't been fast enough with my camera to snap the kangaroos one often sights when strolling along this stretch of the Yarra to the billabongs. But here is a pix of the slower moving local fauna.

Local fauna again seen

Island near the billabongs. The most striking billabong is the Red Billabong.

The native plant covering the billabong is Azolla filiculoides (Red Azolla).
Azolla is a small native floating fern -- which grows green green but turns red under the sun.
Another view of the still waters of this billabong

Textured red.
Adjacent to the Red Billabong is a classic windmill.

This windmill pump - so at home in the outback - is located less that 150 m from the Yarra.
Further on, one hears a steadily increasing roar, of water exiting the Pound Bend Tunnel.

From the opposite bank, one can see right through the the narrow neck of the Pound Bend. The tunnel across was dug during the goldrushes of the nineteenth century.


From the other side of the Yarra, looking upstream towards the Tunnel outlet.

From


Harvey Cohen PhD

Personal Website

• Staging the first conservation abseil in Australia in 1971
• Free Climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge New Years Day 1961