City Capital Tour Highlights:

Restaurants, cafes and shops between the Yarra River and the Victoria Arts Centre.

2 Gardens

The Alexandra and Queen Victorian Gardens and the floral clock lie opposite Southbank and the Victorian Arts Centre and Performing Arts Museum. Further down St Kilda Road lie Kings Domain (with the Shrine of Remembrance) and the Royal Botanic Gardens. The path escews the Shrine and instead travels along the river bank.

3 Sporting complex

Continuing along the path to the Swan Street Bridge. Look across the bridge to Melbourne Park with its sporting venues. Behind the Tennis centre is the in the distance is the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) in Yarra Park.

Either stay on the southern bank and travel past Herring Island and Como House and on to the Burnley Gardens; or cross the river at Grange Road Bridge to go directly to the Burnley Gardens and the Horticultural College. From there travel north to the Walmer Street footbridge and Studley Park.

5 Yarra Falls mill district

Across the footbridge at Gipps Street to the Yarra Falls mill district, a hundred years ago a thriving industrial area. The Collingwood Children's Farm is just before the entrance to Johnston Street.  Further upstream are Dights Falls, once the site of a water-driven flour mill. See the remnants of the water course.

Dights Falls is a delightful recreational area for picnicking, walking, cycling or canoeing. Located near where the Merri Creek flows into the Yarra, it is also an important historical area for both the Aboriginal and European people of Melbourne.

The traditional landowners of the area along the Yarra River and Merri Creek were the Wurundjeri tribe, one of the five tribes belonging to the Woiworung clan within the Kulin nation that extended across the Port Phillip region. This area was a significant site for ceremonies, as well as being a burial ground. Several hundred Aboriginal people were observed camping here by William Thomas, the first Assistant Protector of Aborigines. Less than a decade later, in 1844, he estimated that the Woiworung people had declined by 40 per cent as a result of introduced diseases and inter-tribal warfare caused by their displacement. In 1846, an Aboriginal mission school was established on the site, but within two years the school closed, and the remaining Aboriginal people left the area.

In 1839, John Dight built a flour mill here, probably the first water-powered mill in Melbourne. Much of the original mill is now covered by the Eastern Freeway. The City of Yarra and Melbourne Parks and Waterways have recently restored the remains: the turbine house with two original turbines and an intact timber floor. The channels that directed water from the Yarra River through the turbine house and back into the river have been rebuilt and show how the mill was powered 150 years ago.

Abbotsford Convent Project - The Abbotsford Convent site and its surrounds form a cultural landscape of national significance - it is unique in Australia. The bush of Yarra Bend Park, the Yarra River, the Collingwood Children's Farm and the Convent combine to create an inner Melbourne treasure just four kilometres from Melbourne's CBD. The section of river stretching up to Dights Falls has important associations for the Wurundjeri, and the Convent precinct represents an integral part of Melbourne's early white history.  HELP is needed... More details Click Here

Leave the yarra and continue north along the Merri Creek. Cross into the Yarra Bend Park either at Trennery Crescent or Roseneath Street to see native bushland and wildlife habitats.

Merri Creek begins as a trickle in the foothills of the Great Dividing Range near Wallan and flows downstream some 60 kilometres where it enters the Yarra River near Dights Falls, Abbotsford.

Until recently, the Merri Creek and its environs was neglected, and the stream was mainly used as a drain and for extracting bluestone and its rich volcanic soil, including that used for the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) pitch. Since 1976, members of the local community have been involved in the management of Merri Creek in partnership with local councils and government agencies, making it the only waterway in Australia to be managed this way. The Merri Creek Management Committee can claim impressive results: extensive indigenous revegetation, litter control, water-quality monitoring programs, and publications on the creek's flora and fauna. If you look carefully as you walk or cycle along the pathway of the lower section of Merri Creek, you may see an azure kingfisher or swamp wallaby. Previously considered displaced species, they have returned in the last few years as a result of the extensive revegetation program.

Friends of the Merri Creek is a community group which works to preserve and restore the Merri Creek and its environs and tributaries. 

Detour through the Yarra Bend Park to visit the Northcote Ampitheatre and the historic Fairfield Park and Studley Park Boathouses.

From here you can trace the route of the old Inner circle Railway, now a linear park.

South are the established suburbs of Carlton and Fitzroy, popular inner city living for professionals, students and artists. See the Edinburgh Gardens and nineteenth century terrace houses. Great food and shopping in Queens Parade, Brunswick Street, Nicholson Street and Lygon Street.

10 Royal Park and the Royal Melbourne Zoo

Pass through the railway cutting under Royal Parade to the playing fields and grasslands of Royal Park and the Zoological Gardens.

Travel along the north side of the Upfield railway line to Manningham Street. The Western City Link, under construction, will link the Moone Ponds Creek Trail to Royal Park.

Controversial redevelopment area will in the future be included by a path that will follow the Moonee Ponds Creek to Footscray Road path and Victoria Dock.

13 Southbank

Travel to the Melbourne Convention Centre and the Southbank precinct . On the north bank is Batman Park, the Banana Alley vaults, or cross the river and the Polly Woodside Maritime Museum and the Exibition Centre, known locally as Jeff's shed after the ex-premier Jeff Kennett 

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