Yarra

Erudite, affectionate and witty, with more meanders and diversions than
the river itself, Yarra is both a fascinating read and a fitting tribute
to the 'noble stream'.

In September 1835 surveyor John Wedge misheard
the local Kulin identify the river as 'Yarrow Yarrow'. It was only some
months later that Wedge discovered they had been referring to the
pattern and movement of water over the Falls, not the river itself. And
ever since, it has been the Yarra's fate to be misunderstood: maligned
for its muddiness, ill-used as sewer and tip; scooped, sculpted,
straightened and stressed, 'cleaned up' to the detriment of its natural
inhabitants; built-over, under and beside; worked mercilessly and then
bridged almost to maritime extinction.

In Kristin Otto's superbly
entertaining new history, the whole sorry tale is laid bare. From the
creation stories of Kulin owners and geologist blow-ins to the
twenty-first-century waterside building boom, Otto traces the course of
Melbourne's murky river.