The Banks of the Yarra

Last week I loved listening to My Brown Yarra sung by Homebrew Verandah Music in Federation Square. If you don’t know this affectionate homage to our River written by Frank Jones for the Whirling Furphies, the chorus is ‘when I die, put me in a barra, wheel me down to the banks of the Yarra.’

Yesterday, I sat on Needles Beach on the banks of the Werribee River and this is what I saw.

Today, I positioned myself under the Westgate Bridge on this little beach to watch for the arrival of the new portainer cranes destined for Swanson Dock.

The rocky embankment of the Yarra River at Westgate Park

While waiting in the company of much more patient fishermen, I picked up just a fraction of what the River conveyed to this little beach in last week’s rain:  43 plastic bottles, these assembled straws and endless broken pieces of polystyrene – but no portainer cranes came into view.

the yield of plastic bottles from the banks of the Yarra at Westgate Park

polystyrene fragments from the banks of the Yarra at Westgate Park

The cranes are now coming up the river tomorrow at 13.30.

Pick up litter anywhere anytime to prevent in ending up in our beautiful River and Bay and support the government’s Cleaner Yarra River and Port Phillip Bay: A Plan of Action.

Listen to the Whirling Furphies My Brown Yarra