The Inlets
TOORADIN VIC 3980 - Property No L10055
Statement of Significance
The Inlets are some of the major outlet channels for draining the 100,000 acre Koo-wee-rup Swamp, which is the centre of the Western Port sunkland bordered on the west by the Clyde monocline and on the east by the Heath Hill scarp. There has been greatly increased scour and sedimentation at the mouths of the Inlets because the stream flow has been concentrated into a narrow zone - for example, at the mouth of the main Contour Drain, the mangroves have been stripped and the saltmarsh replaced by a veneer of Cranbourne sands.
Early efforts at the story of draining this swamp, which formed a major obstacle, to the overland settlement into South Gippsland are essential for understanding its present day intensive use. The Bunyip River was typical of streams from the surrounding higher country, which entered the swamps and lost their identity in the expanse of water and reeds, in "lake-like" cells separated by slowly permeable vegetation and sand ridge barriers. In 1889 the Bunyip River was given an artificial lower course into Western Port as part of the swamp drainage programme.
Harewood House to the west of The Inlets proper is a very important cultural feature of this coastal landscape. It was planned as a hunting lodge by William Lyall, a local squire and Melbourne merchant, and completed in 1868. Lyall was an initiator of swamp reclamation and outlayed much capital on unsuccessful swamp drainage, including giving the Lang Lang River its first outlet to the Bay. Lyall introduced partridges, hares, pheasants, deer and shaggy highland cattle and experimented in breeding pedigree English cattle and horses. He also planted 40,000 oysters in The Inlets but the freshwater floods of 1874 killed them.
LOCATION:
Coastline, east of Tooradin at the head of Western Port.
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HAREWOOD
Victorian Heritage Register H0284 -
Harewood
Cardinia Shire -
The Inlets
National Trust
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