Vol. XXVIII 



J TovEV, Noies on Coode Island and its Flora. c,y 



SOME NOTES ON COODE ISLAND AND ITS FLORA. 



By T. R. Tovey, Senior Assistant, National Herbarium, 



Melbourne. 



(Read before the Field Naturalists' Cluh of Victoria, Sth May, 191 1.) 



Towards the end of the year 1908, and again in 1909, I made 

 several visits to Coode Island, and collected a number of 

 specimens of plants, several of which, on examination, proved 

 to be exotics, and had not been previously recorded for Vic- 

 toria. I was accompanied on some of these trips by Mr. C. 

 French, jun., Assistant Government Entomologist, who had 

 informed me that, whilst roaming over the island in search of 

 entomological specimens, he had noticed a number of plants 

 growing there which he thought might be worthy of further 

 investigation. 



Before enumerating the different species noted, it may be 

 of interest to give a short history of Coode Island, which 

 was originally a portion of that low-lying, sandy tract along 

 the south bank of the Yarra, towards its mouth, known as 

 Fishermen's or Sandridge Bend. In 1886, by the cutting of 

 a ship-canal from one portion of the Yarra to another (by which 

 the distance by water from the city to the sea was lessened 

 by nearly two miles), the area was bisected, the northern 

 portion becoming a somewhat triangular-shaped island of 

 about 240 acres in extent, and having that part of the 

 old course of the Yai'ra, known as "'Humbug Reach," 

 for its northern and western boundaries. The canal, which is 

 100 yards wide, and of sufBcient depth for vessels of about 

 10.000 tons, forms a considerable barrier to animal or vegetable 

 life. The water was allowed to pass through the canal on the 

 nth of September, 1886. 



Through the kindness of Mr. J. Saxton, of the Lands Depart- 

 ment, in allowing me access to some survey maps of that part 

 of the metropolis in which Coode Island is situated, I was able 

 to glean some interesting information about the original con- 

 dition of the area now forming the island, and of the adjacent 

 land. A survey plan made about 1840 shows " Tea-tree scrub " 

 on both banks of the river, and the major portion as " swamp 

 land." At this time that part of the Yarra below its junction 

 with the Saltwater River was known as " Hobson's River." 

 In a later map (1841) the river now known as the Saltwater 

 was given as the " Macedon River." The traffic along the 

 road from Geelong to Melbourne at this time crossed the 

 Macedon River (now Saltwater River) by means of a punt, 

 about a quarter of a mile above its junction with the Yarra. 

 A few years later a survey plan shows three formations — ■ 

 namely, tea-tree scrub, sandy waste, and a fringe of forest. 

 The canal afterwards cut off the tree-clad portion. 



