After viewing the customs house, walk down the steps or the adjacent ramp to Enterprize Wharf to view the turning basin. Some of the wharf covers the original basin, but it is possible to see how the river widens at this point.

This site has a rich history and was significant because of its proximity to the rocky natural weir across the river which formed a natural crossing place. Fresh water spilled over the rocky ridge forming a waterfall (later known as The Falls). This was a traditional meeting place and fishing ground for the Wurundjeri and their neighbours, the Boonwurrung, who used the location as a crossing point between their lands, to trade and negotiate marriages.

Narrow and shallow, the Birrarung/Yarra frequently flooded, damaging property and livelihoods. To ameliorate this problem, many government-funded public works were devised including destroying The Falls which, to an extent, caused flooding by holding back the upstream floodwaters rushing downstream to Port Phillip Bay. More ambitious works included widening and deepening the river and altering its natural course. European settlers recorded the first major flood in 1839; and the biggest flood in 1891.

The Falls were also an obstacle to ships sailing upstream, but as tidal surges struck The Falls, water swirling back downstream carved a wide pool into the river bank, a natural ‘turning circle’ for vessels to steer out of the river, head back downstream and sail out to Port Phillip Bay. Settlers named this natural turning basin, the ‘Pool of Melbourne’ which, with the rapid influx of settlers and multiple vessels, soon became critical to the fledgling maritime port city. River widening and deepening works accommodated larger ships until in 1930, the new Spencer Street bridge prevented ships from sailing upstream.

The Falls were demolished by dynamite in 1883. The turning basin, like much of Melbourne’s maritime heritage infrastructure, was not valued and it was filled in. However, recognition of maritime time heritage grew over time and the Yarra Turning Basin Project was launched in 1996 to recreate the turning basin. In 1997, sculptors, Bruce Armstrong and Geoffrey Bartlett were commissioned to create Constellation, a work depicting five carved wooden figureheads found on the prows of sailing ships. While Constellation represents the European maritime tradition and the arrival of Europeans, the dragon, woman, bird, man, and lion represent the cultural and ethnic diversity of seafarers and vessels likely to have turned in the basin on the Birrarung/Yarra.

The volume and variety of cargo, imported and exported passing through the port of Melbourne in the remote Southern Ocean was astounding. The turning basin was critically important to the Birrarung/Yarra port of maritime activity, reflected in the plaques and flagpole marking this important site in Victoria’s history.

FURTHER READING

• https://www.emelbourne.net.au/biogs/EM01524b.htm
• https://www.oldtreasurybuilding.org.au/lost-jobs/on-the-water/punts-on-the-river/

IMAGE CREDITS
Image 1:The Falls, limiting shipping movements upstream before demolition. Downstream to the right is the early turning basin, early 1870s, State Library. This is one of the few photos that show the condition of the Yarra before Coode and the limiting impact of The Falls on the size and progression of shipping in the river.
Image 2: The widening river at the Turning Basin, photographer Liz Rushen 2025

STOP 9  >

Enterprize Park