Yarra: A Diverting History Of Melbourne's Murky River

Around the same time someone explains the mechanics of an Australian hoop snake to you, you might also hear how the Yarra flows upside down. The explanation for the river's famous muddiness, they'll tell you, is that it carries its bed turgidly on the surface, the clear water flowing underneath. Too thin to plough, they'll say; too thick to drink . . . Kristin Otto has produced a moving and surprising exploration of the history and meaning of Melbourne's Yarra river and those who have lived and worked on it. Yarra celebrates a river that has sustained and inspired generations: from the earliest attempts to bridge the river to the collapse of the Westgate Bridge; from the surveyor Robert Hoddle's expedition to find the source in 1837, to the dolphins that enter the river from Port Phillip Bay; from the Wurundjeri people and their relationship with the Yarra, to the bodies washed up near Flinders Street in the present day.