Warrandyte State Park

Bend of Islands is a rural locality in Victoria, Australia, 30 km north-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Shire of Nillumbik local government area. Bend of Islands recorded a population of 267 at the 2021 census. It is situated on about 635 hectares and is named after a group of small islands at a bend of the Yarra River near Watsons Creek. It is located near the town of Kangaroo Ground. The location was a favourite spot for local anglers in 1939. About 130 allotments range from a half to 12 hectares. Exotic animals, including cats and dogs and vegetation are banned to minimise the spread of weeds, damage to the soil and harm to native fauna.It was gazetted in 2000 after a petition from local residents, having previously been part of Christmas Hills and Kangaroo Ground. Jessie and Edward Haughton built Three Bears Cottage which is considered significant as the last built connection with the regionally significant family who were instrumental in shaping the local landscape and subsequent bush lifestyle from the 1930s. The Haughton's used to have swimming parties in the swimming pool on the bend in the river. Other significant residents of Bend of Islands in the 1970s included Neil Douglas and Helen (Abbie) Heathcote whose house at 512 Henley Road is included on the Victorian Heritage Database. Artist and naturalist Neil Douglas and others purchased properties following bushfires in 1962 and further established the area for residents.The Burns House, known as Kangaroo, was designed by architect and artist Peter Burns and was built in stages from 1968 on an elevated sloping bush land site. It is considered of architectural and historical significance to the State of Victoria.The area has been under threat a number of times including in 1980 when the Government of Victoria considered buying it as part of a conservation area while bulldozers began clearing natural bushland at the same time.The Bend of Islands incorporates the area of the former Environmental Living Zone, now known as Special Use Zone (SUZ) - Environmental Living in the Nillumbik Planning Scheme. The Bend of Islands Conservation Association (BICA) was formed in the 1960s.Residents Neil Douglas and Abbie Heathcote used to open their home to exhibit their art. This practice became the foundation for the Nillumbik Artists Open studios program. Local artists continue to be part of the program. The Bend of Island Community members, or 'benders', are a thriving and connected community with monthly coffee mornings at the local fire station, weekly BICA events such as bird or flora walks, and a large artistic community. A mobile library service visits nearby Kangaroo Ground which is managed by Yarra Plenty Regional Library.

The Island is located at Thompson Bend on the Yarra River at Warrandyte, Victoria, Australia, approximately 24 kilometres (15 mi) north-east of Melbourne. It was created by gold miners in 1859–60, during the Victorian gold rush. They dug a diversion channel to alter the course of the Yarra River, providing access to the alluvial gold in the exposed river bed. The canal was widened by subsequent flooding becoming the main river course, with the previous river bed becoming a willow-choked backwater. Mining Registrars and Surveyors Reports for the St. Andrews Division date the diversion of the river into a canal as May–July 1859. The work cost £7,000. There was more work in November 1859 and February 1860. The nearby Pound Bend Tunnel was cut for a similar purpose in 1870. Two other tunnels, the Big Peninsula Tunnel and the Little Peninsula Tunnel, were dug further upstream in the 1860s. The site is listed in the Victorian Heritage Inventory.

North Warrandyte is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 25 km north-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Shire of Nillumbik local government area. North Warrandyte recorded a population of 3,027 at the 2021 census. Located in the bushy hills north of the Yarra River and to the north of Warrandyte, North Warrandyte is separated from its neighbour of the same name by Municipal Boundaries, CFA Brigade (Country Fire Authority) Boundaries and Suburb Boundaries, yet the two exist as interlocked communities as though those boundaries didn't exist. Winding roads amongst the tree tops and unmade local streets are abundant in the small suburb.

Warrandyte is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 24 km north-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Manningham local government area. Warrandyte recorded a population of 5,541 at the 2021 census. Warrandyte is bounded in the west by the Mullum Mullum Creek and Target Road, in the north by the Yarra River, in the east by Jumping Creek and Anzac Road, and in the south by an irregular line from Reynolds Road, north of Donvale, Park Orchards and Warrandyte South. Warrandyte was founded as a Victorian town, located in the once gold-rich rolling hills east of Melbourne, and is now on the north-eastern boundary of suburban Melbourne. Gold was first discovered in the town in 1851 and together, with towns like Bendigo and Ballarat, led the way in gold discoveries during the Victorian gold rush. Today Warrandyte retains much of its past in its surviving buildings of the Colonial period and remains a twin community with North Warrandyte, which borders the Yarra River to its north.

Wonga Park is a locality on the edge of Greater Melbourne, beyond the Melbourne Metropolitan Urban Growth Boundary area, 28 km north-east from Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Manningham and Maroondah and the Shire of Yarra Ranges local government areas. Wonga Park recorded a population of 3,843 at the 2021 census. Wonga Park is bounded in the west by Jumping Creek, in the north by the Yarra River, in the east by Brushy Park and Old Homestead Roads and in the south by Holloway Road. The name comes from the Wonga Park grazing property, which itself derives from Simon Wonga, elder of the Wurundjeri indigenous people of Melbourne. The area was part of Mooroolbark until the 1890s.

Kangaroo Ground War Memorial Park is located at 385 Eltham Yarra Glen Road, Kangaroo Ground in the Shire of Nillumbik. in Victoria, Australia. The site includes the war memorial, with a firespotting cabin, mature monterey cypress trees and other planted species, and a sandstone caretaker's cottage. The park is situated on the summit of Garden Hill, from which panoramic views are obtainable. The park is situated on two acres.Towards the end of World War One, in August 1918, Eltham Shire Council discussed and 'generally expressed themselves as favourable to the proposal' to obtain a "piece of land on the summit of Garden Hill, Kangaroo Ground, and the formation of a memorial park in which a monument could be erected to represent the whole of the Shire. Local resident Walter Wippell donated £50 and with it Council purchased the one-acre site. In 1919 Joseph Mess agreed to take £50 per acre for two acres of his Garden Hill property. By 1920 subscriptions lists were opened for the purposes of raising funds to "carry out the proposed scheme of beautification, and also to erect, at a later date, a fitting monument to perpetuate the memory of those who fell in the Great War'. Working bees took place on the site and rocks were collected for a memorial cairn which was built in a slight depression which signified the highest point in the park. The compilation of "a complete record of the names of all persons who enlised for service from the Shire and of those who made the supreme sacrifice whilst doing their duty" began in 1920. The park was officially opened by Mr. W. H. Everard, M.L.A. on 3 September 1921. In 1927 a stone hut, known as the caretaker's cottage was built from left over stone quarried for the tower. On Remembrance Day, 2005 a seedling, a descendant of the Gallipoli lone pine tree was planted. Brick toilets constructed in 1965 were also removed and replaced in 2005 including a universal access space.In 2006, a plaque was put in place from the Vietnam Veterans community in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan. Nillumbik Shire Council received funding under the 2008–09 Restoring Community War Memorials Grants program to restore plaques on the Tower, and replace bollards to enhance security around the memorial. In December 2014, Nillumbik Shire Council received Anzac Centenary Local Grants Program funding to create new interpretative signage.In 2015 Shire of Nillumbik added the Tower of Remembrance and War Memorial Park and Moor-ul Viewing Platform to its draft register of memorials. In 2020 Shire of Nillumbik commenced preparing a master plan to create a long-term vision and plan for the park.

Brushy Creek is a tributary of the Yarra River in Melbourne. The creek rises in Mooroolbark Heights and passes through a mixture of underground channels and floodways through the east of Mooroolbark, until it returns to an open waterway through central Mooroolbark. From Mooroolbark it continues downstream through Croydon and passes under the Maroondah Highway, where it flows through Croydon North, Chirnside Park and Wonga Park until it joins the Yarra River in the Warrandyte State Park.

Andersons Creek is a creek in Warrandyte and Park Orchards, east of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is a tributary of the Yarra River. For tens of thousands of years it was used as a food and tool source sustainably by the Wurundjeri people, Aboriginal Australians of the Kulin nation, who spoke variations of the Woiwurrung language group. The creek begins in the hills north of Ringwood on the boundary of urban metropolitan Melbourne from where it flows for roughly 2–3 km through Park Orchards and around 4 km through Warrandyte, before emptying into the Yarra River. The creek is relatively uninhibited by weirs, dams or reservoirs and it floods often after heavy rain. It provides habitat for significant species, which include: platypus, rakali, koalas, powerful owls, rufous night herons, white-winged choughs and yellow-tailed black cockatoos. In June 1851 gold was first discovered in Victoria on the banks of Andersons Creek at Fourth Hill in the present day Warrandyte State Park by a small group led by Louis John Michel; the township of Warrandyte was initially named after the creek. Gold can still be found in the creek, and panning is permitted in a small section with a Miners Right.

The electoral district of Warrandyte is an Australian electoral district of the Victorian Legislative Assembly. It is an outer metropolitan electorate and contains the suburbs of Park Orchards, Ringwood North, Warrandyte, Warrandyte North, Warrandyte South, Warranwood, Wonga Park, most of Donvale, and parts of Chirnside Park, Doncaster East, and Ringwood. Warrandyte was originally a marginal seat, being held by the Liberal Party from the creation of the electorate at the 1976 election until it lost government at the 1982 election. The seat was then Labor-held until the 1988 election, when Phil Honeywood became the only Liberal to win a seat from Labor. Honeywood made the seat very secure for the Liberals, to the extent that he comfortably held the seat at the 2002 election, despite over half of his Legislative Assembly colleagues losing their seats. Honeywood became Deputy Leader of the Opposition, before retiring at the 2006 election. Fellow Liberal, Ryan Smith, easily retained the seat. Smith resigned just six months after being re-elected at the 2022 Victorian state election, causing the 2023 Warrandyte state by-election. Nicole Werner retained the seat for the Liberal Party.

Watsons Creek is a bounded locality in Victoria, Australia, 31 km north-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Shire of Nillumbik local government area. Watsons Creek recorded a population of 58 at the 2021 census. Watsons Creek lies to the north and west of Eltham-Yarra Glen Road.

The Pound Bend Tunnel, or the Evelyn Tunnel, is a diversion tunnel on the Yarra River at Warrandyte, Victoria, Australia, approximately 24 km north-east of Melbourne. The tunnel is 145 metres long, six metres wide and four metres deep.The tunnel is in the Pound Bend section of the Warrandyte State Park.