History of City of Monash

The City of Monash was created on 15 December 1994 when the Kennett Liberal government amalgamated local councils all over Victoria, merging a substantial portion of the former City of Oakleigh with the whole of the former City of Waverley.

For thousands of years before European settlement the Bunurong people dwelled in the green, lush land between Mordialloc on the eastern shore of Port Phillip, inland to Nunawading. When camped in Mulgrave, the Bunurong lived off emus and kangaroos which were abundant in the area. Their hunting grounds extended up to the Yarra River to the north-west, the Dandenong Ranges to the east and the hills down to Western Port and Port Phillip to the south and south-west. The most famous Bunurong was the elder Derrimut, to whom the first colonists constructed a monument in the Melbourne Cemetery.

By the 1840s and 1850s, reduction of their hunting grounds, draining of the swamps and introduction of European diseases such as smallpox and measles effectively ended their ability to maintain a traditional lifestyle.

Thomas Napier was a Scottish builder who arrived in Tasmania (then called Van Diemen's Land) in the early 1830s, and then proceeded to the Port Phillip District (Melbourne) where he bought up property at present day Collins Street. He then built several residences, but soon turned to squatting. In 1839, Napier settled on the banks of the Dandenong Creek and built his homestead in Jells Park. He was the first European settler in the Mulgrave Parish.

In 1841, Thomas Napier sold his property to Alexander Scott, who then named the run Bushy Park Run because of the native fauna. When Scott died, his wife Madeline continued to run Bushy Park and, with the help (and partnership) of brothers Francis and John Drew, managed it until 1846. Meanwhile, Thomas Napier had returned to the Port Phillip District and became associated with Essendon and Fitzroy are named after him. Bushy Park Run survives more or less as the Bushy Park Wetlands.

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