Yarra Valley Park is the largest of the urban parks, consisting of over 1,400 hectares. The Yarra River, Melbourne’s primary water course, which flows through and links the whole park, holds a special place in the culture, history and geography of Melbourne.
The park contains a wonderful diversity of features, from remnant bushland/grassland/wetlands, archaeological sites of signifigance to the Wurundjeri, historic links to Melbourne’s early European settlement, grazing and orcharding scenes, and landscape vistas made famous by the Heidelberg school of artists. The park provides an important visual and recreational asset to the people of Melbourne, with well over 300,000 people living within 5 kilometres of its boundaries, and over 1.5 million visitors each year, enjoying a wide variety of park experiences – picnicking, walking, canoeing, exploring nature, cycling, and much more.