Walk Waa

Listen to the Wurundjeri Wandoon story of Waa:

Transcript:

My name is Doreen Garvey-Wandin. I’m a Wurundjeri Senior Elder and Wandoon Senior Elder. Also, Director of both organisations. 

We respectfully acknowledge the traditional owners, the Wurundjeri people and other Kulin Nations, as the custodians of the lands across the Yarra Ranges on whose unceded lands our work in the community takes place. We pay respect to all Aboriginal community Elders, past and present, who have resided in the area and have been and always will be an integral part of the story of the region.

Art and Sole. Walking on Country, connecting with our history, nurturing our body, mind and sole.

Crow - Waa

Waa is the protector of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people, and through trickery brought fire to bundjil who shared it with the people.

Listen to the Gateway Entrance to Cooring Yering historical narrative:

 

Looking north from the roundabout of Cave Hill and Nelson roads is the estate called the Gateway. This was the entrance to the majestic Cooring Yering which was named by the first occupants - squatters Rowland and Elizabeth in 1849. 

William Forbes Hutton purchased it in 1876 and contracted builder David Mitchell of Cave Hill Quarry to build his new mansion - a large, stately 35 room, two-storey solid brick, cement rendered house located on the rise above the flood plains of the Olinda Creek. 

Cooring Yering covered several hundred hectares and stretched from Victoria Road in the west, to Nelson Road in the south, Olinda Creek in the east and north beyond the present Lilydale Memorial Park. It was on the Memorial Park site that Colonel Hutton’s sons Walter and Maurice Hutton established their 60ha vineyard. Today, the winery building, also built by David Mitchell, can be seen in the grounds of the Lilydale Memorial Park.

The Nelson Road entrance to Cooring Yering was flanked either side by towering cypress trees and on the left, which is now Gateway Reserve, was the property's large dairy which operated until the 1970s.

Today, the Cooring Yering mansion is a private residence, surrounded by the Gateway Estate development.

Listen to the Lilydale Technical School historical narrative:

Walking down Nelson Road which was named after the great sea captain Lord Nelson, is Lilydale Heights College.

In 1969 the Victorian Education Department was looking for a 6 to 8ha site to establish Lilydale’s first technical school. Officials inspected several sites and finally the 8ha site amongst paddocks of the Cooring Yering was chosen.

A co-educational technical school opened in February 1970 with 132 pupils who had to be accommodated at other schools because of a delay with the purchase of the land. 

The owners of the land, Lindsay and Dianna Nicholas, refused to sell a vital part of their working family property so the government had to compulsorily acquire it. As Cooring Yering’s dairy was on the eastern boundary, one of the property’s major sources of income was lost. It was the beginning of the suburban demise of the large working farm.

By June 1970 the school opened on its new site but consisted of many portable buildings. Some subjects still had to be held at other schools due to lack of amenities. 

Over the next few years new buildings replaced the portables, five new wings, a library, an amenities block and sporting facilities were all added. Lilydale Technical School’s first Principal was Mr Johnston. In 1989 the school changed its name to Lilydale Heights Secondary College and finally became Lilydale Heights College in 2004. The school motto is Excellence, Respect, Responsibility.