Colonial Naming and History
Mount Martha: Water, Stone, and Story on Boonwurrung Country
MLA Educational Series — Country, History, and Coastal Ecology
Rising above the southern shores of Port Phillip Bay, Mount Martha forms part of the ancient ridge system that shapes the Mornington Peninsula on Boonwurrung Country, within the wider Kulin Nation. Overlooking the waters known in Boonwurrung language as Nairm, this mountain connects coast, forest, and freshwater — a place of transition where hills feed creeks, and creeks meet the sea.
For tens of thousands of years, Boonwurrung people maintained these slopes and shorelines as part of an integrated water and food system that linked the Mornington Peninsula with the wider networks of the Kulin clans, including the Wadawurrung across the bay. Mount Martha, Balcombe Creek, and Martha Cove were not isolated features but living parts of a cultural ecology — a landscape of law, ceremony, and sustenance.
Meaning and Name
The Boonwurrung name for the area around Mount Martha is not recorded in full colonial records, but oral histories connect it with coastal gathering places where freshwater springs met the bay’s tidal edges (Clark & Heydon 2002; Broome 2005).
The English name “Mount Martha” was applied in the early 1840s by surveyors after Martha Lonsdale, the wife of Captain William Lonsdale, first Police Magistrate of the Port Phillip District (Shaw 1966). Like many colonial place names, it reflected imported family honour rather than local meaning — overlaying a personal reference on a much older cultural geography.
Geology and Country
Mount Martha’s geology tells a deep-time story of shifting seas and rising basalt plains.
The hill is formed primarily of sandstone and siltstone, remnants of ancient marine sediments uplifted during Miocene tectonic activity (~10–20 million years ago) (VandenBerg 1999).
Overlying ridgelines carry Tertiary gravels that once formed riverbeds before sea levels rose to create Port Phillip Bay about 8,000 years ago (Bird 1993).
These soils and stones shaped Boonwurrung ecology — the mix of eucalypt woodland, coastal heath, and freshwater springs that fed local food systems.
Boonwurrung Water Systems and Food Landscapes
Mount Martha forms the headwaters for Balcombe Creek, one of the peninsula’s few permanent waterways. Flowing northward through Briars wetlands and into Balcombe Estuary, the creek created a corridor rich in eel (kooyang), mussels, and reeds used for weaving and rope-making (Gott & Zola 1992).
Freshwater and Saltwater Balance
For the Boonwurrung, Mount Martha represented the balance between fresh and salt water — a recurring theme in Kulin cosmology. Springs from the slopes carried clear freshwater that merged with the tidal saltwater of Nairm, symbolising the meeting of different worlds:
Land and sea
Human and spirit
Male and female ancestral forces (Presland 1994).
Ceremonial protocols governed this meeting place, echoing similar spiritual boundaries at the Yarra Falls (Birrarung Marr) and the Barwon–Connewarre estuary across the bay.
Resource and Ceremony
Mount Martha’s forests and estuaries provided:
Kangaroo and wallaby in the wooded uplands
Waterbirds and black swans along the creek wetlands
Shellfish, eels, and fish from the estuary mouth
Reeds and rushes (Phragmites australis, Juncus spp.) for net-making and ceremonial weaving
Food and ceremony were inseparable; harvests were marked by songs and law, reaffirming the people’s role as caretakers of water and earth (Broome 2005).
Colonisation and Early Settlement
When British settlers arrived in the 1830s–1840s, they quickly claimed the fertile coastal ridges for pastoral runs and later for vineyards and orchards.
The Boonwurrung were displaced from their coastal camps as water sources were fenced or polluted.
Squatter stations such as those at The Briars and Osborne estates imposed private ownership over communal lands (Shaw 1966).
Balcombe Creek became an industrial waterway by the mid-19th century, supplying mills and farms.
Despite this, Boonwurrung families continued to visit and maintain connections through fishing, resource gathering, and ceremony into the late 1800s, often travelling from the Mordialloc Mission or Coranderrk (Barwick 1998).
Ecological Transformation
Colonial land use rapidly changed the hydrology and ecology of the Mount Martha region:
Clearing of native forest reduced biodiversity and increased erosion.
Draining and damming of the Balcombe wetlands altered eel and fish migration routes.
Introduced species (rabbits, foxes, willows) transformed both land and stream health.
By the early 20th century, the creek and estuary were heavily modified. Yet remnants of the original wetland mosaic persist — now part of the Balcombe Estuary Reserve and The Briars Wildlife Sanctuary, co-managed with Traditional Owners (DEECA 2023; Mornington Peninsula Shire 2022).
Cultural Renewal and Modern Recognition
Today, Mount Martha and its waterways are central to the Boonwurrung Foundation’s and Bunurong Land Council’s efforts to revive cultural language, ecological knowledge, and coastal stewardship. These include:
Cultural walks and interpretive signage acknowledging Boonwurrung place names and stories.
Revegetation of riparian zones using native reeds and rushes to restore traditional habitats.
Cultural fire practices integrated into park management, reconnecting ecological renewal with spiritual law.
Dual naming projects recognising Nairm/Mornington Peninsula’s original heritage.
Mount Martha’s springs and hilltop views are also used for cultural education, helping communities and schools understand the deep continuity of Country beneath a modern suburb and tourist town.
Symbolism: The Meeting of Waters and Worlds
In Boonwurrung philosophy, Mount Martha is more than elevation — it is connection. It stands where:
Freshwater flows into saltwater,
Stone meets sand, and
Ancestral story meets modern renewal.
As the waters of Balcombe Creek reach Nairm, they carry the memory of the mountain, the forest, and the people who understood both as one. This is Country’s hydrology of belonging — where science, story, and stewardship remain inseparable.
Conclusion
Mount Martha embodies the intertwined stories of Country, colonisation, and continuity. For the Boonwurrung, its slopes, creeks, and wetlands remain sacred — part of a coastal songline stretching from Arthurs Seat (Wonga) to Point Nepean (Monmar) and across the bay to Wadawurrung Country.
Though renamed and reshaped, its springs still rise, its reeds still whisper, and its law still speaks through those who care for it. The revival of Boonwurrung custodianship ensures that Mount Martha — the mountain by the sea — continues to teach balance between people, water, and time.
References
Barwick, D. (1998) Rebellion at Coranderrk. Canberra: Aboriginal History Monograph.
Bird, E. (1993) The Geomorphology of Victoria. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
Blake, B. (1991) Wathawurrung and the Colac Language of Southern Victoria. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
Broome, R. (2005) Aboriginal Victorians: A History Since 1800. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
Clark, I. D. & Heydon, T. (2002) Dictionary of Aboriginal Placenames of Victoria. Melbourne: Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages.
DEECA Victoria (2023) Waterway Health Strategy and Cultural Burning in Victoria. Melbourne: Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action.
Gott, B. & Zola, N. (1992) Koorie Plants, Koorie People: Traditional Aboriginal Food, Fibre and Healing Plants of Victoria. Melbourne: Koorie Heritage Trust.
Mornington Peninsula Shire (2022) Balcombe Estuary and Briars Management Plan. Mornington: MPSC.
Presland, G. (1994) Aboriginal Melbourne: The Lost Land of the Kulin People. Melbourne: Harriland Press.
Shaw, A. (1966) A History of the Port Phillip District: Victoria Before Separation. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.
VandenBerg, A. H. M. (1999) Geology of Victoria. Geological Society of Australia, Special Publication 10.
Written, Researched and Directed by James Vegter (22 September 2025)
MLA
Sharing the truth of Indigenous and colonial history through film, education, land, and community.
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Magic Lands Alliance acknowledges the Traditional Owners, Custodians, and First Nations communities across Australia and internationally. We honour their enduring connection to the sky, land, waters, language, and culture. We pay respect to Elders past, present, and emerging, and to all First Peoples’ communities and language groups. This article draws only on publicly available information; many cultural practices remain the intellectual property of their respective communities.