Yarran Dheran provides an important location for the Parks and Natural Environment Environmental Education Program which is a free service provided by Council officers together with volunteers from Whitehorse Parks Advisory Committees and available to pre-school, primary and secondary school student groups in Whitehorse.

It is also an important site for tertiary students, individual or groups, to conduct environmental research projects.

Yarran Dheran is a very important location for all environmental education programs as it is convenient for visiting schools, offering easy bus parking and available shelter and toilets. School groups sometimes find it more convenient to come by train, walking to the Reserve from nearby Heatherdale station. This bushland reserve also provides an important location for community education and for individual research programs.

Yarran Dheran offers an opportunity to study habitat, flora and fauna not commonly found in an urban location, as well as a running creek that has remained above ground and not been channeled or barreled over time as has been the fate of many urban creeks.

Being part of the iconic Mullum Mullum Valley, the Reserve represents opportunity to study one of the last areas of dry sclerophyll forest and valley heathy forest in urban Melbourne as well as riparian vegetation afforded by the creek.

A wide range of acacias may be identified in the reserve; the name ‘Yarran Dheran’ is believed to derive from the Wurundjeri meaning of ‘Wattle Gully’.

Further opportunities for study present themselves in relation to habitat and fauna. Yarran Dheran is part of an important corridor for wildlife due to the existence of the Mullum Mullum Creek which flows upstream from Croydon and then downstream to Templestowe to its confluence with the Yarra River. Short-finned eels may be found in the creek, as well as some native fish and a range of micro and macroinvertebrates.

The corridor provides passage, while the Mullum Mullum Valley provides diverse habitat to a range of fauna, some of which is not seen elsewhere in Whitehorse, including echidnas. Seven species of frogs are found in the ponds together with Eastern Long-necked Turtles. As well, the Reserve is home to some 80 species of birds. Permanent residents include small birds such as Red-browed Finches, Superb Fairy-wrens and Eastern Spinebills and Grey Fantails while others, including Olive-backed Orioles, are seasonal visitors.

The history of Yarran Dheran provides an opportunity for study of a bushland area which is likely to have been inhabited by the Wurundjeri people for millenia, followed by early European settlement where the land was used for farming and for producng timber and charcoal, and then by commercial activities, including quarrying.

The Reserve also served as the Mitcham Municipal Tip for a period of time and the tip face may still be seen. Later human activity has focused on protection of the prized bushland within the Valley. The community campaigned successfully for the two underground tunnel option which took the route of the Eastlink tollway under the Valley instead of the proposed above ground route which would have destroyed this very special place.

Ongoing human activity has seen the ongoing restoration of the bushland.

These efforts continue to the present day through preservation of remnant bush and revegetation of degraded areas.

Thus the Reserve provides an opportunity to study both the negative impact of human use as well as more recent work, which while concerned with bush protection and revegetation, must also address modern problems of litter, especially in the creek.

The Parks and Natural Environment Environmental Education Program provides environmental and sustainability education for local primary and secondary schools, pre-schools and a diverse range of community groups within the Environmental Education Early Years, Primary and Secondary Programs.

For more details, go to Environmental Education | Whitehorse City Council. You may also register to become a volunteer to support the program at this site.

The Yarran Dheran Advisory Committee also provides opportunities for the community to learn more about the environmental values of the Reserve, through its annual Calendar of Events. For more details about the program, see  Yarran Dheran Calendar of Events 2025.