The soothing stream of Yarra Falls’ indoor waterfall is quite the conversation starter.
For Brendan Keown, owner of the 25-seat bar and diner located on Kulin land behind the ornate facade of Flinders Lane’s heritage-listed Tavistock House, that’s the point. “I’m trying to tell a story here, on this land along the river,” he says. From consultation with the land’s traditional owners and his own extensive research, Keown is acknowledging the history of the now-lost Yarra Falls.
“It’s not a particularly obscure piece of news, but maybe there are a lot of people who don’t know,” he says. “Where this building is it’s about 150 yards from the Queen’s Bridge, which runs that strange little angle across the river, and that’s where the original waterfall used to be.”
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SIGN UPIt was once a traditional meeting place for Aboriginal peoples, the Woiwurrung and the Boonwurrung, who used it as a crossing point between their respective lands.
But as the colonial settlement of Melbourne developed, the falls were demolished in 1883 to prevent flooding. Though not entirely, Keown says. “If you’re ever going across the Queen’s Bridge, on the Southbank side, at low tide, look down to the left and there’s some black rocks there and that’s the remains of the original waterfall.”
The back-bar waterfall is meant to reflect the land its traditional owners knew, pre-colonisation. There’s native flora dotted through the flowing water and a mural of the landscape above it. Keown is keen to reinforce that Yarra Falls acknowledges a very real history – it’s not a novelty experience. “While we’ve got a very strong aesthetic, it’s not a theme bar in that sense.”
Much of the drinks list nods to native botanicals and Victorian producers. Cocktails are vibrant, weaving local drops like Grainshaker vodka and Marionette peach liqueur with botanicals like the lurid purple of pigface petals. There’s a house-made amaro, too, in which Keown combines botanicals from within five kilometres of the bar, including golden wattle seed, lemon myrtle and green figs (not native but plentiful).
You’ll also find rotating beers from brewers like Westside Ale Works (served in pots only) and wines in a mix of interesting but approachable styles (think skin-contact whites and light-and-bright stickies). There’s also a short food menu; at the moment expect hearty cool-weather fare like rotating soups and charry potato bread.
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