River life and a river economy were essential to both pre-colonial and colonial existence.

Aboriginal people relied on waterways and waterholes for their essential resources and food supplies. The colonists, too, needed rivers to feed stock and crops, to transport goods, and for their own survival.

European explorers and colonists arrived in Victoria from the 1830s. The newcomers dispossessed the Aboriginal people of their land, moving swiftly to the best sites, which tended to be close to water resources. The Langi Kal Kal homestead in Central Victoria, depicted here in established form with well-grown European trees, was on the original lands of Wadawurrung (Wathaurung) speaking people who settled seasonally by the Mt Emu Creek.