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Home>Your Council>About the Mornington Peninsula
The Mornington Peninsula is located just over an hour’s drive away from the city, on Melbourne’s ‘doorstep’, and is often described as Melbourne’s playground. It is the most popular informal recreation area in Victoria.
The Mornington Peninsula is a 720 square kilometre boot-shaped promontory separating two contrasting bays: Port Phillip and Western Port. ‘The Peninsula’, as it is affectionately known to local residents, contains a diversity of scenic landscapes and is almost surrounded by the sea, with coastal boundaries of over 190 kilometres, a total of approximately 10% of Victoria’s coastline. It is a mixture of urban areas, resort towns, tourist development and rural land.
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 Early Peninsula History
Early Township History
Climate
Location - Click to enlarge
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| Early Peninsula History | | Thousands of years before Europeans arrived on the Mornington Peninsula the Bunurong people (also spelt Bunwurrung, Boonwerung, Bunurowrung, Boonoorong and Bururong ) lived in their territory which extended from Werribee River to Andersons Inlet in the east. The area totalled approximately 8,000 square kilometres. There were defined territorial boundaries between the different indigenous groupings, usually based on landscape features and barriers such as mountains or rivers.
Clans were broken into smaller family and economic groupings. The small groups met frequently for social or trading reasons. Their economy was largely based on the hunter gatherer lifestyle with some system of natural farming practice. The local indigenous people practiced a range of environmental management strategies including controlled burning of vegetation. Coastal waters provided shellfish and seafood, with the hinterland providing native animals and wildlife, such as possums and wallabies. Many plants and berries were also utilised for food and medicine.
There is archaeological evidence of the Bunurong's occupancy along the coast with middens at some sites. There is also some evidence of more permanent settings at places such as Tyabb and what was known as the Blacks Camp Waterhole (inland from Cape Schanck). There was a network of tracks for efficient movement across the territory for social and trading reasons.
The contact period brought about many changes to the local indigenous culture. Whalers, sealers and explorers were the first to make contact. Later the effects of pastoralists on the land brought about the destruction of essential foods and wildlife. The rapid settlement of Europeans meant the invasion of Aboriginal lands and dislocation. White colonisation resulted in many local Aborigines being forced to live on reserves such as the one in Mordialloc. Despite efforts by some individuals, the protectorate system did little to protect the Aborigines. The rapid decline of the Bunurong population was due to many factors including disease, loss of access to traditional foods and tribal lands, alcoholism, death in goal and death through poisoning and murder. While some descendants of the Bunurong people live in their ancient clan region today, the Wurrundjeri people have the responsibility of custodianship of the Bunurong sites at present.  Top
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| Early Township History | | A summary of early township histories can be found by accessing our Community Profile website and selecting a township area from the left hand menu bar.
To access the Community Profile website, please use the link at the bottom of this webpage. Top
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| Climate |
| Month |
Mean Daily Minimum Temperature (C) |
Mean Daily Maximum Temperature (C) |
Mean Total Rainfall (mm) |
Mean Number of Rain Days |
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| January |
13.4 |
25 |
45 |
4.7 |
| February |
13.9 |
25 |
43.3 |
4.1 |
| March |
12.9 |
23.3 |
49.9 |
5.2 |
| April |
10.9 |
19.4 |
62.3 |
6.8 |
| May |
9.1 |
16.2 |
69.5 |
9.0 |
| June |
7.2 |
13.5 |
70.8 |
9.7 |
| July |
6.5 |
12.8 |
68.7 |
9.8 |
| August |
6.9 |
13.8 |
70.5 |
10.1 |
| September |
8.1 |
15.9 |
72.1 |
9.6 |
| October |
9.5 |
18.1 |
69.8 |
8.6 |
| November |
10.7 |
20.3 |
59.4 |
6.8 |
| December |
12.1 |
23.1 |
54.2 |
5.5 |
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Daily Minimum Temperature Graph
 | Daily Maximum Temperature Graph
 | Mean Total Rainfall Graph
 | Mean Number of Rain Days Graph
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