Prior to colonisation, the Yalukit-Willam people lived in the area now known as South Melbourne.

They relied on the natural resources of the area where the men hunted kangaroos, possums, rats, bandicoots, wombats, lizards; fish, and eels, and the women concentrated on gathering. Among the vegetable food collected was Murnong, commonly called the yam daisy, the gum of the black wattle, the pulp of the tree fern, wild cherries, kangaroo apples, various fungi and shellfish.

Emerald Hill (South Melbourne Town hall), was a site of ceremonies, such as Corroborees, dances, communicated to other clans via smoke signals, and where marriages could be arranged and disputes resolved.

The game of Marngrook was played with local clans, whereby a rolled ball of possum skin, bound tightly with kangaroo sinew was kicked and thrown, played by women and men.

After colonisation in 1835 and an attempted treaty from Melbourne Founder, John Batman, to the British Government was rejected, and the land was deemed “terra nullius” or uninhabited, the region was then inundated by thousands of settlers. The first nations South Melbourne population dropped 90% over the next 20 years with disease, dispossession of land, and violence from colonisers to be relocated to missions or reserves, such as Mordy Yallock (Mordialloc) and Healesville.