It flows generally southerly from its source on the eastern side of Mount Cole in the Mount Cole State Forest to its mouth on the eastern side of Lake Bolac.

Towards the end of its course, it reaches a former lava flow which interrupts the course and leads it west to Lake Bolac.

[4] Fiery Creek was involved in the Victorian gold rush in the 1850s.

The post office that is now Streatham was named Fiery Creek, and mail was regularly addressed and sent to the wrong place.

The population on the fields was 50,000 in 1855[6] and reportedly reached approximately 100,000 people at its height in the late 1850s and produced 450,000 ounces of gold over a two-year period, 1855–1856.