MCMC wins National Landcare Award!

MCMC's CEO Bernadette Thomas. Image by Landcare Australia. At the National Landcare Awards on September 23rd, Merri Creek Management Committee was awarded the Australian Government Community Partnerships Landcare Award. 

This is recognition of the work of many people over decades to repair, restore and protect the Merri Creek and catchment. Congratulations everyone!

The Award acknowledges individuals, groups, or organisations that have demonstrated leadership and achievement in landcare-related activities, as a result of working in partnership with others in their community.

Contratulations to all the other 2025 National Landcare Award winners. 

Slender-tailed dunnart at Hidden Valley

Fauna monitoring at Hidden Valley Bushland Reserve (in the north of the Merri Creek catchment) has revealed exciting footage of the Slender-tailed Dunnart, a small marsupial that relies on healthy ground cover habitat for the insects it loves to eat.

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Are your eyes open for Sacred Kingfishers in Porneet season?

As the length of days and nights become even and warmer temperatures are felt in Porneet season on Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country, you could be lucky enough to see a Sacred Kingfisher show itself along the Merri Creek as it hunts for grasshoppers, crickets, beetles, frogs, yabbies, and skinks amongst the grasses and bushes of the Merri Creek and surrounds.

Sacred Kingfisher (Todiramphus sanctus)

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Dipping our toes into climate-adapted planting along Merri Creek

On a crisp June morning, a committed group of community volunteers knelt in the soil along Merri Creek, trowels in hand, planting shrubs that will shape the future of their neighbourhood. Among the 12,000 seedlings funded through the MCMC Green Links project were a handful from Euroa, 150 km to the north – plants that had never felt Melbourne’s chilly winter before yet might hold the key to thriving here as the climate changes.

Volunteers planting the Tree Banksia Orchard in Fawkner.

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Planting knowledge, growing connection: Newlands Primary students lead the way in Waring season

There was an unusual sight at Newlands Primary School one chilly morning in June: dozens of Grade One and Two students carefully planting seedlings in a narrow strip of land along Murphy Street.

Working with quiet focus despite their excitement, the children moved expertly through the steps they’d learned: checking the plants’ root systems, packing soil, laying mulch, and gently watering the seedlings once they were settled in the earth. The activity was part of a broader project to transform neglected areas of the school grounds into a thriving indigenous habitat corridor and wellbeing garden.

Students from Newlands Primary School planting. 

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My Place: Amy Sledziona

Amy Sledziona, founder of Friends of Malcom Creek. Amy Sledziona is a veterinarian and the founder of the reinvigorated volunteer group Friends of Malcom Creek, a tributary of the Merri Creek. Amy lives on the rapidly expanding northern edge of Melbourne where she identified a need for new locals to connect with and protect nature and waterways. 

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