Merri Creek Management Committee has evaluated Creekulum, Moreland Primary School's ambitious and unprecedented creekside education program from 2019. The report is a visually attractive record suited to all ages. It shows how the community, guest educators and a whole-of-school approach worked together to meet the learning goals of Prep to Grade 6, with the Merri Creek at the centre of all our interests!

The full report is here (7.48MB PDF file).

The Strategic Plan is a guiding document for all Merri Creek Management Committee activities and decisions. It provides an excellent overview of MCMC, what we do and how we do it, the benefits that we bring, and the key issues we face.

The Strategic Plan identifies priorities and actions under five strategic focus areas:

• Leadership & Advocacy
• Partnerships & Collaboration
• Waterway Corridor Restoration
• Education & Engagement and
• Organisational Strengthening.

You can see the Strategic Plan here (10.8MB PDF).

Congratulations to the joint winners of the annual Moreland Environmental Sustainability Achievement Award: MCMC President, Ann McGregor, and her husband Bruce, for their decades of work on Merri Creek; and Stephen Northey, who founded the Friends of Edgars Creek. Below is a summary of their citations:

Ann & Bruce McGregor: When Ann and Bruce moved to Moreland in 1976, the Merri Creek trail was overgrown with weeds, loads of rubbish and neglected. They saw the Merri Creek as “a damaged asset that just cried out to be restored, not only for people but also for native birds and animals.”
They were founding members of the Friends of Merri Creek and have continued to be active members for over four decades of both the Friends of Merri Creek and the Merri Creek Management Committee, of which Ann is the current President. Without the foresight and commitment of people like Ann and Bruce McGregor, the Merri Creek would not be what it is today - a much loved environmental and social space, a valuable habitat for a range of native animals and home to significant indigenous vegetation.

MCMC had to swiftly adapt the first year of a three year grant from Hume City Council for the A Little Nature Play project becasue of the Covid-19 pandemic. In consultation with early years educators, we moved delivery on-line. In October, Hume’s early years educators came together with other educators to talk over the experience of listening to children and exploring local 'nature play' areas. 

This conversation was documented in a webinar Stepping out: Leadership beyond the kindergarten setting. New plans to get out and about locally were supported, and recognition given to the importance of communicating with families about the value for children of time spent beyond the kindergarten setting. 

In response to the webinar, early years educators have come forward to enjoy support from the project. They are from four different centres in the Hume municipality - in Broadmeadows, Craigieburn, Coolaroo and Rockborough Park. We will work together in coming years to get educators and kids out into nearby natural settings.

To better understand the movements of Swamp Wallabies along Merri Creek, sightings from a variety of sources, including MCMC's fauna records, have been documented  in a most interesting blog: Swamp Wallaby movements on Lower Merri Creek.

This comprehensive blog reveals two areas along Merri Creek where sightings of Swamp Wallabies are concentrated, and areas where  sightings are much rarer. It also discusses hazards, the revegetation along the creek since 1988, problems caused by dogs, and the lessons for better management of Swamp Wallaby habitat.

Local photographer, Adi Tudor, has put out another wonderful Birds of Merri Creek calendar and is generously donating half the profits to the Merri Creek Environment Fund. The 2021 calendar features a full page write-up about Friends of Merri Creek and the dates of next year's Merri BirdWatch Surveys.

This is an ideal Christmas present for $27.50, or $35.50 including postage and packaging, or possible free delivery. 
Order by emailing Adi Tudor at: adietudor73@gmail.com with the subject line  “MERRI BIRDS CALENDAR.”

Merri Creek, Darebin Creek and Edgars Creek Waterwatch data is now easy to discover via MCMC's new Waterwatch Water Quality Summaries.

Find out about the surveys, observations and reports collected by Waterwatch staff and volunteers and learn how your contributions could help shape our understanding of waterway health in the future. 
It's all HERE.