Merri Creek Management Committee

We celebrated National Threatened Species Day 2020 on 6 September, with 73 participants tuning into a webinar: At home in Whittlesea’s Grasslands.
Michael Longmore, manager of MCMC’s Ecological Restoration Program, and Josh Cox, the Director of Reptile Encounters gave us a virtual tour of Galada Tamboore and some close insights into creatures of the Victorian Volcanic Plain.

A recording of the presentation is now available, full of information about the plants of Galada Tamboore and some terrific creatures including a jumpy Growling Grass Frog. 

The webinar was organised by Merri Creek Management Committee, with funds from the City of Whittlesea and the Commonwealth Government's Communities Environment Program.

Watch the video here

Sediment samples have been collected from Five Mile Creek in Essendon and sent off for testing as part of the fantastic Pesticide Detectives program. The positive news is that, as with the results from Merri Creek late last year, there were no pesticides found in the sample.

The nation-wide citizen science project is a collaboration between volunteer citizen scientists and RMIT University’s Aquatic Environmental Stress Research Group (AQUEST). The program is investigating the occurrences and concentrations of pesticides in Australian waterways. Pesticides found in our waterways include those used in homes and gardens, as well as the pesticides used in agriculture.

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At the Merri Birds Webinar, held on Saturday 12 September 2020,  Friends of Merri Creek bird survey leaders highlighted their regular survey sites and spoke about their favourite Merri birds, including the Nankeen Night-Heron, Tawny Frogmouth and Golden-headed Cisticola. An extensive question and answer session followed the presentations.

If you missed out on attending the webinar you can now watch the recording.  

This was a joint event of Friends of Merri Creek and Merri Creek Management Committee.
Photo: Nankeen Night-Heron by C Tzaros.

Watch the video here

Merri Creek stars in a recent paper on Communities caring for land and nature in Victoria published in the Journal of Outdoor and Environmental Education by long-term Merri Creek activists, Ann and Bruce McGregor.

The McGregor's paper explores the importance of getting to know an area to be more a part of it and nature, and that areas suitable for outdoor adventure lie unnoticed near the centre of Melbourne. It outlines evidence that humans need nature in order to live happy, healthy lives and gives personal examples from Ann and Bruce's 40 years of activism on Merri Creek.

It highlights the important role that community organisations like Merri Creek Management Committee and Friends of Merri Creek have played in caring for land and nature along Merri Creek, and the significance of the Victorian National Parks Association at the state level. The paper was originally presented to the Victorian Outdoor Education Conference in 2019. 

Photo: newspaper cutting of Ann and Bruce McGregor planting along Merri Creek in 1977.