Merri Creek Management Committee

Growling Grass Frog juvenileFriday 16 November, 7-8pm

Corner Bramble Crescent and Blau Street, Bundoora (near the bird hide and wetlands) Melway 9 H9 - see map.
Come celebrate National Frog ID Week by joining Waterwatch and the Merri Creek Management Committee for a night of frog discovery. Learn to recognise different frog calls and help collect important citizen science data for the frog census including using the Frog Census app. There will be an informal presentation and a walk around the wetland. Families are most welcome. Bookings essential below.

Basalt Daisy webSaturday 10 November, 8.30am - 4.00pm

Meet at Dennis St Northcote beside the Northcote Plaza shopping centre carpark (see map) at 8.30am for bus leaving at 9am sharp. We will visit important sites for the conservation of the Merri's ‘Secret Seven’ rare plants and explore significant vegetation along the Say G’day trail near the Merri’s headwaters at Heathcote Junction. You will learn about threats to the survival of the wild plants and about the reintroduction sites that will help secure their future on the Merri.

Bookings essential - below

Wednesday 21 November 2018, 7-8pm.
Meet in front of Reservoir Scout Hall, Leamington Street Reservoir.                                                                             

Southern BrownRB2017Join Merri Creek Management Committee's Waterwatch Coordinator for a night of frog discovery. There will be a walk and talk and activities for the children. Learn to recognise different frog calls and help collect important data for the Frog Census app. There will be a presentation and a walk around the wetlands and Edgars creek. Families are most welcome. The event involves walking, at times in the rain, so please bring weather appropriate clothing for the event (Frogs love rain so don’t be put off by a rainy evening, this event will still go ahead.)     Bookings are essential.

This event is organised by MCMC's Waterwatch Coordinator and proudly funded by the City of Darebin.

Aitken Milky Beauty Heads

Aitken Creek in Craigieburn is a hive of activity as Merri Creek Management Committee (MCMC) helps to implement the ‘Aitken Creek’s Living Pathways’ project. This project, funded by a Melbourne Water Grant to Friends of Merri Creek, aims to establish pollination pathways for endangered Matted Flax Lily and engage the local community in the conservation of this urban habitat corridor. Aitken Creek is a tributary of Merri Creek.

Take a tour of the creek and discover the wildlife and flora that call it home using the new interactive on line map as your guide. Click here to view the map in a browser on any web-connected device. Or you can click here to download the mobile app from the Google Play Store with your Android device.

Join the on-site tour walk or bike-ride on Saturday 24 November, 10.30am-1.30pm 

Merri Creek turbidity Blyth St, 20 June 2018

In May we reported on a major turbidity event in Merri Creek in our Muddy Merri Troubles article. The  intense yellow colour of Merri Creek generated high levels of community concern. A month later, in mid-June, the same thing happened again. This time we decided to measure the actual turbidity levels of Merri Creek in Brunswick East and to take photos of the creek.  You can read the detailed results of our investigation below or download the full report as a pdf.

In brief we found:   (1) At its peak the turbidity was 500 NTU. This is higher than any other level recorded in the lower reaches of Merri Creek over the last 18 years.   (2) It took 15 days of steady decline for the turbidity to drop to an acceptable level of less than 20 NTU.   (3) Visually, Merri Creek was perceived as 'very muddy' for 14 days.

Muddy Merri upstream from Blyth St bridgeA dramatic change in the colour of Merri Creek - from its usual darkish hue to a worrying, pale-yellow - had concerned locals contacting MCMC, posting on Facebook and reporting the issue to the EPA. The spate of yellow muddiness began after rain in mid-May and continued for more than three weeks, an unprecedented time. 'Old hands' said that the turbidity (sediment load) in Merri Creek was much worse than anything they'd seen in their decades of creek-watching. What caused this massive pollution event? Was it 'natural', or the result of disturbance from urban development activity? 

Photo above: Merri Creek at Blyth St, Brunswick East, 15 May 2018

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