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Merri e-News March 2022

Merri e-News March 2022
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Merri E-News

MARCH 2022

Newsletter of the Merri Creek Management Committee (MCMC)

Annual Report 2021 Front pageCheck out Merri Creek Management Committee's recent achievements by reading our latest Annual Report (2020-21). Despite COVID-19 restrictions once again limiting face-to-face community events, we still achieved an impressive amount.

  • 679 volunteers provided hands-on help;
  • 4,228 people participated in environmental education activities;
  • we delivered 165 community events and school-based sessions;
  • we partnered with 72 organisations;
  • we worked with 25 clients and funding bodies;
  • our financial bottom line was once again very positive!

You'll find more details on our sources of our funding and expenditure of our various programs in our 2021 Treasurer's Report.

Every year we have our accounts audited. The Annual Report presents a summary of the balance sheet and our income & expenditure. The full details are in the 2021 Auditor's Report.

 

Plant HeroesMicroseris scapigera video pic is a project that showcases stories of people saving plant species from around Australia. One of its stories features Murnong Microseris scapigera and the years of work by MCMC and Traditional Owners, the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung, to conserve this species. It shows that the conservation work was less to do with the plant and more about the special relationship with people, in this place.

The creators of the story hope it can help to acknowledge the need to place cultural knowledge as core to conservation planning and developing 'right-way' projects.
See the video: Murnong; saving Yam Daisy on Melbourne's Merri Creek, or listen to more detail on the podcast.

 

Crowds at Joes Garden

During lockdowns, we all learned how important our local parks and waterways are to our well-being. Now, a virtual trail along the Merri Creek has been developed to create a greater awareness of people’s connection to the land and water. The Merri Creek Women’s Walk tells the stories of inspiring women who have contributed to the Merri Creek and its local environment, including MCMC’s President, Ann McGregor, and Manager, Luisa Macmillan.

The idea to establish a Women’s Walk along Merri Creek began after hearing about the assault on a woman jogging along the creek in broad daylight in 2019. It was initiated by Meredith Gibbs of the Victorian Branch of the Australian Water Association, and includes the participation of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation, MCMC, Friends of Merri Creek and CERES.

 

flooding from trainline southwest 15 09 16We welcome the proposal to retain the southern part of Burrung Buluk (former Hanna Swamp) in the revised Beveridge North West Precinct Structure Plan. The swamp, which is one of the Wallan Wallan wetlands in the upper Merri catchment, was recently given the Woi-wurrung name: Burrung Buluk. 

Earlier proposals for the Beveridge North West Precinct showed the swamp covered by urban development. After a highly effective presentation by Mark Bachmann of Nature Glenelg Trust, on behalf of Friends of Merri Creek, the Planning Panel Report to the Minister recommended the swamp be protected.  

The next challenge will to be to protect the northern part of Burrung Buluk which falls within a different precint, the Wallan South PSP. Bizarrely, this natural feature, falls across two different precincts and its fate as a single, integrated entity rests on two separate decsion-making processes.

If you're interested in wetland restoration 'Wetland Restoration 101' - Reading the landscape with Nature Glenelg Trust gives an excellent introduction to the approach taken by the NGT. 

Photo shows Herne Swamp, the largest of the Wallan Wallan wetlands, after heavy rain in Sept. 2016, with the volcanic cone of Mt Fraser in background.

 

Silver Banksia JJ HarrisonSilver Banksia woodlands were once widespread across the volcanic cones and stony rises of western Victoria. Sadly in the Merri catchment and much of the Victorian Volcanic Plains, these Banksia woodlands are now extinct. Thanks to generous donations to the Merri Creek Environment Fund, we hope to bring Banksia Woodlands back to the Merri in the years ahead.

Many people have asked: how do we know that Silver Banksias were once common in the Merri catchment? To answer this question MCMC joined forces with Steve Sinclair (Arthur Rylah Institute/Friends of the Forgotten Woodlands) in a webinar in late 2021. Steve gave a fascinating overview of the historical records and ecological information that are being combined to understand the past distribution of Silver Banksia. He also spoke about how the surviving fragments are being brought together to return these forgotten woodlands to western Victoria and the Merri. See the webinar HERE.

(Silver Banksia image courtesy of JJ Harrison CC BY-SA 3.0)

 

Wallan rail reserve showing eucalypts with a grassy understoreyA hidden natural gem has been re-discovered by members of the Wallan Environment Group (WEG) in the far upper reaches of the Merri Creek catchment.

The 1.2km section of the former Heathcote Junction to Bendigo railway line near Hidden Valley in Wallan has been unmanaged and unused by trains for more than 50 years, however the significant natural values of the site have persisted. The area has remnants of the native vegetation that once covered the surrounding area. Otherwise these are limited to small, fragmented patches on roadsides.

The native vegetation however is under pressure from weed invasion especially large patches of Gorse and Blackberry, as well as Briar Rose and other woody weeds and the emerging and highly invasive South African Weed Orchid (Disa bracteata).

 

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA MCMC Waterwatch was invited to deliver a one day Waterwatch workshop to the Narrap Team in early December 2021. The Narrap Team (Narrap means Country in Woi Wurrung) will be monitoring the outcomes of environmental water received in the past two years into billabongs and wetlands on the floodplain of the middle Birrarung (Yarra River), particularly the Bolin Bolin and Banyule Billabong. Their data will be shared with stakeholders as well as uploaded onto the Waterwatch data portal.

 

Salli doing DNA sampling on Moonee Ponds Creek StrathmoreIn spring 2021, MCMC helped 18 volunteers collect water samples from 11 sites on the Yarra River, Merri and Moonee Ponds Creeks in the first ever Citizen Science Great Australian Platypus Search.

The Great Australian Platypus Search trains volunteers to collect samples from waterways safely and accurately so that platypus presence within the last 24-48 hours can be detected. A large syringe and filters are used to capture DNA, samples are taken directly from a waterway and shipped to the EnviroDNA laboratory for analysis. Volunteers have submitted samples from sites all over Victoria. Waterwatch turbidity sampling was also completed and added to the Waterwatch Victoria data portal.

 

Nature StewardsAfter coming out of lockdown in November 2021, MCMC had the chance to meet up with a fun bunch of nature stewards. Nature Stewards is an interactive and engaging 10 week outdoor learning program for anyone aged over 18 who wants to learn more about their local environment and to help protect and enhance it.

The enthusiastic Nature Stewards completed Waterwatch water testing, water bug collection and identification and assessment of a wetland, amongst the gorgeous gums at Le Page Homestead, Plenty Gorge Parklands.  Thanks to the City of Whittlesea for funding this great program.

 

Galada TambooreGalada Gorge specky RR (meaning “Stream waterhole”) is one of the most spectacular sites along Merri Creek and is a place of great significance to the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people. Galada Tamboore supports critically endangered Native Grassland and provides refuge to at least eight threatened species of flora and fauna. This Native Grassland is the focus of our project.

Our 2022 Grasslands of Galada Tamboore project provided an array of activities to bring the area's wonders to a wider audience. Volunteers  had opportunities to meaningfully connect with the site and its cultural, ecological and geological values. We want to grow a volunteer group for the area, build up skills and knowledge, grow threatened plants, harvest and sow their seed, and free the grassland from noxious weeds.

The project was launched on 12 March 2022 and it was followed by events in April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November and a celebration of the end of the project, with a picnic and a wander in December 2022.

 
Merri Creek Management Committee. 2 Lee St, East Brunswick, Victoria, Australia 3057 (view map here)
Phone:(03) 9380 8199     Email:
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