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The boy who loved frogs and more Merri stories: Merri eNews June 2024

The boy who loved frogs and more Merri stories: Merri eNews June 2024

June 2024‍


Newsletter of the Merri Creek Management Committee (MCMC)


The boy who loved frogs

As Dr Brendan Casey sits at his desk, the beautiful and eerie calls of the Growling Grass Frog coming from his computer take him back to the banks of the Merri Creek where he spent childhood days exploring with wonder. The passion born from those early days drives him through the laborious process of manually working through 20,000 frog call recordings gathered over three years of research.

 

 

Brendan grew up near the Merri Creek, at a time when native frogs – including Growling Grass Frogs – were abundant. Several decades later, with the Growling Grass Frog listed as vulnerable at both national and state levels, Brendan returned to the area to undertake a monitoring project that would lead to improved understanding of the environmental conditions that affect the frogs’ call activity.‍

 

 


How one woman helped to grow a nature-loving community‍

Arjumand Khan was pushing a pram past a noticeboard on her daily walk as a new arrival from India in 2006, when something on the noticeboard caught her attention. In the pram, her tiny baby slept soundly. A flyer on the noticeboard invited mothers of small children to join a local walking group.

 

As Arjumand walked the streets of Fawkner and along the Merri Creek, the walking group lingered in her mind. She was a new mother in a new country, without a network to support her through early motherhood. Her walks in nature along the Merri Creek gave her solace, but she yearned for community.

 



My Place: Jane Miller

Merri eNews talks to Jane Miller, long-time lover and protector of the Merri Creek in our new regular supporter Q&A

 


Your favourite spot on the Merri Creek?

 

My two favourite spots are bababi marning and galgi ngarrk native grassland reserves. These places feel far-removed from urban Melbourne, even with the city skyline on the horizon. ngarri-djarrang is a treasure trove of grassland species, and spending time walking there – eyes down and peeled – is a meditation.

 

Your favourite time of year on the Merri?

 

I love autumn and winter, as things recover from summer, and even though weeds arrive, it’s the time to plant too, so a time of positivity and optimism. The light slants through the trees beautifully, casting shadows across the water and the paths. And I do love weeding! A transformative act.

 


Fire heals Country at Amberfield Grasslands

Matt Tudor stands surrounded by grasses in the Amberfield Grasslands Reserve, Craigieburn, in Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung country. In his hands he holds a wand attached to what looks like a jerry can – the apparatus is known as a “fire bug” and its design is informed by the firestick, a traditional tool used by Indigenous Australians.‍

Matt has visited these grasslands tens of times in the eighteen months he’s been contributing to its management as a team leader in Merri Creek Management Committee’s ecological restoration team. He's seen the place change through seasons and years – and he’s seen how the grasslands respond to the program of annual ecological burning, which we deliver on behalf of Hume City Council.

 

“That’s the part I love,” says Matt. “You can stand in one spot and look at how the land has responded to the burn you did last year, and then turn your head and see the part we burned the year before that, and the year before that. You see three examples of what fire can do over time, right in front of you.”

 


Waring along the Merri

If you’re walking along the Merri Creek this time of year, you’ll notice what Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung people observe as the season of Waring. Waring is one of six seasons on the Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung seasonal calendar and is the longest of the seasons, occurring over four months.

 

‍Like other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Peoples, Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people have seasonal markers based on changes in the landscape and skyscape rather than the Western calendar. Museum Victoria describes this local seasonal calendar as “marked by the movement of the stars in the night sky and changes in the weather, coinciding with the life cycles of plants and animals”. There are many interpretations of seasons available for Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung Country.


A vision for marram baba Merri Creek Parklands

 

Our vision for continuous public parklands along Merri Creek is one step closer with the Victorian government’s 2023 adoption of the Future Directions Plan for the marram baba Merri Creek Regional Parklands, a proposed chain of parks and conservation reserves stretching from Campbellfield to Beveridge in Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country. marram baba means “body of mother” in Woi-wurrung language.


 

The proposed parklands will join a number of existing reserves with other areas proposed for parklands acquisition as urban development proceeds.  The expected completion date is 2050. The park will offer habitat for a suite of grassland and woodland species like the vulnerable Growling Grass Frog and critically endangered Golden Sun Moth among many others as well as important opportunities for people to connect with nature.‍

 


Reconciliation Week: Now More Than Ever

On Sunday, Merri Creek Management Committee honoured National Sorry Day with Whittlesea Council at the Quarry Hill Bushland Park in South Morang, co-leading a guided walk and community event Local Bushland: a Historical Discovery.

 

 

The theme of this year’s National Reconciliation Week, held by Reconciliation Australia, is Now More Than Ever, a theme that reminds Australians that “no matter what, the fight for justice and the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people will – and must – continue.”

 


Merri Creek Management Committee. 2 Lee St, East Brunswick, Victoria, Australia 3057 
Phone:(03) 9380 8199     Email: admin@mcmc.org.au

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