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Help protect Curly Sedge Creek - Merri e-News June 2025

Help protect Curly Sedge Creek - Merri e-News June 2025

June 2025


Newsletter of the Merri Creek Management Committee (MCMC) 


Doug Frood: a lifelong connection to nature and hope for the future of Curly Sedge Creek

Doug Frood at Curly Sedge Creek. Photograph by Annette Ruzicka Photography.

As a child, Doug Frood was, in his own words, “that weird kid” – the one who loved insects, rocks and birds, and spent as much time as possible walking and camping in nature.

“Plants were my specialty,” he says. “Partly because I’m short-sighted and they don’t fly away like birds do. But also, I’ve just always had an affinity for them.”

That early passion for plants grew into a career as a botanical field ecologist. In the late 1980s and early 90s, Doug was working for the Victorian Government when he first spent time surveying grasslands along the Merri Creek.

‍The nose knows: could this dog help save a critically endangered plant?

“I got Atticus when he was four months old, and he’s an absolute pocket rocket. He’s like 10 border collies in one,” laughs ecologist and conservation dog handler Annett Finger. “He has so much drive that I have to do some kind of work or training with him on every walk we take. If I don’t, he pesters me!”

That intense energy is now being channelled into an unlikely conservation partnership. Together, Annett and Atticus are working with Merri Creek Management Committee (MCMC) to try and detect one of Victoria’s most elusive native plants – the critically endangered Matted Flax-Lily (Dianella amoena) – at Curly Sedge Creek and the surrounding galgi ngarrk grasslands.

Wallan Environment Group members: Norbert Ryan, Cr Claudia James and Rod Eldridge.

Wollert Community Farm: the community that cares for Curly Sedge Creek

Wollert Community Farm's conservation volunteers.

Just a short walk from Curly Sedge Creek, a new kind of farm is growing: one that’s as focused on caring for Country as it is on growing plants.

Wollert Community Farm is an exciting partnership between Whittlesea Community Connections, Yarra Valley Water and Melbourne Polytechnic, supported by the City of Whittlesea, one of Merri Creek Management Committee’s six member councils.

The farm is designed as a place where community, conservation and cultivation meet: combining social enterprise, environmental education, First Nations-led activities, local food growing, and hands-on restoration of the land.


Growling Grass Frogs at Curly Sedge Creek

MCMC's Yasmin Kelsall at Curly Sedge Creek. Photograph by Annette Ruzicka Photography..

When the sun sets over the grasslands, and traffic noise from the nearby highway begins to ease, Curly Sedge Creek begins to reveal its secrets.

During a night-time frog survey, something rare catches the beam of a torch: the delicate, distinctive spirals of Curly Sedge, unmistakable even in the dark. Nearby, the low, throaty call of a Growling Grass Frog cuts through the stillness. For Yasmin Kelsall, Environmental Planning Lead for MCMC, it was a moment of quiet revelation – proof that this overlooked stretch of creek could still offer refuge for threatened species.


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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