As Merri Creek Management Committee completes its 35th year of protecting and restoring the Merri Creek, we enter a new organisational chapter, with the departure of former Manager and hugely influential Merri Creek advocate and devotee, Luisa Macmillan. While Luisa completed her Manager role in August 2023, we have continued to benefit from her expertise and experience through a part-time role as Manager, Special Projects, which concluded in October.

Luisa Macmillan, who led MCMC for over 21 years.

The MCMC team came together to enjoy Luisa’s last day in the way that Luisa has always loved to spend her time most – outdoors, enriching our shared understanding of the creek and catchment, enjoying views of Herne Swamp and the Upper Merri catchment from Green Hill, and identifying wildflowers at Dolomite Rise, Hidden Valley. It was a time to consider what has changed in the Merri Creek catchment during Luisa’s tenure – and what has stayed the same: a community’s enduring commitment to the protection and restoration of the Merri Creek.

President Ann McGregor reflects on the place that the Merri Creek holds in people’s lives in 2024 and the challenges and achievements during Luisa’s time as Manager.

A much-loved creek

“The Merri corridor is now one of northern Melbourne’s most popular and valued environmental assets, for people and for wildlife. The revitalisation of the Merri is an inspiration for other degraded urban waterways in Melbourne.”

Luisa has steered MCMC through much of that revitalisation, and has “always been a staunch advocate for the interests of Merri Creek and its parkland corridor,” according to Ann.

“Luisa has sound judgement and provides considered, wise advice on policy, strategy and tactics,” says Ann. “She has an excellent cross-disciplinary understanding of the many complex issues and requirements for waterway management, land use impacts and ecological restoration.”

Recently retired MCMC Vice President Rob Eldridge first began working alongside Luisa in 2008 and remembers the passion and ambition of the early 2009 Merri Creek strategy, reflecting that as the organisation matured, it became “more targeted. We've become a lot more realistic and a lot more targeted, especially politically”.

A love of landscapes

Rob credits Luisa’s big-picture thinking for guiding the organisation through two decades of change. “Some people love their animals and other people love their flowers. But Luisa saw the landscape – she loved the landscape. She saw the big picture.”

Luisa’s vast network of relationships stewarded MCMC through more than 20 years of community-building. Both Ann and Rob reference her ability to put people at ease while keeping her goals front-of-mind.

“Luisa includes everybody, and she collaborates beautifully,” says Rob. “She puts people at ease – politicians, whoever they are – and she's always present with who she’s talking to.”

“Luisa has terrific contacts across the agencies and is very highly thought-of. When Luisa talked, people listened.”

New leadership for a new phase

In August 2024, we welcomed the arrival of our new CEO Bernadette Thomas, who has since guided MCMC through its first year of new leadership, with significant tasks ahead of her, including a new strategic plan for MCMC as well as a new Merri Creek and Environs Strategy, the overarching strategy that unites the many organisations working along more than 60km of the Merri Creek to protect and restore our much-loved waterway.

Bernadette has witnessed Luisa’s deep connection with the creek and its community.

“Luisa cares deeply about the Merri Creek and catchment as well as the people who call the creek home. Her networks spread far and wide, and she has had an enormous impact on how urban waterways are cared for and protected. She has left a lasting legacy that will continue to inform waterway protections for many years to come.”

Bernadette also values the organisational culture that Luisa left in her hands.

“Luisa is a people-centred leader, supporting the MCMC team’s professional needs alongside an empathic approach to each person who comes through the front door. Over the 20+ years as the MCMC Manager, she developed a caring and supportive team culture that continues today and will continue well into the future.”

From everyone at MCMC and on behalf of the many organisations who support our vision, we thank Luisa for an extraordinary contribution to the Merri and for guiding the organisation to such significant achievements.

We know the Merri will continue to feature strongly in Luisa’s life and hope she continues to notice and enjoy the fruits of her contribution – perhaps, as she walks along the Merri and observes one of her most cherished bird species, the Spotted Pardalote (“active, tiny gems of birds,” according to Ann McGregor) foraging in the Eucalypt canopy.

“Luisa is well aware that their presence is a testament to successful habitat creation through revegetation by MCMC and others along the Merri,” says Ann.