
If you want to know about our community events please subscribe to our events emails. You'll be notified of upcoming activities.
Missed one of our webinars? Recordings and related material are available on our Digital Resources page.
We have reprinted our popular full colour book, Creek Life: Flora & Fauna of the Merri Creek Valley. This is the story of a Sacred Kingfisher's journey to find a home, traversing 13 flora and fauna communities along Merri Creek. It features beautiful illustrations by former MCMC staffer, Brian Bainbridge, along with evocative descriptions of the communities.
It's available for $20 at the MCMC office, 2 Lee St Brunswick East (cash, cheque or direct deposit) or from our neighbours at CERES Nursery. If you'd like the book posted, email us at and add $3 for postage. For direct deposit details see further.
Are you curious about what Merri Creek looked like 30 or more years ago? Or maybe you'd like to have a trip down memory lane? You can do this by taking our web-based tour of Merri Creek sites in Brunswick East and Northcote from the 1980s. Just follow this link. Even better, visit Merri Creek with your web-enabled device. Then you'll be able to view photos from decades ago and simultaneously appreciate the amazing ecological transformation that can be seen today.


In January some of our field staff were lucky enough to hear several Endangered Growling Grass Frogs (Litoria raniformis) calling from Merri Creek, at two different locations in Fawkner’s Moomba Park Reserve. This is the first time these frogs have been recorded in the lower sections of the Merri for many decades, most likely due to pollution and the loss of their habitat, We don't know how long the frogs might remain in this section of the creek, as they need still or slow moving water to breed in, and heavy rains can make the creek flow ferociously.
Photo above: Herne Swamp after heavy rain, Mt Fraser in background. Sept 2016.
Herne Swamp is a hidden gem on the upper Merri Creek awaiting the opportunity to be brought 'back to life'. Lying to the south and east of the town of Wallan it has 'all the ingredients required for a spectacular restoration project'. This is the central point made in an inspiring discussion paper from the Nature Glenelg Trust - Restoration Vision for the Wallan Wallan wetlands, including Herne Swamp, as the centrepiece of the Wallan Wallan Regional Park. The Nature Glenelg Trust are experts in wetland restoration and were invited by local community members to inspect Herne Swamp in 2018.
Sunday 31 March, 10am-1pm
Join the Merri Creek Management Committee's Waterwatch Coordinator on the upper Merri Creek in Donnybrook to collect data on waterbug diversity for Melbourne Water project priorities. The session will cover sampling and collecting of live macroinvertebrates, and identifying live macroinvertebrates to family level in order to determine the water quality of the Merri Creek. Lunch is provided (please provide dietary requirements). Some previous experience with macroinvertebrate identification is preferred. Bookings essential below. This event is proudly funded by Melbourne Water.
This event is fully booked. To be alerted for future events please subscribe here: http://www.mcmc.org.au/get-involved/subscribe
Our latest Fauna & Flora report summarises 53 sightings from our fauna book between October 2017 and September 2018, including Platypus and Eastern Rosellas, which are rare in the lower Merri. Significant flora include the Fireweed Groundsel, Senecio linearifolius, which is only known to occur naturally in the catchment at Galada Tamboore, and our experimental plantings of White Elderberry, Sambucus gaudichaudiana, the endangered Tough Scurf-Pea, Cullen tenax, as well as the rare Western Golden-tip, Goodia medicaginea (photo left).
A wildlife garden puts us in touch with the natural seasons of our land. "True Spring" in the Six Seasons Calendar (the last several weeks of "winter") is marked by the opening of many kinds of wildflowers and arrivals of migratory birds. This forms an extended spring-like season that precedes the burst of flowering, insect activity and birdsong in September and October. All this occurs in MCMC's own front garden in East Brunswick - see the pdf article (a modified version of which first appeared in the Friends of Merri Creek newsletter, Merri Growler, November 2017).

Join Us for a fun family event celebrating our local creeks and the life they support.
The whole family can take part in the following interactive activities:
Making bush toys, Walk-in butterfly enclosure; Building Blue-banded Bee hotels, Skin art painting, Making trash puppets and a Frog Activity
Bring along a Picnic and enjoy a coffee from Mr Jitters van
Saturday 22nd October, 11am - 1pm
Outside Fawkner Library, 77 Jukes Road Fawkner
For any queries call 9380 8199.
Merri Creek Management Committee has a Catchment Programs group which develops and delivers waterway and indigenous biodiversity engagement programs. This new video, Celebrating Merri Creek's biodiversity 2016, celebrates some of the many ways that this team works with the community to experience the beauty and wonders of nearby nature in the local urban environment.
Please get in touch with us to discuss how we could support your educative goals and curious instincts about local natural areas: or (03) 9380 8199.
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