As Merri Creek Management Committee approaches its 35th year of operation, we celebrate both the enduring culture of our organisation
as well as anticipating a time of growth and change. In 2023 we farewelled team members who have supported the Merri Creek with passion for many years, including Ray Radford, who served the organisation for 28 years and who remains involved as a volunteer with Friends of Merri Creek.

Ray is known for stewarding the Merri News and Annual Reports, his hands-on work organising many Woody Weed Whacking events, his tenacious pursuit of the usage of Woi-wurrung names for Merri grasslands and his overall versatility to help the organisation with whatever it has needed.

Swamp Wallabies, Wood Ducks, microbats, platypuses and pardalotes are among the many animals that are set to benefit from the recent awarding of over $800,000 in grant funding for four Merri community groups: Merri Creek Management Committee (with Friends of Merri Creek), Friends of Edwardes Lake, Merri-bek Council (with Friends of Edgars Creek) and the Wollert Community Farm.

“We are thrilled that the Victorian Government has recognised the incredible value that one of the best-loved creeks in Melbourne’s north gives to people and creatures alike,” said Merri Creek Management Committee Executive Officer Bernadette Thomas.

Minister for Water, Regional Development, and Equality Harriet Shing MP, announced the funding in March 2024, part of a $10 million investment to “improve habitat, water quality, and provide cool green spaces for communities around our urban creeks, rivers and waterways.”

On 8th March we celebrate' the contribution of women on International Womens Day. Across our beautiful city are the stories of women making a difference to the green spaces where Melburnians connect with nature. Today, on International Women’s Day, we recognise and celebrate the contribution of women and female-identifying changemakers to the restoration of these spaces, both in the broader urban conservation community and along the banks of our much-loved Merri Creek.

Women play a critical role in the protection and restoration of green spaces across Australia, a truth that is understood by our friends at the annual Women in Conservation breakfast and Women’s Environmental Leadership Australia (WELA). Women bring a unique perspective at every level of conservation, whether through the keen eyes of a scientist, the engaging voice of an environmental educator or the leadership of a philanthropist who supports this work. The social impact of biodiversity and habitat loss are felt by women just as they are by others, which is why it’s essential that women and female-identifying people contribute equally in the solution to those problems.

In November last year, friends, neighbours, volunteers, activists, writers, photographers and scientists, bound by a shared love of the Merri Creek, came together to celebrate an incredible story of restoration and transformation – a story told within the pages of Merri Creek: A Ribbon of Nature in Melbourne’s North. The book is artfully designed and beautifully written to reminisce on a half-century of achievement for our much-loved creek. A Ribbon of Nature first came to life as the vision of the four directors of the Merri Creek Environment Fund (which funds some of the work carried out by Merri Creek Management Committee) stewarded by Ann Sanson, but soon became a passion project for many people revelling in the telling of this inspiring story.

Luisa Macmillan, MCMC's Manager for over 20 years, was awarded the 2023 Environmental Sustainability Award at Merri-bek City Council Community Awards on 31 October. Luisa was honoured for her leadership in overseing the ecological restoration of Merri Creek parkland in Merri-bek and beyond, making it one of the area's most popular and valued environmental assets and an inspiration for other degraded urban waterways in Melbourne.

Luisa played a key role in developing and maintaining relationships with Merri-bek and the five other Councils on the MCMC, as well as with state government agencies, research and education institutions, and community organisations – particularly Friends of Merri Creek. She has been an effective advocate for  the health of the Merri and tributaries through membership of advisory committees, strategic planning processes, advice on planning permit applications, and appearance at VCAT and Planning Panels. Importantly, she raised awareness of the risks of development on sodic and dispersive soils in the upper Merri catchment, which result in sediment-laden creek flows downstream when disturbed.

Luisa gave thanks to Ann McGregor who nominated her and accepted the award on behalf of: Merri Creek itself; the hundreds of volunteers who have supported Merri Creek over many decades; her work colleagues past and present at MCMC; and Council officers and councillors; all who have been a vital part of Merri Creek’s revitalisation.

Photo: Luisa Macmillan with the 2023 Mayor of Merri-bek, Cr Angelica Panopolous

Our Administration Officer, Monica Wiilliamson, retired from MCMC in October 2023 after 15 years of being the go-to person in the office for all things admin, organising, community, committee, and much more - including 10 years of taking the Minutes at our Committee meetings and seeing us safely through the COVID lockdowns.

Among Monica's many achievements was organising MCMC's 20th Anniversary Celebration, a photographic exhibition of beautiful black and white photos of Galada Tamboore by local photographer David Tatnall. Highlights included working with and learning from Aboriginal Elders, Uncle Dave Wandin and Uncle Jack Charles, and hearing their stories of growing up along the Merri. She also fielded many calls from the public, including one report of seeing a crocodile in the creek!

Many thanks to Monica for her commitment and contribution to MCMC over many years. We'll miss her but we'll still stay in touch, as she voluntarily looks after the Friends of Merri Creek on-line shop - where you can also buy a number of Merri Creek gifts.

Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people understand the September and October months as Porneet season on Country. This time has many warmer and sunnier days which plants and animals respond to. In Porneet this year, MCMC's community activities have focussed on birds and we've seen them fluttering around to mate and foraging for nest building materials, and noted that nests range from leafy, twiggy constructions, to  mud lined with feathers, or woven with horsehair!

Merri Creek Primary School students enjoyed spying on three nests by the Merri and saw the arrival of Pacific Black Ducks, Australian Wood Ducks, Chestnut Teals and one Northern Mallard. The children could easily identify these birds by using the Friends of Merri Creek’s brochure: Merri Birds.

During vacation program in Hawkstowe Recreation Reserve in Plenty Gorge Parklands, we observed Australian Wood Ducks searching for food with 11 fluffy chicks, and drew Sacred Kingfishers and learnt about their long journey and special habits.

In Merri-bek, children queued up to have local birds painted on their hands as part of a festival in Coburg. This led to wonderful exchanges about indigenous biodiversity, and to noticing the pinkishness of Kookaburra's beaks and the bluishness of wing feathers, the importance of healthy feet and places to perch, the different shapes of beaks, the long flights for migrating Sacred Kingfishers to visit Merri Creek.

Email if you’d like support to focus on Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung seasons and local plants and animals.

In the first week of August 2023, MCMC welcomed our new Executive Officer, Bernadette Thomas, taking over the baton from Luisa Macmillan, MCMC Manager of more than 21 years. Bernadette comes to us with a wealth of experience, most recently as a sustainability consultant and prior to that, as Manager, Sustainable Environment, at Hume City Council for 12 years. Bernadette brings her experience of managing Hume’s Conservation Estate; climate, energy, and water programs; strategy and policy development; and environment community development and leadership programs. Bernadette said that she is delighted to begin working alongside an experienced team and continuing the important legacy created by so many current and former staff and volunteers.

Luisa remains at MCMC for the time being in a part-time capacity, assisting with the transition and working on priority environmental planning projects.

In June 2023, the President of Merri Creek Management Committee (MCMC), Ann McGregor, received an Order of Australia Medal in the King’s Birthday awards for service to conservation and the environment.

Along with her husband Bruce, Ann was a key figure in the campaign in the late-1970s to save Merri Creek from being lined with concrete as part of a project to build a new freeway running along the Merri Creek valley in the inner suburbs of Melbourne. Soon after moving to Brunswick, Ann and Bruce formed the Brunswick Merri Creek Action Group in 1976 and over almost half a century have helped to turn Merri Creek from an open drain into the environmental and recreation asset that it is today. A webinar from Ann and Bruce explains this important history.

Metro Trains, a customer of MCMC, was recognised with a High Commendation award in the Excellence in Environmental Outcomes Category at the annual Infrastructure Sustainability Council awards on 7 September, 2023. The Biodiversity Manager of Metro Trains, Ben Roberts, said "I feel the award is a great recognition of the skilled and dedicated effort that MCMC have contributed since the inception of the biosite program. Throughout the program, MCMC have provided a consistent and reliable service which has resulted in the MCMC managed sites steadily recovering over this time, including improving site conditions which have significantly increased threatened species abundance."

Achievements made by Metro Trains at the Biosites include: 314% increase in abundance of threatened species; recovery of three Threatened Ecological Commuities; the return of five previously unrecorded threatened species; and the introduction of regular cool season eco-burns as a "business-as-usual" practice.
 Also see the video of our work with Metro Trains on remnant rail reserves in this segment on Gardening Australia in 2021.