Long awaited Woi-wurrung names for two Merri Creek grasslands managed by Parks Victoria were formally gazetted on 22 December 2022. This is 16 years after Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Elder, Aunty Doreen Garvey-Wandin, provided a series of innovative names for Merri Creek grasslands, based on body parts of the mother kangaroo, at the request of the Friends of Merri Creek.

The newly gazetted names are: galgi ngarrk (backbone) for the Craigieburn Grassland Nature Conservation Reserve and bababi marning (mother’s hand) for Cooper St Grassland NCR. The name marram baba (body of the mother kangaroo) has also been adopted for the proposed parklands that extend along Merri Creek from the Ring Rd to Beveridge. The use of lower case for the first letter in the names is a Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung preference and has been accepted by Geographic Names Victoria.

Other names in the original series, submitted many years ago, were approved using conventional capitalisation: Bababi Djinanang (mother’s foot) for Jukes Rd Grassland in Fawkner; and Ngarri-djarrang (thigh) for Central Creek Grassland in Reservoir.