MCMC congratulates Friends of Merri Creek for obtaining a $23,242 Community Grant from Port Phillip & Western Port Catchment Management Authority to control the highly invasive South African Weed Orchid (Disa bracteata). The grant will support Friends of Merri Creek’s fledgling Special Weed Orchid Terminator volunteers to continue their weed control work. Along with MCMC staff expertise, the Darebin Council's Green Army team’s enthusiasm, and the methodical surveys of volunteer Andrew Kuhlmann, SWOT systematically searched 80% of Ngarri-djarrang grassland in 2017, and removed over 1,500 Weed Orchids.

Merri Creek Management Committee (MCMC) completed two 18-month long restoration projects along the Merri’s middle reaches in early 2018.  Both projects were funded by Melbourne Water grants. The Loving Laffan project saw MCMC take on the Weed of National Significance, Gorse (Ulex europeaus), along a one kilometre stretch of Merri Creek south of Laffan Reserve in Craigieburn North. Dense infestations were controlled along several hectares of endangered Escarpment Shrubland vegetation. The planting of 200 indigenous shrubs restored some of the habitat values that had been provided by the Gorse. Hume City Council’s Bushland Management Team assisted MCMC staff in this physically demanding task. During this work we discovered a previously unrecorded population of the critically endangered Golden Sun Moth and a population of Emu Foot (Cullex tenax), an endangered pea not seen locally in over a decade. 

The second project Merri Models saw MCMC restore endangered Creekline Tussock Grassland at Craigieburn’s Rushwood Drive Reserve. 

Merri Creek Management Committee (MCMC) has kept a record book of flora and fauna sightings since 1997 with our own staff being key contributors to this. The current (third) volume began in 2004 and is almost full. These records are useful when reviewing the success of restoration in providing habitat. They can reveal whether wildlife is just passing through or whether it is significantly supported by the landscape. Some of the detailed notes from Spring and Summer 2017 provide valuable insights to this process.

MCMC led two nights of frog discovery along Edgars Creek and the Edwardes Lake wetland in Reservoir in October and November 2017. The excursions included educational games such as a frog quiz, waterbug discovery and frog bingo. In total 40 participants heard 11 frogs calling from two local species: the Pobblebonk and the Common Eastern Froglet. All frog calls were recorded as part of Melbourne Water's citizen science Frog Census and uploaded via the Frog Census app.

The forty-nine flora and fauna sightings recorded by Merri Creek Management Committee staff or reported to us by the community between October 2016 and end of September 2017 hint at habitat improvements along Merri Creek. They also document the discovery of previously overlooked species and verify the results of conservation efforts. 

Has thirty years of restoration of the Merri Creek made a difference? Woodland birds think so!  Friends of Merri Creek quarterly birdwatch data give us a wildlife ‘census’ at the Merri Creek woodlands in Fawkner and Reservoir. These woodland have expanded by thirty hectares in thirty years. Up to 33 woodland birds now use the tree canopy, understorey shrubs, native groundcover and sparse leaf-litter strewn ground.