The Latham’s Snipe is a globetrotter that prefers to stay entirely out of the spotlight.

Quiet, cryptic and remarkably well camouflaged, these migratory shorebirds spend much of their time hidden among dense wetland grasses and reeds. For most of the year, they breed in northern Japan and eastern Siberia before making the extraordinary journey south along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, arriving in Australia between August and April to rest and feed before returning north once again.

Latham's Snipe. Photos by Beverley Van Praagh.

Help us sow the seeds of a wetland and keep our vision of a restored wetland landscape alive.

We’re aiming to raise $40,000 by June 30. Your donation will help to restore this important but forgotten corridor and build the seedbanks needed to restore the wetland of tomorrow.

Donate today! 

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The wallan wallan Regional Parkland Alliance was officially launched on the weekend! Our Alliance partners - MCMC, FoMC, WEG, and BEAM - met at the top of Green Hill looking out over Herne's Swamp all the way to Mt Fraser, and across the area that would make up the wallan wallan Regional Parkland.

The Hon. Ros Spence, Member for Kalkallo joined us, and spoke about the importance of natural spaces for the communities that will make up the far northern suburbs, and the importance of our Alliance to helping to bring the vision to life.

MCMC honours the life of Gil Freeman, an inspiring leader in our community of Merri Creek protectors and advocates. Gil was a giant at CERES, in Brunswick and more recently South Gippsland. Gil Freeman died after a brief illness in late March. He was 85 years old and is remembered with fondness and gratitude.

We thank Chris Ennis from CERES for permission to reproduce his tribute to Gil, with small amendments to his original article.

Gil Freeman, image supplied by Mark Phillips, Editor at the Brunswick Voice.

MCMC is seeking expressions of interest for someone with expertise (and/or qualifications) in accountancy, bookkeeping, and/or financial management, to join our Finance Subcommittee in a voluntary capacity. We value sound financial management as fundamental to our environmental, educational and advocacy goals.

In the upper Merri Creek catchment, the landscape is changing, with new suburbs spreading across plains that were once defined by wetlands and waterways. But just beyond the edges of development, another story is still visible: volcanic cones, remnant grasslands, and a creek system that continues to shape the land.

For local campaigner and former Mitchell Shire Councillor Rob Eldridge, who has been advocating for the establishment of a Regional Parkland here for decades, it’s a place that is full of possibility.

Early spring, looking towards Mt Fraser. Image by Michael Longmore.

Standing on a low bridge over Merri Creek at galada tamboore, the assembled group falls quiet. With eyes closed, the landscape begins to separate into layers: water moving below, a gentle breeze through the beal (River Red Gums), birds calling overhead. Each person hears something different.

It’s November, in the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung season of buath garru, when grasses flower across the landscape. In the surrounding grassland, seed heads are already forming, shifting between pale green and sandy gold as they catch the light.

marram baba Merri Creek Parkland, image by Dianna Wells. 

In the face of increasing development throughout Melbourne’s northern growth corridor threatening the natural environment and ancient landscapes, an alliance of groups has formed, seeking State Government commitment to an extensive regional park focused on the waterways of the upper Merri Creek catchment. 

The Merri Creek Management Committee, along with the Wallan Environment Group, Friends of Merri Creek and BEAM Mitchell Environment Group, are banding together to form the wallan wallan Regional Parkland Alliance. With support from other environmental and community-focussed groups, we are asking the State government to provide the essential natural framework that will help to ameliorate the impacts of the substantial growth and help new communities to thrive.

View from Green Hill overlooking Mt Fraser and Herne’s Swamp. Image by Claire Weekley.

Waterproof waders might not be your typical weekend wardrobe, but for a group of 20 WaterWatch volunteers gathered in the inner-north of the Merri Creek catchment in late November, these garments are simply the trademark of a passion for waterway health.

For once, these WaterWatch volunteers kept their socks dry, while attending MCMC’s first-ever Citizen Science networking workshop: although WaterWatch volunteers routinely head out to collect samples, record observations and monitor the health of local creeks, they rarely have the chance to meet one another.