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.

For most Melburnians, the view from a Metro train window rushes past in a blur – an unremarkable stretch of grass, perhaps a small patch of scrub. Few realise that these seemingly ordinary rail corridors are home to some of Victoria’s most threatened grassland species and ecological communities.

Since 2018, MCMC has played a central role in helping Metro Trains protect and restore these vitally important ‘biosites’. When the current Metro franchise began, there were 30 sites identified as having significant ecological values, many of them neglected or poorly documented. Metro engaged specialist contractors to restore and monitor the sites, with MCMC taking responsibility for the majority – particularly the most sensitive or complex grassland reserves.

As founder of the Friends of Bracken Creek, Melanie del Monaco dreams of creating a bird and wildlife corridor along a stretch of Bracken Creek, a small tributary which flows through parts of Thornbury and Northcote and into the Merri.

Image by Melanie Del Monaco.

On 13 November 2025, as Buath Gurru (grass-flowering season) brought warm rains to the Merri, Victoria marked an historic first.

The First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan, members of the Victorian Cabinet and the Governor of Victoria gathered at Government House to sign Australia’s first Treaty between First Peoples and a state government. Merri Creek Management Committee (MCMC) acknowledges the significance of this moment in the very season when Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country is flourishing.

The signing formalises a renewed relationship between the Victorian Government and First Peoples, recognising those communities as ongoing decision-makers on the lands and waters they have cared for over tens of thousands of years. On the Merri Merri – rocky creek Country long tended by Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people – this care is embedded in living practice and deep ecological knowledge.

As 2025 reaches its close, we at Merri Creek Management Committee thank you for your wonderful support this year. We can only do the important work we do for the Merri Creek – and its lifegiving landscapes – thanks to your support. We invite you to celebrate our shared achievements by reading our 2024–2025 Annual Report here.

Image by Annette Ruzicka.