MCMC supports educators, from early years to tertiary level, to teach Indigenous perspectives with local biodiversity references and stories. In 2022 we led the first Community of Practice gathering in Darebin to situate Merri Creek’s catchment, especially our waterways and biodiversity and to support educator’s local connection to Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country, seasons, and language.

In our aim to connect educators to Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country, and as non-Indigenous educators, we follow advice which asks us not to tell First Nations People's creation stories. Instead, we are able to connect interculturally with stories about different concepts of seasons or material stories such as those about uses of indigenous plants, various plant language names and signs around us such as about the name ‘Merri Creek.’ Few people comprehend this as a bilingual phrase: Merri (Woi-wurrung) and Creek (English).

In July 2023 we were joined by people from 17 organisations at our second gathering in NAIDOC Week. We spent time on our ecoliteracy by drawing indigenous plants and noting their Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung language names, where they are known.

A key highlight was a presentation by the principal of Northcote High School, Chris Jones, about decolonising the school’s library - see The Age article about this.

MCMC supported Yarra and Merri-bek Libraries’ vacation programs with very well-attended activities that highlighted NAIDOC Week (2023) and local indigenous plants. Together we thought about Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country, language, seasons and plants using a variety of resources. Kids joined in very enthusiastically and produced many carefully produced booklets illustrated with their own botanic drawings.

We met in the Woi-wurrung season waring which spans April to July, Melbourne’s coldest months which correspond to winter. The indigenous plants we worked with in NAIDOC Week reflected the season, especially in relation to the lack of new flowers which occurs in later stages depending on the plant. We used The Plants of Coranderrk as a guide to plant names in Woi-wurring.

The indigenous plants we spent time becoming familiar with by touching, sniffing and drawing, included bowat (Poa labillardierei, Common Tussock-grass), garawun (Lomandra longifolia, Spiny-headed Mat-rush), galertiwan (Pomaderis aspera, Hazel Pomaderris) and muyan (Acacia dealbata, Silver wattle).

For help with such an activity, email:

Our support of early years communities doing Bush Kinder and Nature Play programs in local natural areas continues to strengthen with projects funded by the Cities of Whittlesea and Hume. MCMC’s philosophy reflects both the state education requirements for early years and local government concerns about the impacts on public open spaces. Our philosophy is: Leave no footprint; Listen to children; Acknowledge Wurundjeri Country in age-appropriate ways; Respect early years educators.

For more on the benefits of these progams, follow the read more prompt.

Striking new interpretative and way-finding signs were installed in July 2023 in parts of marram baba Merri Creek Parklands,  many at Galada Tamboore, an area of public parkland on the Merri Creek north of the Ring Rd. With permission from Wurundjeri Woi-wurrurng Elders, the signs include a welcome in Woi-wurrung and an arresting logo designed by Lewis Wandin-Burstall. Four of the signs include text provided by Wurundjeri Elder, Aunty Doreen Garvey-Wandin.

The project was funded by the State Government and led by Merri Creek Management Committee on behalf of the marram baba Parkland Partners - the Cities of Hume and Whittlesea, Mitchell Shire, Melbourne Water, Yarra Valley Water, Parks Victoria and the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation.

A small but enthusiastic group of Year 12 Geography students from Whittlesea Secondary College joined MCMC at Merri Creek in Donnybrook to conduct WaterWatch physical chemical testing of parameters such as salinity (EC), pH, turbidity, temperature and nutrients (phosphate and ammonium). 

This testing site is downstream of new housing developments and just upstream of the confluence of Kalkallo Creek. Both creeks and nearby dams and wetlands support an important population of endangered Growling Grass Frogs (Litoria raniformis). The students were studying the ecological impacts of urban development on waterways.

Meet the new Merri Birdies WaterWatch group! This keen group of lovely locals will be monitoring the water quality of the Merri Creek in Coburg on a monthly basis. They plan to include other activities, such as litter clean-ups and waterbug sampling and monitoring. Their site is an important site for the monitoring of habitat and food sources for platypus, so good luck to the group on their water quality journey of discovery!!  Thank you to #melbournewater and #cityofmerribek for supporting this group and the MCMC WaterWatch program. To join them, contact

In July 2023, MCMC and the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation concluded a special three-year partnership project whereby hundreds of people connected to Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country by sharing ecological and cultural understandings of the confluence of Merri Creek and Birrarung (Yarra River).  On Saturday 1 July, despite the cold and rain, over 40 people joined Wurundjeri Elder Uncle Dave Wandin, MCMC and eight leaders from Yarra’s Climate Change Alliance for the Community Climate Change Conversations on Country in Yarra event.

The three year partnership project was funded by the City of Yarra Community Grants program and we aim to continue to provide community connections to this significant area. See highlights of our approach in these powerpoints, from a two-part webinar held in 2012/22: Talking Merri Birrarung: Caring for Country where the Merri flows into Birrarung Part 1 and Part 2.

In July 2023, we were amazed and very touched when our 2023 Merri Creek Environment Fund appeal received a $100 donation from Merri Creek itself!!  It came to MCMC with a letter addressed to the creek from Clifton Hill resident, Bruce Lavender, apologising for the bad treatment over the years and the heaps of rubbish that it has had to put up with, but noting the many attempts to improve it. The $100 note was one of the many things Bruce and his partner found on one of their clean-ups.

See the full letter below.

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.

On a chilly Tuesday night in May 2023, about 30 keen participants came along to learn more about the frog species of the Whittlesea township. 
Firstly we trained the participants to recognise the calls of the 16 frog species found in Melbourne through a game of 'Frog bingo.' We then walked from Whittlesea Community Activity Centre along Bruce’s Creek where we heard the Victorian Smooth Froglet (Geocrinia Victoriana) and Common Eastern Froglet (Crinia signifera).

We finished up at the Whittlesea Secondary College frog pond behind the Whittlesea community garden, where we heard the previous two species again, plus Spotted Marsh Frog (Limnodynastes tasmaniensis) and Southern Brown Tree Frog (Litoria ewingii). All frog calls, and species were recorded and submitted via the Melbourne Water Frog Census app.

To be notified about future froggy events, subscribe to 'Events - Frog Walks and frog census'- HERE.