Following very successful community action, the then Nunawading Council voted unanimously on 9/5/1983 to acquire land from the Board of Works which enabled Blacks Walk, Kalang Park and Furness Park to be linked along Gardiners Creek.   Had the community not acted, the MMBW would have sold off significant parts of our park for housing development!

Here is part of the business paper for the council meeting:

…and here is a local newspaper report of the time recording the happy event:

The Blackburn Creek Conservation Group is the forerunner of today’s Blackburn Creeklands Advisory Committee.   Several key players involved in the original community action are still actively involved.  We, of today’s community, owe them, their former and current colleagues a huge debt for the gift of their time, expertise, passion and effort in preserving, nurturing and enhancing such an enjoyable park.   We should also acknowledge the essential contributions and expertise of council staff, management and contractors toward the same ends.

By the way, another nearby community (Forest Hill/Vermont) is going through a similar process now trying to preserve land no longer needed  - in this case, by VicRoads.  We wish that community as much success as we’ve had in preserving our bushland park.  Please click this link for further information including a planned Community Open Day on Sunday 26^th May.   We must act in a timely way before these opportunities vanish forever – the importance of open space for both people and wildlife will only become increasingly important as Melbourne’s population density increases.

• photos of some of the fungi to be seen at this time of year
• notes on changes and developments for the Creeklands
• contact points
• dates for your calendar
• news snippets on the Creeklands and Blackburn Lake sanctuary.

Read all the news: Bushland News, May – November 2013

GOING GREENER :  The Bushland News is joining the electronic age – to be delivered predominantly by e-mail to friends of the Creeklands and Blackburn Lake Sanctuary.  To register for e-mail delivery, please submit your name and e-mail address below:

If you’d prefer to continue to receive a printed copy, volunteers will continue to hand-deliver to your local address.   If so, please print this page: Friends of the Creeklands Form and mail the request slip to:

FRIENDS OF THE BLACKBURN CREEKLANDS,    
15 Sheehans Road,
Blackburn, 3130

Note:  Personal contact details will be used exclusively by the Blackburn Creeklands Advisory Committee and will not be passed on to anyone else.  Friends may unsubscribe at any time.

Police and a tow truck attended to remove the car on Sunday morning (28^th April, 2013).  Fortunately, the occupants were unhurt and there was surprisingly little vegetation damage to the park.  Only one Melaleuca was knocked on the way through – though pulling the car out created a little more disturbance.

However, there was quite a bit of oil on the water.  Following a report to the EPA, a Melbourne Water team attended to clean up the water pollution using special absorbent mats through the pond.   A temporary surface dam remained in place for a few days to prevent further oil /petrol going downstream.   The initial cleanup work took 3-4 hours.

The slight scum still present is oil breaking down -we’re told it goes stringy and then “burns off” with sunlight.  By the way, if you see pollution in the creek, please report to the EPA Pollution Watch Hot Line on 1300 372 842 (all hours).

Congratulations to all involved in the efficient removal of the car and its water pollution.  The pond is important to the local bird and aquatic life.  Both a Nankeen Night Heron and a Little Pied Cormorant have been seen sitting on the rocks at the pond from the Laurel Grove bridge in recent times.  Here is a shot of the cormorant “big foot” at the site:

The weather was mild and conducive to the heavy work of removing several clumps of Agapanthus and smaller amounts of woody weed.   Fine work was also performed in the first stage of weeding the creek bank – carefully preserving the indigenous grasses and in removing major infestations of Angled Onion weed, Ivy, Creeping Buttercup, Ribwort and Dock.

The working bee was well attended by committee and a new person, Amanda, joined in while happening to walk past.

Click here to view the flyer.

This was the third survey overall and the second autumn survey conducted in the Creeklands park.  We were just so lucky with ideal weather (fine with light breeze only) and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.  Our sightings of 29 species compared well with 33 sighted in April 2012. In October 2012, we sighted 27 species.

Highlights were possibly the larger birds such as a flying visit from an Australian Hobby (with a squadron of noisy miners as escort) and the tawny frogmouths – though smaller, harder to see birds such as pardalotes and thornbills, were also identified.

Here are the survey results:  BCAC Bird Survey Autumn, 2013.

Please see the following links for details of the prior surveys:

• the  inaugural autumn survey conducted on Saturday, April 28th, 2012
• the spring survey conducted on Saturday, October 27th, 2012.

It was good to meet some new people too. At least six people participated who were new to Creeklands activities.  As always, all members of the community are cordially invited to our bird counts.  No prior knowledge or experience is needed – our groups are led by knowledgeable experts who are great educators as well.  A convivial morning tea while the counts are consolidated is an added bonus.

Here is a montage of shots taken on the count by participant Jim Lambert:

They show a well disguised Tawny Frogmouth, Rainbow Lorikeets and a Little Pied Cormorant.

The Illegal Mulch Dumping recently blogged occurred while work was in progress!

Update: the new plantings have continued further west along Heath Street to fill in gaps between, and behind, the existing Prunus woody weed along the footpath.  Council will remove the woody weeds once the new plantings are well enough established to protect the bank (probably next year).

Our thanks go to the mayor and his family, as well as other neighbours, who have been kind enough to donate water for the new plantings.

Obviously, the cost to the community will also include the temporary bridge closure while repairs are effected.

UPDATE: the safety tape has been removed and the somewhat charred planks remain… Looks like the powers-that-be have decided that repairs are not warranted.

By the way – the bridge is an important bird viewing platform – both a Nankeen Night Heron and a Little Pied Cormorant have been seen sitting on the rocks at the pond from the Laurel Grove bridge in recent times. Let’s hope they’re there for the bird count on 27/4!

The photo below shows two of three illegal dumpings with one of our dismayed weeders in shot to show scale:

It seems “cowboy” operators save the costs of proper green waste disposal  by dumping in the park.  No doubt they charge their customers for waste disposal – so make a tidy profit at the expense of damaging the park and making the council (ie the community) bear the costs of its removal and disposal.

In the Heath Street case, the dumping occurred on areas that had been recently painstakingly hand-weeded by the Monday Weeding Group – leaving carefully nurtured indigenous grasses and seedlings smothered by waste.  Even though the council has since removed the waste, it often contains weed seed and cuttings – so will tend to reintroduce weeds into affected areas – no doubt causing further problems down the track.  Furthermore, the council had to use mechanical means to collect the waste – hardly fragile plant-friendly!

What can you do ?

Please be vigilant: only vehicles operated by Whitehorse council, Melbourne Water and their respective contractors should ever be in the park.  Council and Melbourne Water vehicles are easily identifiable by their signage – council vehicles usually belong to its Parkswide Division.

Identifying legitimate contractor vehicles is more problematic.  If in doubt, note down the registration of the vehicle and telephone Parkswide on 9262 6213 to check whether legal mulch is expected to be being brought in.

If you suspect that the dumping is illegal, call the Local Laws people on 9262 6588  to report.  If possible, take a photograph showing the vehicle in the park with identification visible.  Thankfully, an observant resident has supplied the registration of an offender in the recent Heath Street case to council.

On a smaller scale, residents should never dump lawn clippings or other garden waste into the park for the same reasons noted above.

We’ve updated our bird lists with this latest entry – we now have 94 species recorded for our park.  See our Fauna and Flora page for the listings.

Don’t forget our Autumn Bird Survey planned for Saturday, April 27th, 2013 (all welcome – no experience necessary).

Here’s what it looked like before:

And after (the weed pile is in the foreground):