Revegetation & Community Work
Revegetation, Reclaiming, Rebuilding our landscape with Indigenous plants
Made in collaboration with Emmaline Bowman, 2022.
Celebrating our Community Heroes
23 March 2023
In 1983 I began a group called Friends of Ross Street to lobby local government and to encourage others to join in. The group's name changed to Friends of Merri on Parade, our focus remained the same; to remove exotic weeds and replace these with indigenous plants only. Weeds include buttercup's daisy, onion weed, creeping ivy to name a few. The indigenous plants provide a food source and habitat for our native birds, animals, reptiles and insects.
Since replanting, some of the following have returned :
swallow tail, white striped mastiff bat, white tailed water rat, black tailed wallaby, platypus, long necked tortoise, brown toadlet, growling grass frog, white faced heron, little pied cormorant, plains wanderer, copperhead and brown snakessss, blue tounge lizard, skinks, blue devil, water ribbons, kangaroo grass, kangaroo apple, yellow tailed black cockatoos, echidna, tiger snakes, kingfisher, kookaburras, tawny frogmouth...just to mention a few!
The echidna that returned in 2005.
Carolyn with MP for Northcote, Mary Delahunty on the creek 2005.
Testimonials
Hi Caroline, this is Bonnie. You were my teacher when I was at kinda at St. Marys. I'm just writing to say the I saw the article in the paper about you and well done! What your doing for the creek is fantastic and good on ya and keep up the good work! Congratulations from the family.
Love Bon
Bonnie student at St Mary's kindergarten North Melbourne
Dear Carolyn,
I am writing to you to say thank you for having the courage, energy and peace to take care of the Merri Creek. I'm sure that the work is reward in itself but thankyou for the wider ripple effect of hope and power you spread to 'unclaimed' people like me. I do not live in the area but am a gypsy of sorts who, maybe because of this, highly values the ability to claim a place and be claimed by it. To live with it rather than over the top of it.
Anyway, I used to visit a friend who lived on Ross Street in the early 90's. I vividly remember the sadness I felt at, what seemed to me, the apocalyptic sight of hundreds of plastic bags suspended from the trees growing along the creek bank. Also the backs of fences piled high with discarded domestic waste. Waste, blindness and disregard.
Reading about your determined work work was a great reminder to me of the importance of holding gently yet firmly to ones beliefs and of believing in the importance of every daily act. Thanks
I send a prayer out to you to find a sponsor and also enjoy the fruits of your work.Yours sincerely,
Julie
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