Animals, Birds Return After Decade Of Work

The Age

Friday March 8, 1996

Carolyn Rance

IT'S ANYBODY'S guess whether platypuses or earth-moving equipment will arrive first at the stretch of Mullum Mullum Creek that runs through the Hillcrest Forestway area of suburban Donvale.

A decade of work by members of the local resident group, the Hillcrest Association, has helped make the waterway and surrounding bushland a remarkable suburban habitat for indigenous animals and plants.

Home to native fish, long necked tortoise, koalas, echidna, sugar gliders, lizards, butterflies, birds and an infinite variety of plants, its carers believe it could soon also attract platypuses, already sighted a few kilometres away at Templestowe.

Established in the early '60s to address neighborhood issues, Hillcrest Association became caught up in the national groundswell of concern for fast disappearing remnants of indigenous vegetation in the early '80s.

Its work gained statewide recognition last year when it won the Australian Nature Conservation Agency prize in the Victorian Landcare Awards. Later this month members will know if they have been successful in the national awards.

Regardless of the result, they have already poignantly highlighted a continuing dilemma for sprawling modern cities such as Melbourne.

As they go about their weed control, tree planting and other bushland regeneration activities, the bulldozers and earth movers creating the extension of the Eastern Freeway to Ringwood move ever nearer.

Their proposed path is along the edge of Hillcrest and across the creek, and their progress looks set to cause massive disruption of the 10 hectare area containing indigenous forest, grassland and a small gorge, beyond a neighborhood park and sports facilities.

``Although it may seem we are being defeated, we know that on either side of this horrendous thing there will be unique bushland," explains local naturalist and environmental educator, Cecily Falkingham.

``It is the only large creek valley with pristine bushland in the eastern suburbs. If we had let it degenerate for the last 10 years it would have been overgrown with blackberry, ivy, pittosporum and honeysuckle. Anyone trying to save it would not have had a leg to stand on."

She says the association has worked in cooperation with Manningham Council, VicRoads and Melbourne Parks and Waterways to implement a carefully prepared plan to counter problems of nutrient-rich runoff from adjacent residential areas and to foster regeneration of indigenous plant species and wildlife habitat. Regular working bees and community days have resulted in removal of weeds and rubbish and the planting of an estimated 10,000 native grasses, groundcovers, shrubs and trees.

Last year a federally funded Landcare and Environment Action Program brought a group of unemployed people to the area to work with Greening Australia on creation of an artificial wetland to counter stormwater runoff, which was inhibiting the growth of native plants.

© 1996 The Age

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