Commitment achieves great results for the "Friends of Merri Creek.

Anne and Bruce McGregor have been sharing with us their journey towards the transformation of the Merri Creek through community action. With the establishment of the Friends of Merri Creek, a mechanism was activated to achieve that goal.
Flood control areas were established, and parkland created to replace rubbish tips and dump sites. Central Creek grasslands were also established to help change the face of what had been unsightly areas, to vegetated areas with walking paths for use by the community.
The Friends of the Merri Creek in the late 1980s defined Current and Future Challenges:
1. Define urban growth areas across the catchment to protect endangered species.
2. Water quality to be improved due to soil problems in the upper catchment. 3. Resources to be made available to allow improvement works to continue
4. Improvement of habitat by widening the corridor.
5. Upgrading infrastructure.
6. Create environmentally appropriate flood control.
7. Establish a management for Conservation Areas.
8. Keep abreast of Climate Change.
What is the goal now?
A mixture of Housing and nature. When the community reported that the quality of water was being affected by rubbish being dumped into the water. The community acted with tree planting along the creek banks and by getting school children involved in visiting the creek on education trips. Two primary achievements:
 transformation of the much degraded lower Merri Creek.
 protection of natural areas
Work continues.