Friends of Kororoit Creek’s work over many years has been sowing the seeds of renewal and now the group has been rewarded with funding for 800 new plants.
The 50-member group received a $3500 Healthy Waterways community grant from Melbourne Water and is already putting it to good use at the spot where the Kororoit and Jones creeks meet.
The grant supports a wider project to rejuvenate the waterways whose banks are overgrown with weeds and lack native vegetation.
Volunteer and Deer Park resident Karin Saliba says the group is keen to “green” the west.
“We’ve been brainstorming how we could make the area more self-sustainable and make it a better habitat for the local wildlife,” Ms Saliba said.
“The trees around there aren’t native, so we’re planting what should’ve been there originally and restoring the creek to its natural beauty. The creek runs along a bike path so it also makes the area more user-friendly,” she said.
Ms Saliba says she hopes the project will lead to more revegetation at the site and promote the Friends group’s hard work.
“A lot of us in the group are getting older. I’m 61 and still fit and able, but there’s others into their 90s. We hope some young people will get onboard to make our area beautiful.”
The Sunshine Heights Primary School parents’ gardening group, known as the Sunny Bees, has received a $4125 grant from the same funding pool.
The funds will go towards a 500-plant regeneration project at the Sunshine Heights school boundary next to Kororoit Creek.
The project is also aimed at teaching the pupils about the creek environment and the indigenous vegetation that once flourished there.
