By Jessica Gerger from ‘Friends of Kororoit Creek’
The Friends of Kororoit Creek (FoKC) is a super-active bunch of passionate volunteers who are completely fixated on improving the health of the Kororoit Creek corridor. Ignoring our own weed filled gardens, we head down to the creek around three times a week to work at our many thriving sites.
We do huge amounts of revegetation work – planting Indigenous species to provide food and habitat for local fauna like lizards, birds and beneficial insects. We plant many endangered species and are trying to help restore the banks of the Kororoit Creek to what they may have looked like before colonisation.
We are currently starting a campaign for a new wetland to be created along the creek – which will help filter the water, ease flooding and create a haven for wildlife especially the all important frogs!
The FoKC try to reach as many people as possible through a variety of means including art projects, workshops, walks and talks. We recently commissioned a wonderful First Nations carving work ‘Walan-walan’ at one of our top sites – The Bug Rug. Walan-walan represents animals of significance throughout the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung cycle of the year. It glows in the dark too – it is very cool so come down and check it out.
And of course, there are projects that get the community involved like our new ‘Down the Creek’ memory card game, which was generously funded by Greater Western Water. It has been such fun working with local artists, children and with our fantastic designer Elzette Bester to create this sweet glimpse into what the creek means to people and how they see it. Contributions of photo collages, watercolours, graphic design, pencil drawings and paintings – all by people who love and value the local environment. Elzette created the lovely box design with one of the Illustrations she contributed called ‘Wattle on the Creek’. She also used it in her design and layout of all the playing cards and the fold out artist information sheet. This beautiful deck of cards is a vibrant little slice of the creek and we are very proud of it! We hope that when people play it with their families they can chat about the images they see on the cards – bringing the world of the creek into their homes.
‘Down the Creek’ will be available at our end of year party and future events for a note donation. Check out Friends of Kororoit Creek at fokc.org.au or find us on Facebook for event details. Join us anytime – we love meeting new people!
