Merri Creek Catchment Essay

Physical description of the Merri Creek catchment:

Merri Creek catchment covers around 39,000 hectares and it is located north of Melbourne. The creek begins at the bottom of the Great Dividing Range near a small town named Heathcote Junction. It flows for approximately 60-70km south towards Port Philip Bay before it meets with Yarra River at Dights Falls in Abbotsford. The Merri Creek is one of the major offshoots for the Yarra draining water from a catchment. In the catchment, there are nine main tributary systems such as Curly Sedge, Edgars and Malcolm Creeks.

The Merri Creek catchment and surrounding areas are home to some of the endangered vegetation communities. As with most vegetation that has been cleared for human purposes in other

places, the vegetation has either been made non-existent anymore or almost totally destroyed with restricted pockets left remaining. Many remaining ecosystems can be found on private properties although some have been protected on public land. The creek also has an important role to preserve and care for the threatened plants and animal’s species that are found within the catchment.
The geology of the catchment has an ancient transformation with an evidence dating back more than 400 million years ago.

Marine silted and sandstone rocks yellowish layers dated back when the land once was covered with sea and became diminished around 400 million B.C. 65 million years ago, the sandy layer was left behind from non-marine sediment. The volcanic eruption caused a dominated geology alteration and changing the landform. The lava travels through the valleys of major creeks and rivers including the Merri and Darebin to reach Melbourne. The lava flows formed into basalt plains and Merri Creek was shaped for a long time by the direction of lava courses. The Merri Creek catchment has a variety of different type of soils found in one catchment and they are sedimentary, red friable, grey cracking clay, alluvial, gilgai and basaltic

clay.
A short history of Merri Creek:
The traditional owners of the Merri Creek Catchment are Wurundjeri-Willam, and the elder of the group when the European first contact was represented by Billibellary who is a respected and influential person. Their territory ranges from Yarra Bend to northward of Merri Creek. The Merri Creek provided life essentials all year round including water, plants for food, medicines and shelter/toolkits and animals for food and clothing.
In May 1835, the leader of the European Settlement John Bateman and important members of Wurundjeri tribe including the Billibellary and other tribes made a treaty which is significant as it is the only time in Australian history that Australian indigenous and European colonies struck a deal between them.
Around 1850, two brothers of English background named William and Henry Edwards farmed land on the current day suburb named Coburg which is approximately 14km north of Melbourne CBD. Henry was an amateur conservationist who recorded the animals and plants and their description that were found in Merri Creek Catchment. During the time the brothers spent on the farming property, the surrounding areas were mainly cleared leaving restricted and difficult to reach spots untouched. The land was used for agriculture and trees for firewood and timber. This then led to native fauna being forced to leave or to compete for resources against farming animals with a high chance of being killed by farmers. The negative effect of settlement and expanding town has impacted the environment with a comparison from Edwards’ description from 1850 and a survey by H.M.R Rupp in 1896 showed evidence that 60% of recorded species disappeared when surveyed and researched within Merri Creek Catchment.
By 1970, the catchment had been badly degraded with much of the original vegetation lost and facing the threats of pest species, erosion, salinity and poor human usage. In 1976, the Merri Creek Coordinating Committee began with a community group and certain authorities to work together and restore the Catchment back to similar vegetation what it once was while addressing concerns and possible threats ranging from environmental to human pressure. In late 1980, the Friends of Merri Creek was formed to restore and protect the environment with work like planting and weeding, litter cleaning, community, and campaigning involvement.
List of all stakeholders in the catchments:
The stakeholders that are part of the Merri Creek Catchment and they are Port Phillip and Westernport Catchment Management Authority, Yarra Valley Water, Merri Creek Management Committee, Friends Group, Darebin City Council, Hume City Council, Mitchell Shire, Moreland City Council, Whittlesea City Council, Yarra City Council, Melbourne Water, Parks Victoria, Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Wurundjeri Tribe Land Cultural Heritage Council, Environment Protection Authority, VicRoads and Sustainability Victoria.

Discussion of catchment user requirement:

The user of the Merri Creek Catchment is everyone who live or work within the catchment and used for different need for each users. The residential/housing are serviced with water for their household need such as laundry, dishwasher and garden as well as personal hygiene like shower and toilet. The recreational of Merri Creek Catchment has many different activities to do and has a choice between land and water. Some example that people were doing while we on the field trip was cycling, playing, picnicking, photography, animal watching, fishing and walking/jogging. The each recreational activity required certain need to be created to go on the land or within the waterways like for example the bicycle and walking/jogging would need a track to follow the path, fishing would has to have a certain designated areas where they would need a deck to fish. Agriculture, clean water supply is one of the main usage of catchment

is about however it is important resource for store watering to irrigation be used for agriculture. Agriculture required a grazed land to suit their need.
A list and evaluation of all land uses which impact on the catchment:
Over 150 years the land of Merri Creek Catchment had been heavily used for farming and agricultural practice, a major increase in residential development with urban sprawl spreading out and industrial boom. The issues from the creek being affected stem from human perception and behaviour shown this different progress land use. The Certain impact can fit under more than one different uses.