Walk No 2: Stony Creek

My walk for February was the Stony Creek area and Cruickshank Park
Rhe walk was organised by Yarraville Community Centre and we started off at McNish Reserve at 30 Court Street; The park opposite my old rooms in Yarraville.

The Dinosaur built by Medibank The CEO was a local 

The Stony Creek belonged to the Marin bulluk clan, who occupied the area between Kororoit Creek and Maribyrnong River. This clan was part of the Woi wurrung, the tribal group which owned most of Melbourne. Bungarin was the head man of the Marin bulluk clan. He was also a guardian of the famous axe quarry at Mt William. Bungarin's name appears as one of the 'chiefs' on John Batman's so-called deed of purchase.

The most famous event related to Stony Creek is that at 11.50 am on 15 October 1970 one of the spans of the Westgate Bridge collapsed, falling 50m into the mud of Stony Creek below. 

35 workers were killed in what is to this day Australia's worst industrial disaster. 

A permanent memorial is today located beneath the bridge on Hyde Street, adjacent to Stony Creek in the area known as the Backwash (not visited today) 

In 1971, a group was created to design and build Cruikshank Park. Local residents got together and in conjunction with the Council, work was started on the park. Community groups such the Friends of Stony Creek and Friends of Cruickshank Park have done many plantings there. 

Friends of Stony Creek was originally named Greening Footscray but the group decided to concentrate on Stony Creek. They have revegetated many parts of the creek including Cruickshank Park, and areas from Cala St to Paramount Rd, and from Williamstown Rd to Francis St. With the help of Melbourne water, they built two ponds at Cala St and in Cruickshank Park. 

The group would like to create other ponds and reed areas along the creek.

 We started the walk with a chat about the Community Garden that has been going (after 3 years of work) since 2014. The whole area with the playground and the garden was originally a Little Athletics ground

 There was a couple from the Friends of Cruikshank park as well as a Maribyrnong Park Ranger

Gwen and Bob from FOCP (yellow jackets)  

Gwen and the ranger 

We headed off down the Stoney creek 

"Sickly Slimy Stony creek to be revived" The Age reported in 2002  Stony creek.

Stony Creek, probably Melbourne's most polluted waterway, has had healthier days. Since last year,2001  the Environment Protection Authority has received 130 reports of pollution from the community in its catchment area of Sunshine, Yarraville and Footscray.

And since 1992, the EPA has launched 18 prosecutions for industry pollution and road spills. These included a fats and oil leak from Meadow Lea and an accidental fertiliser spill from the Pivot agriculture company that killed 80 eels in February. 

Lots of trees planted in the last 20 years 

A lot of this section of the creek was originally stone quarries and just a series of holes.

Stony Creek is basically sourced from stormwater drains starting in Sunshine and ending in The Yarra .

The creek is very muddy at the moment 

 In May 1993 Greening Footscray became Friends of Stony Creek and has worked ever since to restore the native vegetation along the creek, often on land that was formerly quarried and is now kept as open space. The amount of planting is in the thousands of plants and trees and contrast photos on their site are amazing 

Long grassed edges beside the walking path  

A playground 

A Drain outlet near Somerville / Geelong / Roberts St intersection 

 Concerns over the Western distributer project that will potentially cut the reserve into sections and make some areas unreachable by locals The concern is about the Access ramps for trucks from Hyde Street

 The group does a lot of monitoring of the water and the quality varies depending on the area esp the industry nearby

It was a large group meandering along!

In 2011, a new Masterplan was commissioned by the Maribyrnong Council giving new emphasis to work on Stony Creek and its environs. The plan creates a more usable open space, and aims to connect as much of the creek as possible with pedestrian and bicycle paths and infrastructure. As part of the plan, bollards were recently built at the Hyde Street Reserve and the old fence was demolished. The future of the Creek is bright with promise.