The KooyongKoot Alliance sprung into life in the depths of the 2020 Covid-19 winter. It started as a Zoom meeting with Friends Groups from the Gardiners Creek (KooyongKoot) catchment, leaders from other Yarra River tributary catchments and your Yarra Riverkeeper. It ended with a common bond to work together for the betterment of the KooyongKoot.
We are now 17 Friends Groups strong and have formed a strategic alliance with the Yarra Riverkeeper Association, to collectively act as a voice for the Creek.
By working together, the Alliance has a strong, independent and influential voice.
Love the Yarra? Together, we can protect it. Join the Yarra Riverkeeper Association today or support us!
To shed light on the importance of Gardiners Creek (KooyongKoot) as a significant tributary of the Yarra River.
To work with the major stakeholders to create a shared vision and develop a plan to implement that vision.
We will inject a sense of urgency into achieving this goal.
To act as a catalyst in the development of the management plan, beginning from KooyongKoot’s source, and to help bridge boundaries and break down barriers. We are many working together for a common good, 17 geographically separate entities coming together for a joint purpose.
We aim to overcome the current lack of holistic strategic planning to manage the Creek. We aim to resolve it quickly and positively for the benefit of all.
Gardiners Creek is over 30 km in length. It rises in Blackburn where small creeks and gullies converge around Blackburn Lake. From there it flows through Box Hill South, Burwood, and Ashwood. Near its junction with Scotchmans Creek in Malvern East (at the Malvern Valley Golf Course) it turns northwest and flows through Ashburton, Glen Iris, Malvern, and Kooyong, before joining with the Yarra River near Scotch College in Hawthorn.
A number of tributaries feed into the Creek the main ones being Damper Creek, Scotchmans Creek and Back Creek.
The creek’s current name, Gardiners Creek, was given in honour of early Melbourne land speculator and banker, John Gardiner, who settled near the junction of KooyongKoot and the Yarra River in 1836.
KooyongKoot, which translates as ‘haunt of the waterfowl’ is the original name of Gardiners creek. KooyongKoot is from the Woiwurrung language of the Wurundjeri-Baluk group.
There are currently around 17 Friends Groups and associated bodies that help care for the Creek and its tributaries. More are sprouting every month!
Five councils form part of the catchment, but only one strategic plan is in place for the Creek, that being Stonnington Council’s Gardiners Creek ( Kooyongkoot) Masterplan. This plan effectively represents 14 % of the catchment.
Boroondara have allocated funds in their budget to start the process of preparing a masterplan for their section of the creek and are actively engaged in discussions for a strategic masterplan.
Neither Whitehorse nor Monash have any evident plans for developing strategies for their sections of the creek nor plans to help facilitate a strategic plan for the water system.
There is no ‘whole of system’ plan, the management of the area is piecemeal, fragmented ,with no apparent continuity in planning, biodiversity, water management etc
Presentation by Gary Presland on the history of the KooyongKoot
A Strategic Environmental Action Plan for KooyongKoot/Gardiners Creek and all its tributaries including Scotchmans Creek, Damper Creek and Back Creek, to be ultimately run by a Committee of Management (or similar) funded across the councils and other major stakeholders.
