Protect the Merri Creek Park Land | Other

Protect the Merri Creek Park Land

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24.01.2022 Hi all, we're trying to get an initial meeting organised however we are having some trouble arranging a venue (unfortunately neither Mike or I can do it at our places). If you think you might be able to host a meeting please can you message me? Thanks, Paul

23.01.2022 Welcome undertakings from Darebin Council - 2(e) relates to the Merri Creek Parkland.

23.01.2022 Welcome to the Campaign! Please click on Info to read about the background to the campaign and to find out why we are opposed to Darebin City Council's proposal to advocate for duplicating Merri Parade. Thanks!

23.01.2022 From today's Northcote Leader.

22.01.2022 Here is the Northcote Leader article citing Cr Tsitas's call for duplication

21.01.2022 Very pleased to report the private sale/development of the land is off the cards again. However, it's still important to sign this petition supporting the transfer of land to crown status, under management by the council, for it to endure as locally managed parkland. The wheels are thankfully turning. Thanks to everyone involved for your support.

19.01.2022 The Friends of the Merri Creek do amazing, transformational work, not just creating a beautiful, natural landscape for us all to enjoy along our urban creek, but also helping marginal indigenous species retain and regain their crucial ecology along the whole corridor. Please consider supporting their fundraising efforts, details below.

19.01.2022 The whole corridor is vitally important to protect and rehabilitate.

18.01.2022 There's a proposal in the mix from VicTrack for the City of Darebin to buy the land between the Creek and Merri Parade for a cool 1.5M$! This is local land in high use by our community, maintained for decades by local volunteers and Council workers with our rates - it should revert to Crown Land and have Darebin City Council appointed as its Committee of Management. The 19th century is over!

18.01.2022 We're putting posts about the proposed sale of Merri Creek Parkland by VicTrack, adjacent to Merri Parade, up on this blog for local residents - subscribe to keep in the loop.

18.01.2022 To minimise dummy candidates at Council elections funnelling your vote where you may least expect...

16.01.2022 Here are the Council minutes containing the proposal (refer page 58)

14.01.2022 20 Members and counting! Thanks everyone for liking this page. Watch this space for a campaign update in the coming days. In the meantime, please share with your friends, thanks!

13.01.2022 Seems like the precinct is under attack from multiple fronts this year. Please lend this push your support.

12.01.2022 Please sign and share.

11.01.2022 A fun way to hear from Council election candidates! This Saturday night.

10.01.2022 Coverage in today's Northcote Leader, providing welcome assurance we won't be seeing an apartment block on this significant site any time soon. The question of paying for the land from ratepayers' funds to prop up a statutory body that should seriously be funded through our taxes remains... what a convoluted system. As recent events at Rushall Station can attest ( http://ow.ly/Y99UD ), rail infrastructure needs urgent federal funding support in Victoria, and no doubt across Australia - the federation receives the lion's share of our taxes, and too little of these are put to work where they're long overdue, so silly "robbing Peter to pay Paul" processes like those unfolding at Merri Creek is where we end up plugging the gaps. Hopefully Fiona Richardson's team can secure us a sensible outcome.

10.01.2022 Locals meeting with (brave) officers from Yarra Council on the proposed shared path to connect Rushall Station with Koonda Lat bike bridge and the Capital City Trail. Difficult conversations amid a divided group on a divisive issue. For more info, see the Yarra consultation page at http://yarraconversation.com.au/rushallreservedesign , plus community pages for and against: https://sharerushallreserve.wordpress.com and https://www.change.org/p/yarra-city-council-keep/u/13459284

09.01.2022 ...and it goes on. While the $500,000 sticker price for a piece of public land is pretty outrageous, we would hope Council can negotiate a mutually-satisfactory outcome with VicTrack. A long-term lease seems sensible, we don't want to be back to square one in five years' time. Darebin Council will be holding an election shortly, so we seek Councillors who will help us set a new path for our local open space. Cr Tsitas' label of 'dud land' is pretty harsh, even in the context ...of development. The proposed sale/lease affects not just this visible corner site, but also the bushland along the bridge and Merri Creek. As a gateway site to Darebin, we can do so much better than a liberal scattering of hydrants, eroding soils and a decrepit, non-functioning, drinking fountain memorial to a Northcote Councillor c. 1932. Could we bring this long-neglected site back to life with some landscaping and amenity, please? See more

08.01.2022 Darebin Council elections are coming up.To meet with and find out more about the candidates come along to a candidates forum. Rucker Ward Candidate Forum will be held Wednesday 21 September in Northcote Town Hall Rooftop Room, 6pm for 6.15pm start - register through the link below.

08.01.2022 Melbourne Times article - doesn't mention how ridiculous the counter-proposal to double the footprint of the road is, sadly.

08.01.2022 Welcome visitors! Please 'like' us if you are opposed to Darebin Council's proposal to convert Merri Parade into a four lane highway. Thanks!

05.01.2022 A news item on the proposed sale of "Merri Park" aired on New Years' Eve.

05.01.2022 Update: I spoke to Steven Tsitas last week. He told me that there wasn't a vote on this matter during the June Council meeting. The agenda text in Celia's post regarding the Merri Parade report refers to one of the 'outstanding items' that council wanted an update on. According to Steven, the report was due to be delivered to Council by Michael Ballock in March/ April but it is late and is now due to be delivered in July. According to Steven, the process would then be as fol...lows: - Michael Ballock provides a briefing to the Councillors on the Merri Parade report (prior to the July Council meeting). The report will include a plan for consulting with the community - During the July Council meeting, Council will be asked to endorse the community consultation (Steven assures me the report will not be adopted without consultation first) - Community consultation would then likely occur during July/ August - affected residents would be invited to participate probably at a meeting/ forum at the Town Hall - The purpose of the consultation, in Steven's eyes, is to "build community support" for the proposal and to agree on a preferred concept/ design to take to VicRoads and other state authorities I would suggest that somebody check the June Council meeting minutes when they are released to see whether they reinforce what he told me over the phone. It seems clear that Steven is actively pushing for this although exactly what he's pushing for, I'm not entirely sure. Cheers, Paul

03.01.2022 Nice to see the Darebin Ride 2 Work Day breakfast on the Green Memorial Reserve (cnr. Merri Parade and St George's Road) again this year - a Council worker asked if there was any suggestions for improving the event, and while I answered 'no,' it occured to me the Green Memorial Reserve and the adjoining Groveland Reserve could do with a bit of landscaping love. It's a minefield of hydrants, access ports and utility boxes, which reflect all the important major utilities underground, but it's damned ugly. Who thinks the gateway to Darebin deserves a bit of special treatment? I'd love to see some landscaping and habitat reclamation in this neglected space, as well as a revival of the (perpetually tagged) memorial drinking fountain.

01.01.2022 Here's the petition for saving the St George's Rd trees.