As an open space and waterway, Gardiners Creek Reserve links to Wattle Park in the west. Upstream links run through the Box Hill Golf Club via Sparks Reserve to the Blackburn Creeklands and Blackburn Lake. Downstream links run through various reserves in the municipalities of Monash, Boroondara and Stonnington before KooyongKoot runs into the Yarra (Birrarung) at Toorak/Hawthorn.
Funding for a major project in the Reserve has recently been announced: the Biodiversity Corridor Revegetation Project. Click here for details.
Location
Gardiners Creek Reserve runs diagonally between Station Street, Box Hill South and the Burwood Highway, Burwood. It is a “linear park” following Gardiners Creek (KooyongKoot). The park is bounded to the north, east and southwest by residential properties and, otherwise, by Deakin University.
History
The late Peter Dwyer reviewed the history of Gardiners Creek Reserve at the Annual Workshop conducted by the Blackburn and District Tree Preservation Society on 30th July, 2002. His interesting history is presented here.
Bird Life
Within Peter’s speech (refer above), he referred to ornithologist John Peter’s bird list for the reserve that numbers 119 species. John’s list appears here.
Friends of Gardiners Creek Reserve
The Friends of Gardiners Creek Reserve is the relevant friends’ group.
Current projects and activities include:
- Innovative links from the community to Deakin University students.
- With the Urban Guerrillas and KKA, a significant revegetation program for the park. The Friends Group is establishing a pipeline of planting and maintenance with Whitehorse City Council looking forward with a 5 year planting and maintenance plan.
KKA was invited to apply for a Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) grant by the then State Member for Burwood Will Fowles. Two grants were secured with the help and support of Deakin University, Whitehorse City Council, Friends of Gardiners Creek Reserve and the Urban Guerrillas. The project is for a revegetation of part of Gardiners Creek Reserve involving extensive site preparation and planning and planting over 3000 plants. This project has been supported by the SRL Community Projects Fund of the Suburban Rail Loop Authority program. The revegetation has also ensured that trees cut down as part of the SRP are utilised as habitat in the new site.
One of the mass plantings was held on a dampish day on the 2nd July, 2023:
The still above was taken from a movie on the group’s FaceBook page. It clearly shows the excellent attendance at the event and the friendly enthusiasm of the group doing a great job on the day.
The Friends of Gardiners Creek Reserve enlisted community help and the Urban Guerrillas also participated. The group even had international help – here is one amigo from a Chilean contingent:
For more information:
- Web-site: not available at this time (use Facebook icon)
- E-mail: no e-mail address available at this time.