Eastsider – Feb, 2025

IN the past year, KooyongKoot and Friends of the Catchment have contributed a staggering amount of money to 17,000 volunteer hours of community service to the environment. A recent review calculated that, at a conservative rate of $45/hr, this represents over $750,000 of value a year. KooyongKoot Alliance (KKA) and its committee estimate they collectively contributed a significant 4,200 volunteer hours to this total.
These figures are set to increase this year, with the establishment of a number of new Friends groups in the Catchment, such as Friends of Gardiners Creek Reserve, Ashburton Creek Biodiversity Crew (ACBC) and Friends of Wurundjeri Walk.
KooyongKoot Alliance (KKA) was formed in 2020 as a response to the lack of coordinated approach to the management of the Gardiners Creek catchment. Since then, and in conjunction with the Gardiners Creek Regional Collaboration (five Councils, Melbourne Water and other major stakeholders), they have helped promote and encourage Friends Groups and advisory groups to grow and thrive. KKA has also worked closely with the major stakeholders in the catchment to develop a strategic plan to be delivered in 2025.
The primary work of the Alliance has been about connecting communities. Not only are these groups sustaining and caring for the creek and its surrounds, but they are doing the same for the local communities in which they work. This was acknowledged when KKA won the 2024 Victorian Environmental Friends
Network Connecting Habitats award.
The true extent of the work is not just measured in the number of weeds the KKA pull and plants they plant, but also by the volunteer hours they devote to these baseline activities and so much more.

Part of their vision has been to bring ethnic, cultural and socio-economic groups of all ages together, for a common purpose – to improve the environment and surrounds of Gardiners Creek. This, in turn, is leading to a healthier, less stressed, more united community.
With the group’s success in obtaining grants (KKA
have been successful in every project grant application they have made), strong advocacy and the increasing levels of volunteering the future is bright. The group’s next major goal is to plant more than 25,000 plants by the end of 2025 over an area of three hectares. This is in addition to the work done week in, week out by the individual Friends groups. In 2024, Ashburton Creek Biodiversity Crew planted 6000 plants along Ashburton Creek with the support of Boroondara Council. The group recently received a commendation from the Victorian Environment Friends Network for their work.
Stakeholders, the community and local Councils are seeing the value and benefits added by KKA and its members. Support for their goals is growing, but the critical role of Catchment Keeper remains unfunded.
This position has been vital in creating the alliance of Friends groups and similarly aligned voluntary groups and the Regional Collaboration that is in the process of developing the strategic plan for Gardiners Creek.
The position is important as an accountable and steady environmental resource to maintain and increase community involvement in the catchment. We hope to see more public and private investment and grants for this group and its members, both for projects and people, which are the lifeblood of the KooyongKoot Alliance and the communities they serve.