The KooyongKoot Alliance hosted the Clean Waterways Expo 2025 at Blackburn Lake Sanctuary on Sunday 29th June from 12pm to 3pm.
The KooyongKoot Alliance, Whitehorse City Council, Melbourne Water and the EPA, along with other organisations, were on hand to raise awareness /inform the general public/attendees/invitees, of:
- HOW the community (residential, industrial, commercial. educational and recreational) can reduce their use of single-use plastics, prevent pollution and littering of our local waterways – (by improving work and lifestyle practices)
- WHY we need to! – (improvements to water quality, habitat, biodiversity of fauna and flora, and aesthetics)
- The benefits of doing so! – (a more enjoyable place to visit, better habitat and safer food sources for native birds, plants and animals!)
The KKA would like to thank the Blackburn Lake Sanctuary team for providing the excellent venue and facilities. Su Dempsey was key to making all that happen with the KKA’s Vicki do a great job scheduling the KKA resources.
A feature of the expo was the launch of the Melbourne Water Litter Prevention Toolkit – which is a suite of practical resources for councils, community groups and other organisations to implement in their local area to
encourage anti-littering behaviour.
There were some really interesting talks in the Visitor Centre with the opportunity to network and to follow up issues with the speakers after the event:
There were great sessions by Melbourne Water, the EPA, KooyongKoot Alliance, the Gardiners Creek Regional Collaboration and specialist talks on plastics pollution including polystyrene and nurdles from the Port Phillip Bay Keeper and the Yarra River Keeper groups.
Most also had stalls outside to enable us to meet key people from participating groups which also included Whitehorse Council and others – even the opportunity for a BBQ sausage !
For the kids, there were Kids activities and story time and Roberto The Connie was there to talk about our wildlife. Naturally, our friends from the Blackburn Lake Sanctuary led guided tours to show off their current wetland project under way.
A great event – even the weather was kind to us!