Creek clean-up a student affair

FERNTREE Gully students are doing their bit to support their local waterway.
Melbourne Water and Knox Council representatives helped St Joseph’s College and Australian Technical College students clean up Ferntree Gully Creek late last month.
Baird Ward councillor Peter Cole started Operation Oxygen last year as an annual clean-up for the creek bed and banks behind the Ferntree Gully Safeway store.
“It is a community initiative, empowering individual residents to take responsibility for their suburb and its wonderful attractions,” he said.
The team collected a skip full of rubbish including rubbish, clothes and weeds.
“The students were clearly disappointed with the way the park has been treated by vandals, and they are to be commended for their energy and enthusiasm in pitching in to lend a hand,” Cr Cole said.
“It was hot, the work was unrelenting, but the students hardly took a break all day, working hard without a single complaint.”
ATC students removed graffiti from more than 10 signs along the creek and worked with Melbourne Water and Knox Council staff to remove weeds.
“They learned about the different species of weed and how best to remove them,” Cr Cole said.
Melbourne Water representatives used an excavator to remove seven shopping trolleys from the waterway and made a presentation to students, explaining the importance of caring for the creek.
“They spoke about many of the animals that depend on the creek to survive, many of them remaining mostly unseen, living along the creek’s banks,” Cr Cole said.
“I hope one day we will see a platypus in the creek, and believe that possibility will be enhanced if we continue to keep the creek free of rubbish, trolleys and weeds.”