Small beginning

In a depression, not far from where the big screen of the Croydon Drive-in once stood is the beginning of the Mullum Mullum Creek. This is not too far from my home. When the house was first built, before trees grew, you could see the flicker of the screen from the upstairs balcony.

On the other side of the fence is Yarra Valley Grammar School, one of several private schools that border the creek.

The willows are a legacy from the orchards and farms that were established in the Croydon North area. Squatters had been in the Stringybark Forest area prior to the 1850s when the land was first selected. Later the forests were cleared for timber and firewood and crown land progressively sold.

The area between Maroondah Highway and the creek is now occupied by a large retirement village. The pathway passes through a parklike setting with some new indigenous plantings. Closer to Kalinda Road there are backyards on both sides, the creek is a little deeper and the planting more dense.

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  1989

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  2020

There has been a lot of housing development over the last 40 years, meaning more runoff into the creek and greater pressure on this tiny waterway, although at last there is an awareness of how vulnerable it is.

It was here at the beginning of May that I decided to walk the entire length of the creek, all the way to the Yarra River. But not in one day.

to be continued …