Earlier advocacy, reporting and research
All Kids Junior Landcare builds on years of work by advocates, residents, volunteers and researchers. These records document concerns about Stony Creek at Duke Street and Matthews Hill, and proposals for better care.
We acknowledge the people who raised these issues before us. Our petition brings renewed attention to their calls for action.
Read our petition and recent photographs
Tony Smith, presentation to the Maribyrnong Catchment Collaboration, slide 19.
Tony identified the point where lower Stony Creek emerges from central Sunshine's drainage network:
“with litter and water quality needing wetland treatment.”
He described a missed opportunity for coordination with the neighbouring Orion development's retarding basin. The need to address litter and water quality here was already being raised in 2018.
Charlene Trestrail, Jackie Myers, Daniel MacMahon and Vincent Pettigrove, RMIT University/AQUEST. Catchment Background Report, Technical Report 31, June 2020.
The report has a specific section on Duke Street/Matthews Hill Reserve. It records accounts of soft plastics, foam and stormwater litter accumulating here, alongside shopping trolleys and beverage containers. It also documents Melbourne Water litter audits and community concerns about sources of rubbish.
Read the catchment background report (PDF) — see “Duke St/Matthew's Hill Reserve”, PDF page 20
Maribyrnong City Council, Stony Creek Future Directions Plan, February 2020.
The Duke Street–Quarry Road section proposes a sedimentation pond and wetland south of Duke Street (action 1.2), habitat improvements through weed removal and planting (1.3), and investigation of litter controls (1.4).
These are proposals recorded in the 2020 plan. This document does not establish which works have since been completed.
Read the council plan (PDF) — printed pages 4 and 15, PDF pages 6 and 17
Penny Rabarts, The Westsider, 2 June 2021.
Penny reported rubbish arriving from Sunshine and accumulating in the creek at Matthews Hill. She described residents' disappointment, contacted authorities and property managers, and called for better care. Her article also acknowledges earlier planting by Friends of Stony Creek.
Tony Smith, Stony Creek Case Study, December 2021, slides 62–65.
These slides locate the creek's emergence at Duke and Matthews streets, document a Friends of Stony Creek clean-up at Black Arch, and show the creek between the Braybrook and Matthews Hill grasslands.
Jackie Myers, Gina Mondschein, Michael Clark and Vincent Pettigrove, RMIT University/AQUEST. Targeted Litter Surveys Summary Report, Technical Report 56, 2022.
Of the locations surveyed, litter accumulated fastest at Matthews Hill Reserve. Researchers linked this to rubbish carried through Sunshine Main Drain and a council drain, as well as local littering. Higher counts followed rainfall.
Recommendation 2.6 calls for assessing litter-trap options at Matthews Hill and/or Thomas Street. The study also supports continued cleaning, better waste services, enforcement and education.
Read the targeted litter study (PDF) — PDF pages 29–30
Read Recommendation 2.6 (PDF) — PDF page 41
Kathryn Hassell and colleagues, RMIT University/AQUEST. Overview of Technical Report 38.
The review documents historical problems with oxygen levels, nutrients and contaminants across Stony Creek. It identifies stormwater drains as a pollution pathway and recommends further monitoring upstream, north of Sunshine Road, alongside investigation of pollution sources and treatment options.
This provides catchment context; it is not a current water-quality test for Duke Street.
Read RMIT's water-quality review overview (PDF) — especially page 6
Naomi Shadwick, The Westsider, 7 August 2015; Friends of Stony Creek's archived account of its work.
Naomi describes restoration dating back to 1993, ponds created with Melbourne Water at Cruickshank Park and Cala Street, monthly water testing, and annual planting at Matthews Hill Reserve. The group's archived account also records water monitoring with Friends of Cruickshank Park. This work predates our petition by many years.
Read Naomi Shadwick's 2015 account
Read Friends of Stony Creek's archived account
Bruce Lindsay, Environmental Justice Australia, quoted in slide 10 of Tony Smith's 2018 presentation.
“We want to shift these rivers from industrial drains to well-functioning waterways.”
This statement concerned the wider campaign for Melbourne's western waterways. It expresses the principle behind our call for better care at Duke Street.
View the quotation in slide 10
Read January 2018 coverage of the wider campaign
Steve Wilson, Darren Bennetts and Clare Sheppard, parliamentary evidence, 6 August 2019.
Their evidence records decades of community restoration and repeated pollution incidents, including the devastating 2018 fire. It is part of the creek's wider advocacy history, with much of the discussion concerning downstream areas.
Read the parliamentary evidence (PDF)
Read the 14 August 2019 news report
These records give our petition a history to build on. We are asking for sustained maintenance, pollution prevention and habitat restoration at Duke Street.
Return to the Stony Creek petition
Sources checked 27 October 2026. Dates above refer to the original publications.