FOLKC Book

CONCLUSION
KOROROIT CREEK
Since 2001, FOLKC has worked tirelessly to bring the community’s attention to Lower
Kororoit Creek’s Hobsons Bay stretch, in a bold attempt to elevate its status from
neglected drainage channel and eyesore waterway of low economic and environmental
value, back to a restored focal point and community asset in some semblance of its original
state of beauty and vitality. We believe that by involving Melbourne Water, Hobsons
Bay City Council, State and Federal Governments, local industry wherever possible, and
lastly – but by no means least – the community in our projects, FOLKC has transformed
this long-ignored part of Kororoit Creek and achieved unprecedented results in terms
of major improvements to water quality, biodiversity, habitat, functionality and bank
stability, not to mention simple aesthetic appeal. We also believe we have shown some
honour to the land, in a manner reflecting our respect towards its original Indigenous
inhabitants.
By the end of 2017, FOLKC will have put in place all the necessary planning and
development required to ensure that those two goals can ultimately be fully met by the
combined forces of government agencies and Hobsons Bay City Council. We foresee
that, by then, our organisation will no longer be required to drive these processes. We can
choose either to remain as a small planting and maintenance body, more in keeping with
what the Council first envisioned, or simply dissolve, knowing that we have achieved
our greater purposes.
A job well done, the Creek is now blooming – a living, vital waterway right at
our community’s heart – as opposed to the dangerous, filth-choked, unhealthy and
neglected eyesore that Lower Kororoit Creek once was, just more than decade and
a half ago. FOLKC believes we leave an outstanding legacy to our local community,
who we foresee will continue to use the Kororoit Creek green corridor either as
a location for enjoyable, family-oriented recreation in and of itself, or to connect
with the greater Melbourne ‘Metropolitan Shared Trail Network’ whether they are
serious hikers, cyclists or simply out for a casual stroll.
FOLKC is convinced that, in twenty to thirty years, Kororoit Creek’s health,
environmental and tourism values will have improved to such a massive extent that the
Creek will have become a vital part of a far larger biodiversity corridor, allowing flora
and fauna free reign and easy, accommodated migration along its picturesque length.
The work still being done along Kororoit Creek, through the support of Friends of
Lower Kororoit Creek Inc. members and the local Hobsons Bay community, is far from
a short-term proposition; it is easily one of the most important local projects, with its
own momentum and widespread support which will ultimately make Kororoit Creek
one of Melbourne West’s major and most significant native waterways.
FOLKC FUTURE
In 2001, FOLKC set itself two major goals; in summary:
• to green the neglected environmental corridor along Kororoit Creek in Hobsons
Bay; and
• to connect the Bay Trail from Cherry Lake, Altona, to the Metropolitan Shared
Trail Network via a shared walking/bicycle path along Kororoit Creek.
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