For the latest information on Phase 2 projects or opportunities to get involved, follow the project on our online engagement platform.
We’re working with stakeholders and the community to improve the habitat, ecology and amenity of Dandenong Creek.
Now in its second phase, the project is an innovative and collaborative approach to meeting our sewage containment obligations – creating an opportunity to do things differently and achieve greater outcomes for the community.
Why this is important
Long-term investigations have shown that the primary stressor on the creek’s health is pollution from nearby industrial areas and residential stormwater run-off. Rather than undertake a conventional sewer upgrade to manage the risk of overflows into the creek, we’ve worked with the EPA to investigate alternative ways to improve water quality and deliver measurable on-ground benefits.
The Enhancing Our Dandenong Creek project was developed in partnership with local councils, businesses, community groups and state agencies. It aims to:
- improve amenity and liveability
- reduce stormwater pollution from industry
- create habitats for native fish
- manage the impact of non-compliant wet weather sewage outflows into the creek.
Watch the following video to learn more about the project:
What’s happening and when
Phase 2
The second phase of the Enhancing our Dandenong Creek project is planned to take place over the next five years (2021–26). We have worked with our project partners and stakeholders to identify priorities and scope the next set of projects.
The Phase 2 projects have two key focus areas:
- improving biodiversity outcomes in the middle Dandenong catchment
- reducing pollution in the Old Joes and Bungalook Creek catchments.
The Creek Project: Investigating the health of Dandenong Creek
As part of this project we’re offering schools in the Dandenong Creek area a hands-on opportunity to investigate the health of their local waterway, following a successful pilot in 2021. Expressions of interest are now open for 2022 and 2023 – learn more by watching the following video, or visiting The Creek Project website.
Phase 1 achievements
The pilot project ran from 2013 to 2018, and saw $15 million invested over five years in significant works, including:
- revitalising 12 billabongs and wetlands along the creek corridor
- removing 830 metres of drainage pipe to ‘daylight’ and naturalise the creek
- planting more than 69,000 plants in billabongs, wetlands and the naturalised section of the creek
- conducting live pollution monitoring at 32 sites with data loggers
- constructing 20 fish habitats, including breeding areas
- a fish stocking program and reintroduction of two threatened fish species.
See the difference the project has made by watching the following video, which shows the creek being ‘daylighted’ over eight months:
Contact us
If you have questions or feedback on the project, get in touch with the project team: