In the shadow of roadworks, preserving the last remaining billabongs in Melbourne

Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.An aerial photo on the sign at the entry point to Bolin Bolin Billabong, along the Yarra River flats at Bulleen in Melbourne’s north-east, shows an area that looks like a lung.

Further into the woodland, within a flourishing stand of juvenile Melaleuca, now abundant wildlife stirs: a flurry of honeyeaters skip and scatter through the dense foliage, a kookaburra swoops onto an eucalypt, an anxious ring-tailed possum scutters high up another tree, and a black cormorant surfaces with a sharp gasp close to the opposite bank.

Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung man Mark Gardiner, 34, started training as a ranger in 2018, shortly after the rehabilitation of Bolin Bolin commenced. He described the project as being about healing Country. Around five years ago, Melbourne Water partnered with University of Melbourne ecologist Dr Joe Greet, who was tasked with monitoring the effect of environmental water flows into billabongs in the middle and lower Yarra.

A tunnel entrance for Victoria’s $26 billion North East Link is under construction near the billabong.Today, introduced species like foxes, carp, feral cats and deer – which began to wallow in Bolin Bolin during the quiet years of the COVID restrictions in Melbourne – continue to harm the complex ecosystems.

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