By Carolyn Webb
We are six kilometres from Melbourne’s CBD, but parts of Merri Creek feel rural to Bruce Lavender and his partner Meredith Kefford.
“There are spots along here where you could be out in the country, away from any noise,” Lavender says.
Labour of love: Meredith Kefford and Bruce Lavender, veteran volunteer litter removers at Merri Creek in Clifton Hill.Credit: Wayne Taylor
“You could be in a wilderness area.”
The couple, who live in Clifton Hill, in Melbourne’s inner north-east, a stone’s throw from the creek, don’t take such beauty for granted.
Up to three times a week, they spend an hour picking litter from the creek banks.
It’s been their hobby for 30 years. They don’t expect payment, so they were moved recently when the creek coughed up a $100 note.
The (cleaned up) $100 and the letter to the creek.Credit: Merri Creek Management Committee
But rather than spending it, the couple put the cash right back into the creek.
Not into the water – they donated it to the Merri Creek Environment Fund, for projects that protect and restore the creek.
Lavender hand-wrote a love letter to “Dear Merri Creek”.
He reassured the waterway that although people had treated it badly, others were making amends by planting, weeding and advocating for it. He admitted that his and Kefford’s anti-litter quest had become “almost an obsession”.
Bruce Lavender and Meredith Kefford with balls and a drone they have found at Merri Creek.Credit: Wayne Taylor
It was dispiriting to have filled more than 300 green shopping bags with rubbish in the past few years, Lavender wrote, “but at the same time it is a pleasure to be exploring you more and making a tiny difference to your health”.
“We don’t seek any reward for doing it, so it was a very big surprise when you sent the attached $100 note the other day. This was not necessary.
“We have decided to give it back to you (still caked in Merri Creek silt) ...
“Thanks for everything, Merri Creek.”
Some of the 1800 golf balls and other balls the couple have found.
Lavender and Kefford said this week they worked by picking litter from their “patch” – a one-kilometre stretch of the creek’s banks between Heidelberg Road and the Yarra River – until each filled two cloth shopping bags.
The litter is sorted for reuse, recycling or the rubbish bin. Lavender says it feels good to keep plastic out of the waterway, and prevent it from harming wildlife.
“It feels useful. We’re not thinking it’s going to save the world. We do it because we can, it’s fun, it’s exercise,” Kefford said.
“We see the ducks and moorhens there and think, it’ll be better if they’re not tangling up with all that plastic.”
Found objects have included 1800 golf balls, a drone, credit cards, bicycles and vaping equipment. Common items include lolly wrappers, water bottles, plastic bags and face masks.
Kefford once lifted an old suitcase to find a tiger snake underneath, but it slithered off.
Kefford said that when Lavender spotted the $100 in some grass, the couple laughed. “We were a bit incredulous,” she says.
Bruce Lavender with the rubbish collected in bags.
The note was muddy. They joked that it needed laundering, but vowed to donate it.
“We get lots of pleasure from Merri Creek,” Kefford explains. “So it’s good to be able to give back.
“We walk around the creek, we ride our bikes along it, we’re involved with Friends of Merri Creek clean-ups and plantings, so we make friends from it.”
Merri Creek Management Committee executive officer Bernadette Thomas described the couple’s efforts as outstanding.
“We’re really lucky to have people with such a long-term commitment to cleaning up the creek,” Thomas said.
City of Yarra acting mayor Edward Crossland said volunteers were the heartbeat of the community.
“We are so grateful to Bruce and Meredith for their generous contribution to protecting our local environment,” Crossland said.
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