Darebin Parklands - the new 'it' spot

Darebin Parklands have come into their own since we’ve all been stuck at home haven’t they? What a fabulous resource for us all as a community.

Originally the site of the old tip and horse paddocks, over many years it been revegetated and now has winding trails, ponds and billabongs, structured areas for family BBQs and picnics, unstructured paddocks with old fruit trees where locals can give their dogs a run, rocky river walks, and, to top it off a bike path that connects into the major bike paths across Melbourne.

When school is on, the rangers run a fabulous education program in their classroom space where kids can see the preserved pelts of wild cats and find out about urban threats to native wildlife, amongst other things.

Darebin Parklands is also home to many bush kinder programs and is actually home to the very first one in Australia (in a partnership with Westgarth Kindergarten).

Last week Ranger Pete was on Gardening Australia talking about the nest boxes dotted throughout the park. And gave us a sneak peak inside to baby possums and a variety of birds and bats. You can watch the segment here.

Darebin Parklands is funded by Darebin Council, and it was super to hear that Council staff are being redeployed to undertake tree planting in the Parklands as part of the rewilding Darebin project that is running whilst the Coronavirus is limiting their usual jobs. Here’s the link published last week by Friends of Darebin Creek.

I’ll just say it again. Aren’t we lucky! And … I’ll probably see you down there.