Creek line comes back to life under Marcia's care

Sitting on Marcia Bungay’s veranda overlooking her Woodside property, one can feel time slow. Superb fairy wrens hop from one garden bed to another to a chorus of birds, a soft breeze running through the eucalypts along the tributary facing the house.

“The peace I receive from just being here … occasionally I’ll see a koala, or kangaroos on the front lawn,” she shared. “I wake up with gratitude for where I live each day.”

Marcia and her late husband moved to the family farm 44 years ago as her husband continued the family business with the running of cattle. A bold step 27 years ago set in motion Marcia’s deep commitment to caring for their patch of earth.

“We had the opportunity to sign up for a program to remove the willows from our creek line,” shared Marcia.

“As a teacher, I’d taught about the damage some trees can do to our waterways – I went to the program’s information session and signed us up.”

Around 20 willows were removed from the property’s Onkaparinga tributary, and the creek line fenced off from stock to regenerate. Then in 2019, the catastrophic Cudlee Creek bushfires roared across Marcia’s property, damaging infrastructure and fencing and narrowly sparing the home.

The bushfires heralded a second and more significant course of action for Marcia. With the creek line needing to be re-fenced, she decided to widen the corridor between the creek and the paddocks to build greater biodiversity. The removal of heavy, hard footed livestock from the fragile, sloping creek banks, allowed the growth of grassy and sedge vegetation, which reduces soil erosion, and native fish thrive in the permanent water pools that are now uncontaminated with faeces and urine from livestock. The watercourse fencing has an additional benefit - it also protects an Aboriginal scar tree from damage by rubbing cattle.

One paddock was sectioned off to dedicate a space entirely to revegetation – a decision that would yield great outcomes for nature.

“This year, I can see a dramatic increase of bird life returning to the property,” she shared. “There are wrens, kookaburras, black cockatoos and a pair of wedgetail eagles amongst them. It really emphasises the need for wildlife corridors, and I now get to hear their beautiful music on the air.”

Marcia has shared a series of photographs - before and afters of the creek line regeneration, a stark contrast evident between the two. They tell a story of eroded banks and a shallow stream bed transformed, with mature eucalypts now rising from the creek line, filled with sedges and deep pools of water. Many of the major outcomes achieved on Marcia’s watercourse were initiated with funding from the Hills and Fleurieu Landscape Board (previously Natural Resource Management Board).

“This wouldn’t have happened without the help of so many groups of people,” she emphasised. “It’s an effort of many.”