03 May 2026

The Friends of Darebin Creek are worried. Clements Reserve, a section of parkland along the creek in Reservoir, which Darebin Council previously committed to acquiring from the state government, was put in jeopardy at the Darebin Council meeting in March. Council jettisoned this long-standing commitment, citing budgetary constraints. The decision leaves the parkland section fronting McMahon Road at risk of sale as ‘surplus land’ and threatens the visual amenity of the park and the environmental integrity of the Darebin Creek corridor.

This issue is complicated and messy – part of the reserve has been fenced off for some years due to lead contamination from previous use as a gun club – but needs expensive remediation. For this there is a plan but no timeline. The land is owned by the state government which wants to sell it to the council for less than market value if council promises to put a restriction on the title preventing it from being sold off to developers.

But the bottom line is that a valued section of creek-facing parkland in Reservoir has been shut off from public use for several years, with no clear plan or timeline for its restoration and return to the community.

FoDC would welcome the opportunity to revegetate Clements Reserve once it was cleaned up. But we can’t until the fate of the land is decided and the contaminated land is remediated.

Please sign a petition here to help save Clements Reserve: https://www.megaphone.org.au/petitions/save-clements-reserve