Construction of new path and firebreak at Leonard Street Grassland
4th June 2025
by Nick Williams
President, Friends of Merri Creek
Professor of Urban Ecology and Urban Horticulture, The University of Melbourne
Friends of Merri Creek congratulates Merri-bek Council on the construction of a new concrete shared path along the south side of the Leonard Street Grasslands in Fawkner. The path will provide a strategic east-west bike link, along Roma and Victory Streets, to the Merri Creek Trail. Critically, the path will also provide an effective firebreak between the nationally significant Leonard Street grasslands and the back of the private properties along Hare Street.
Native grasslands require regular ecological back burning to maintain their plant diversity and help control introduced slugs and snails, which can prevent seedling growth. Many native grasslands in Melbourne became degraded, because they were difficult to burn, as they were surrounded by flammable back fences. Seeking to solve this problem, landscape architect, Adrian Marshall wrote urban design guidelines that provide advice on how to sympathetically integrate native grasslands into suburbia. It’s great that the Council is following these.
Like most native grasslands in Victoria, those along the lower Merri Creek, which include bababi djinanang, ngarri-djarrang, Leonard Street and the adjacent Emma Street Grasslands, have survived largely by accident. They were not developed for housing, or industry, because they were reserved for the F2 Freeway that was planned to connect Mahoneys Road with the Eastern Freeway in Clifton Hill. Following its abandonment, after one of the earliest campaigns by Friends of Merri Creek and our allies, the native grasslands were neglected. The biomass reduction required to maintain grassland quality was irregular, occurring only via horse grazing, or fires lit by arsonists. This led to the local extinction of some plant species. At least 32 native species have survived in the Leonard and Emma Street Grasslands. These include the EPBC-listed endangered Matted Flax-Lily (Dianella amoena), the iconic Blue Devil (Eryngium ovinum) and attractive lilies, such as Yellow Rush Lily (Tricoryne elatior), Milkmaids (Burchardia umbellata) and Chocolate Lilies (Arthropodium strictum)
Following construction of the new path, it is hoped further improvements can occur in the area. These include having the redundant powerline poles removed and restoring native grassland to the route of the current informal path. This will reconnect the Leonard Street native grassland and the very close Emma Street Native Grassland to its north. It would also be great if the Council, or MCMC, could consult the Wurundjeri regarding a more appropriate name for larger restored grassland.
Plan showing proposed fire break and shared user path, Merri-bek Council.
