A new exhibition celebrates the volunteer-led transformation of the Merri Creek corridor from a quagmire of rubbish and weeds into an urban Eden.

Like proud parents, Ann and Bruce McGregor – unpaid workers in the area for 39 years – show off the green vistas they have helped create from numerous weekend tree plantings, weed removals and planning meetings.

Bruce and Ann McGregor have helped clean up and replant Merri Creek for 39 years. Credit:Justin McManus

However, it's the details that they cherish. In a curve of the creek north of Blyth Street, Brunswick East, they point to wattlebirds picking insects from the limbs of the 20-metre red gums planted as seedlings in 1985.

Nearby, in the creek, they spot moorhens which graze among the reeds that have sprung up.Share via Email

Worm Day

Penelope Gioris and Kelly AuCoin in Worm Day(Photo: Carol Rosegg)
One wonders what a play entitled Worm Day might be about. One fears it might be a relatively literal title. One's fear is confirmed by the show itself, scripted by Matthew Calhoun and directed by Tom Herman.

The play introduces us to Kate, whose mother was so cold and abusive that Kate has taken to burying her affection for others in an obsession with, and passion for, worms. Kate's is not a scientific passion, or even a psychologically complex or imaginative one; she keeps earthworms in her kitchen, in a small wooden box containing compost, simply because they provide her some kind of comfort. She also renames herself Kate Wormser out of her dedication to the thoughtless