2013
In February, the community organised an evening creek walk to explore Houghton Valley’s (very hidden) waterways and share everything they knew about the creek and the landfill drainage system. They met at the Sinclair Park Playground at the top of the valley, and following the line of the original creek as closely as possible, they worked their way down to the Buckley Reserve Playground, where it got a bit dark to go any further.
On the way they found the manhole lids that indicated the pipe network, the places where water was directed from channels into the pipes, and the freshwater springs.
The idea was to share the local history and what Lifting the Creek could mean, with the objective of coming up with a shared vision. It was not about the details of how it could be achieved, but what we as a community would like to see eventually.
Dave of Houghton Bay Rd was very knowledgable about the pipe network and brought maps of the system and described many happenings, including the time in the early 2000s when the pipe near the school field blocked and the school field flooded about half a metre as there is no other drainage to that area (the lower field is 1m higher than it).
Grant from Hungerford Rd and Jenny from Houghton Bay Road showed the others the secret channels and springs: there are nine all together including the larger stream that runs beside the track from Buckley Reserve Playground up to Buckley Rd, and one that supplies water for the Meadery.
2023
Another community Creek Walk is planned for November 2023.