sandy creek once ran all year

In 1973, Robert Blair settled with his wife Margaret on Sandy Creek, where the creek comes out of a steep valley and flattens out to form a creek flat. In those days, the creek ran all year, south to the plains. Under the Kilmore Road, into Dry Creek, then Riddells Creek, Jacksons Creek, and on to the Maribyrnong.

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Water ran from the hillsides; the creek never stopped.

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‘We had a spring that supplied the house. There were goldfish in it, one very big goldfish, it would have been the best part of 8 inches long, it was quite old, and it was blind. So, it had obviously been there years, and this spring had never dried up.’

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Robert noticed a change in the 1980s: in a dry summer, the springs dried up; in a good year, the springs flowed and so did the creek. Then in the Millennial Drought, the steep-sided valley above the Blairs’ place dried out. The springs stopped.

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