About oncewasacreek.org

This is a website about creeks?

Sort of. Well, obviously, yes. But really, this site is about understanding the world around us by using creeks as an entry point and an organising principle. Think of it as a place-focussed, catchment-based, landscape-driven approach to local history.

Ok, but why creeks?

Creeks and their catchments are a great way to understand our environment. In a catchment, all water flows to the same point, mostly by way of the drainage lines we know as creeks and rivers. Catchments are therefore areas in which every piece of land shares something in common, while creeks are the culmination of everything that happens in a catchment.

Just as importantly, all life revolves around water, including human settlement. Rivers may be famed as the arteries of civilisations, but at the local scale, it’s the humble creeks, springs and waterholes that dictate where people can settle and what they can do. (At least, this is the case until massive dams and distribution networks are built.) The stories of creeks and waterways are therefore inseparable from the stories of human societies.

Creeks are also useful markers of change in suburbs and cities. Urbanisation is a process of homogenising and sanitising the landscape. We cut down the trees, pave the ground and divert water into underground drains. In a very real sense we drain the life out of the land. Creeks remind us that the landscape is still alive beneath the sterile urban crust. Those that still exist should be treasured as sanctuaries of life and wonder, while those that are gone should be remembered as symbols of what we have lost in the name of progress.

Alright, but . . . which creeks, exactly?

All of them! Well, only in theory. This site began in 2012 with the very specific goal of studying just one largely nonexistent creek that flowed through the suburbs of Bardon, Rosalie and Milton in Brisbane. Before long, the scope spilled beyond Western Creek to include its forgotten neighbours, Boundary Creek and Langsville Creek. Occasionally, other creeks made guest appearances. It quickly became apparent that every creek has a story worth telling.

The present reboot of oncewasacreek inherits the legacy of content about those creeks, but pledges no future allegiance beyond trying to contain things to Brisbane. For now. Every creek has a story, everyone lives in a catchment, I live in Melbourne, and Australia is a big country. So ultimately, who knows.

So, is this like, Creekbook?

Sadly, no. I do have fantasies about creeks (or maybe their AI agent avatars) posting and live-streaming to each other from around the country about their water levels and pollution status. But for now, that remains a fantasy, and this website remains a sole-authored, one-man passion project.

More realistically though, this project could accommodate other human contributors. The site rebuild would be kind of a waste if its doesn’t.

Will you do my creek?

I am but one person, and I have a long backlog of creeks and places that I want to write about before I start taking requests. However, if you fancy yourself as a creekologist, perhaps you can contribute, in which case, please get in touch.

Who made this, anyway?

My name is Angus Veitch. You can google me, but you’ll probably just end up back here. I’m just a guy who likes creeks and has too much time on his hands. See this page for some more information about me and the history of the site.