I was beginning to think I’d never write this post. After eight years of inactivity (or ten if you ignore the two hopeful posts in 2018), this project seemed to have run its course. I’d come to accept that I might never get around to reviving it.

But, I am delighted to say, oncewasacreek has indeed been revived. In fact, it’s been totally rebuilt and reconceived.

This project began in 2012 as an ode to a single forgotten waterway named Western Creek, which flowed through Bardon, Rainworth, Rosalie, Auchenflower and Milton in Brisbane. Before long, I began to explore neighbouring catchments, and even flirted with creeks in other parts of the city. It became clear that the site wasn’t really about Western Creek at all: it was about creeks everywhere and the places they help to define, sometimes even after the creeks have been forgotten or transformed beyond recognition.

By the time this realisation had sunk in, so too had the reality of doing a PhD (not about creeks!), and then of having a job, and so on. And so oncewasacreek went into stasis, essentially kept on life support because I couldn’t bare to pull the plug on so much hard work, and because I liked hearing from people who stumbled across it while googling about the history of their neighbourhood.

But by mid 2026, even the life support was on life support, and I had to step in. For starters, I could no longer bear the shame of seeing modern web browsers warn users against even visiting the site on account of it not having a secure https address. Then I discovered that half of the WordPress plugins that kept the site functioning were no longer maintained, never mind the fact that the site’s content was still in a format that WordPress had deprecated years ago.

I figured if I was going to rebuild the site, I might as well do it properly. And so, here we are: oncewasacreek Version 2.0.

All of the site’s old content is still here, but it is governed by a new logic. Everything is organised around the things that mattered most all along: creeks and places. Western Creek is now just one creek among many, and the first among equals. There is no overarching narrative to the site, just entry points through which to choose your own adventure. If you don’t want to start with a particular creek or a place, you can instead dive into maps, images or topics. Everything is connected, so sooner or later you’ll end up where you need to be.

Officially, the site now caters to any of Brisbane’s waterways, whether lost or found. Unofficially, we’ll see. I do live in Melbourne now, and am itching to dig into the history of my home catchment of Stony Creek. But I am committed to writing more about Brisbane first, and hope to post some new content in the coming months. I’m open also to including contributions from other writers, so if you have a creek-centred story to share, do get in touch.

Rebuilding the site has been a huge job, and I’ve erred on the side of getting it done rather than tending to every last detail. So please accept my apologies in advance for any broken links, confusing instructions or other glitches that you encounter, and feel free to report them to me when you do.

I hope you enjoy the new oncewasacreek!