Elster Creek and Elster Creek Catchment

Elster Creek is a small creek that flows into Port Phillip Bay near Point Ormond in Elwood. Its catchment area almost defines the borders of the City of Glen Eira, and also takes in small areas of Bayside, Port Phillip and Kingston City Councils. Elster Creek catchment is about 40 square kilometres in area.

Elster Creek and its catchment lies entirely within the sand belt region of south eastern Melbourne. The Sandbelt region takes in the cities of Port Phillip, Bayside, Glen Eira, Kingston, and lesser parts of the Cities of Stonnington, Monash, Dandenong, Casey and Frankston.

All these areas are predominately made up of well drained sandy soils. Many of the smaller sub-catchmnets within the sandbelt drained into natural wetlands with no natural outlets. These wetland areas and surrounds collected the heavier soils, the alluvial silts, which retain moisture longer and supported different plant communities than the surrounding drier heath and open woodland communities. These plant communities and the many sub-communities in Elster Creek catchment supported a diverse array of heathland, woodland and wetland and coastal flora.

Most of Elster Creek is now a underground drain with only approximately five kilometres of its lower reaches open with a little over one kilometre remaining un-concreted.

Almost all of the original vegetation communities have vanished with suburban development. Some flora remnants still remain within the sandbelt region giving testimony to the splendour of the natural vegetation that once flourished.

Today it is still possible to follow some of Elster Creek's original route via a network of streets and shared walking and bicycle pathways through parks and reserves to the last section known as the Elwood Canal which joins Port Phillip Bay near Point Ormond at Elwood.