Jan Juc creek daylighting project

Project value$700k
Completion Date30 November 2025

Updated July 2025

The civil works to form the wetland and sediment basins is now complete.

Planting by the Wadawurrung Gobata Dja ‘Caring for Country’ team is complete with a few plants yet to be planted at the base of the bottom basin. The basin can't be emptied in this wet weather to allow for planting so [planting will take place when there is a dry spell.

Engineering design of the boardwalk is currently underway and installation is expected towards the end of the year.

Council will continue to work with Traditional Owners and Heritage Advisors to navigate construction in this culturally sensitive area.

Stage two works

The Jan Juc creek daylighting project will return the highly disturbed urban waterway of Jan Juc creek to a more natural state. The project includes recreating habitat, biodiversity and amenity values, as well as delivering significant stormwater quality objectives to an older urban catchment that drains to a popular beach.

In 2022 stage two of the Jan Juc creek daylighting project was identified through the Barwon Integrated Water Management (IWM) Forum and the Barwon Regional Partnership, and received a grant of $700,000.

Stage two of the project supports greater use of stormwater and improves waterway health in a way that creates economic, social and ecological benefits.

Stage two works include:

Removing an old low flow drainage pipe, returning surface flows to the creek.
Reforming the creek banks.
Replanting indigenous vegetation.
Constructing an inland wetland upstream of Duffields Road.
Replacing the existing boardwalk with a new boardwalk in the same alignment.

Background

Jan Juc creek is naturally an ephemeral waterway. As the township of Jan Juc developed in the 1960's the alignment of the creek was highly modified as utilities and drainage were moved underground. In the 1970's, the Shire of Barrabool installed a 'low flow' pipe under Jan Juc creek removing flows from the surface in an attempt to 'beautify' the creek area by transforming it into a grassed recreational reserve. Stormwater runoff from the adjacent residential catchment was also conveyed through the underground pipe and eventually out to the ocean.

In 2012, the 'Friends of Jan Juc Creek Reserve' (FJJCR) community group presented council with the idea of reinstating sections of the creek to a more natural state by removing underground drainage infrastructure and recreating the creek channel (daylighting). In 2013, council began work to develop a concept design for daylighting Jan Juc creek and in 2014 Stage one of the project commenced.