Melbourne Water finds platypuses choking on hair ties in Diamond Creek

A shocking Melbourne Water audit in Diamond Creek has uncovered the “distressing” reason why so many platypuses are choking and dying in the suburb’s waterways. And the culprit is a household item you’d probably never think of.

Volunteer Julia Davis with Water Watch co-ordinator Naomi Dart and Nillumbik Council’s waste team leader Nathan Miller on the banks of Diamond Creek. Picture: Mark Dadswell

Diamond Creek has been dubbed Melbourne’s most dangerous waterway for platypuses.

An eight-month Melbourne Water audit found masses of hair bands littering the creek floor, posing a life-threatening risk to Australia’s oddest mammal.

Project co-ordinator Naomi Dart said platypuses came into contact with the elastics while using their bills to search for food in the creek bed.

“They use their bills to dig around in the mud looking for bugs, and to protect their eyes they close them but they don’t see the hair bands which end up flipping over onto their bills,” she said.

Platypuses can become entangled in elastics while they use their bills to search the creek bed for food.

“As the platypus moves around and swims the hair band just moves further down until it gets down to its neck region and can cause it to choke to death.”

A Montmorency volunteer who took part in a recent clean-up at the creek said 11 entangled platypuses were captured in just one night during the audit.

“It’s very distressing to see — we just want people to understand what dropping litter can do and we want people to care,” she said.

“I often see platypuses with rings around their necks or legs and ducks with their legs trapped — animal entanglement is a huge problem.”

Diamond Creek was dubbed the “worst” suburb in Melbourne for platypus entanglement after a Melbourne Water audit uncovered scores of litter in the creek which runs along the Diamond Creek trail.

Ms Dart said Diamond Creek had been a hot spot for 25 years.

“We found a lot of takeaway food packaging, balloons, straws, serviettes and baby wipes,” Ms Dart said.

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“A lot of people don’t realise that when they drop litter onto the ground it gets picked up by storm water and is washed away into drains — this then pushes it into our rivers and creeks.”

Ms Dart said Melbourne Water was working in conjunction with Nillumbik Council to install a specialised bin in the area.

“We’re working with the council to install a big valley bin — it has its own compactor and can fit in a lot more rubbish than your average bin,” she said.

“We need to stop litter at the source and that’s by binning rubbish, reducing its use and working with the local community.”

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