The Mudcrabs are a local community group which cares for The Cooks River and its foreshore environment by regularly collecting rubbish and restoring the bush along the Cooks River. The group grew out of the interest and involvement of two people, Chris Bartlett and Ian Bruce, who were involved in the 2005 Clean-Up Australia Day along the Cooks River. These two people then became disappointed that the River was still full of rubbish after the big clean up. They decided to take action into their own hands and begin a regular clean up of the River themselves. Other people noticed them working along the river and stopped to talk, then offered to help.

As more people became interested, Canterbury Council became involved and assisted by supplying, bags, rubbish grabbers, boots, gloves etc. Initially, Chris Bartlett had to individually phone all the volunteers to tell them when and where the cleanups would be. This became onerous and expensive as more & more people wanted to help, so an email contact list was formed which now has more than 400 people on it.

The Mudcrabs name was chosen because the presence of mudcrabs in the river would be a sign of the health of the river and because of the visual image of individuals moving about the foreshores with pincer-like rubbish pullers, being very active. A logo was designed and T-shirts printed. People's interest in Mudcrab activities started to grow quickly as members wore their Mudcrabs’ T-shirts to the clean-ups. Both Marrickville and Canterbury Councils became keen to use Mudcrabs’ services and were prepared to provide equipment, pay for the T-shirts, provide morning tea, etc.

The Mudcrabs run an annual Environmental Sculpture Competition on the Cooks River, called Riverworks using only recycled material. The inaugural Riverworks event held in March 2006 was very successful with over 220 entries. This annual event continues to highlight the Cooks River and focus attention on the health of the river.

In the 4 years from July 2005, the group has removed more than 3000 bags of litter from the Cooks River – this is estimated to be more than 500 cubic metres. They have also removed 550 bags of weeds and planted about 7000 native trees and shrubs at  bush restoration sites at Rosedale Reserve, Food Ave Hurlstone Park, Ewen Park, Steele Park and Richardson Reserve

The Mudcrabs’ goal is to remain a 'grass roots' group, but it also realizes that we must become more politically active to reduce the flow of pollution at its source. The fight continues and they have recently joined the Cooks River Valley Association to assist in joint endeavours.