Discourses of ‘nature’ enable and constrain opportunities for people, groups, non-human entities, ecosystems, and relationships through their meanings, associated practices and structural manifestations. While considerable academic and practical attention has been directed towards the role of local government in environmental governance, relatively limited attention has been directed towards how nature is represented in local government planning. This research explores environmental discourses of local councils situated in the Merri Creek catchment in metropolitan Melbourne, Australia, a settler-colonial country.