Now fish are jumping not just in the creek, but along the banks and down the streets of Islington, through the local school and even in the suburb's shop windows.

The "Mullet Revolution" is raging through Islington, as the suburb declares war on plastic waste by using creativity and community spirit as its weapons. 

"We're having a bit of fun, turning things on their head," explains Phoebe Trongchittham, one of the lead revolutionaries, who is also an Islington Public School P&C mum.

"It's turning the tide on plastic pollution. It's stopping and thinking about doing things differently, so it's a revolution in that respect."

Flowing through the heart of this revolution, just as it does through the community, is the creek itself. For it is Throsby Creek and the waterways connected to it that become clogged with plastic pollution. 

"When we're doing creek clean-ups, single-use plastic is the most prevalent thing we're collecting," Mrs Trongchittham says. "Plastics are the things we've homed in on, because they're damaging the marine life, and they're something we can do without a little more."

The seeds of this revolution were planted in the school playground. Islington Public School students were to be involved in a project to study the local waterways by decorating wooden fish. 

Then when local business owners, Shellie and Neal Smith from the Yardsale Trading Co. boutique, contacted Mrs Trongchittham, who is a community engagement officer at Newcastle City Council, about reducing the use of plastic bags, "we sort of just joined the dots".

And so, with funding from the City of Newcastle, a community "revolution" was born. And it would be done by painting the suburb red - and blue, and every other colour. Or at least, by exhibiting painted fish.   

The members of Newcastle Men's Shed embraced the task of drawing up and cutting out about 350 mullet shapes from recycled wood.  

"We've had to do a lot of different things, but we've never been asked to make fish before," says Wayne Grant, the secretary of Newcastle Men's Shed. "We did 150, then they wanted some more, so we just kept going."

About 200 fish shapes made their way to the school, where the 160 students have been painting designs on them. 

"This is green, the colour of the water and the plants," explains Year 6 student Chloe of her creation. And Chloe knows why she's doing this.

"It's very cool to see lots of fish in the creek, because it means they can actually live in the creek. If they eat the plastic, the fish get filled up, and they die." 

The students only need look on the other side of the school's fence, at the concrete-banked waterway, to see why they're painting fish.

"It's called Styx Creek," says Year 1 student Indie. A boom stretched across the creek is holding back a raft of plastic pollution.

"It's tragic," says the school's librarian and art teacher, Greg Deakin-Bell.

But he sees hope in the school of painted fish. 

On Sunday, the students, with help from the Islington community, will hang the mullet along the fence to raise awareness of plastic pollution in the water.    

"It shows the children a dedicated, concerned community can heal the land, heal their community, heal the waterways," Mr Deakin-Bell says.

The fish shapes have also swum into local businesses, and many have made their own mullet.

Sisters Angela and Rowena Foong, from clothing label High Tea with Mrs Woo, have strung mullet bunting outside their studio, The Fernery, and, with the help of Angela's 4-year-old daughter, Zoe, have made stuffed fish from textile off-cuts. 

Outside other businesses, there's metal mullet, leather mullet, Mexican mullet, and, in the window of hair salon Cheveux with Lou, there's a mullet with a mullet called "Muzza".   

"It was actually tricky to put recycled hair on it, so that it looked like a mullet, rather than a fish with a bit of weird hair," says salon owner Lou Day. 

Yardsale's Shellie Smith has created a mullet using Awabakal traditional weaving techniques, and she is painting a mural on the shop's back fence.

She says her business and others in Islington have done away with single-use plastic bags. So more than being colourful, Islington's Mullet Revolution is helping bring about change. 

"It's a quiet revolution," Shellie Smith says. "I think everyone realises they can make small changes, and that can make a big impact."