WILDTIMES September 2016 Edition 56

The monster May-hem In this issue WILDCARE FRIENDS OF FREYCINET WILDCARE faces New board members

All the ingredients of mayhem were New WILDCARE group Doctors Rocks present. We had 14 volunteers with a list of jobs filling one A3 size spreadsheet Weed control Furneaux (that part was organised). The teams Below: The view from Cape Tourville. The Nut threatened plants Stanley and vehicles needed to be assigned. Bottom: The job with a million dollar view – Gradually, we sorted ourselves out. painting the decking at the lighthouse. Stuck in the mud Pittwater & Orielton Lagoon Some of us applied render to the Smiths Lagoon threatened plants barbeque bricks. I could not bear to watch as they had not looked at the Yorktown working bee Yorktown DIY video beforehand. Others went up to Cape Tourville and ran out of paint not once, but twice. Seven picnic tables were repaired and painted. But it was not all painting. A team cleared an old Department of Main Roads campsite. They counted over 1,000 cans, huge numbers of broken beer bottles and rubbish that filled several large tip trucks. They left the car bodies! Another team walked the coast from Bicheno to the southern end of Friendly Beaches, removing sea spurge and its cousin, caper spurge. After that, they badly needed a drink, so we all went to the pub for a meal. Thistles and psoralea were removed from several areas, including around the Saffire sewerage pond. Well, they do contribute handsomely to the work of WILDCARE Inc! Most of the infrastructure around the Visitors Centre was then refreshed in preparation for to the centenary celebrations, held 27-29 August. And … PWS put on a great barbie at Honeymoon Bay. Thanks guys. We love you, too. Malcom MacDonald CEO Getting to know the faces behind WILDCARE

Sally Simco has recently been Ian Ross is a new WILDCARE board CEO report appointed to the WILDCARE Board of member. Ian grew up in Brisbane, Management. She is a keen bushwalker studied architecture at QUT, and is and kayaker and volunteering with a Registered Building Designer in Friends of the Penguin Cradle Trail WILDCARE suits her interests in learning . He worked in Papua New It is a delight to report that another about the natural and cultural history of Guinea from 1977 to 1979, and met marvellous donation of $20 000 remote areas of Tasmania, while making and married his wife in Port Moresby. has been received from The Patricia a contribution to conservation projects. Ian was introduced to bushwalking Dukes Foundation. These funds will Sally, and her husband Michael, first in his teens, was a member of the be utilised in stage 2 activities at took up WILDCARE volunteer positions Brisbane Bushwalkers Club for the Penguin Cradle Trail, involving as Cape Bruny Lighthouse Caretakers 25 years and Public Relations Officer placement of directional signage and Observers in 2013. Since then, for Federation Mountain Rescue for along the trail and improved they have been involved in numerous five years. He first visited Tasmania in safety for walkers. Volunteer WILDCARE projects, including weed 1971 to walk in to Lake Pedder before and Greencorp labour will be eradication on Deal , sea spurge it was flooded, climb Frenchmans participating, providing direction removal on the West Coast (SPRATS), Cap, andwalk the Overland Track. and upskilling for those involved. Friends of Freycinet working bees, He developed a passion for nature Congratulations to President Greig and the Orange-bellied parrot Program and landscape photography which has Clarke and his Branch team – your (2014-16). continued to the present day. donor is well pleased with the results Sally is involved with the Ulverstone He has been a WILDCARE member of your hard work in stage 1. Coast Care group and the volunteer for many years, but has been actively Strategic plan track-worker program at Cradle involved with Friends of Since the existing strategic plan Mountain National Park. She is and Friends of Melaleuca in particular expires at the end of this year, the a member of the newly formed in recent years, taking part in working Board of Management has recently WILDCARE Friends of Cradle Mountain bees and using his practical building participated in a strategic planning group. Sally has also been a member skills. Ian believes that volunteering day, please see the article in this of the North West Walking Club for creates social capital that enriches our edtion of Wildtimes. 36 years. Sally completed the Landcare community, and sees WILDCARE as a for Teachers program, designed by significant facilitator of volunteering in Call for contributions to the 2016 the University of Tasmania and was Tasmania, that deserves wide support Annual Report appointed to the WILDCARE Board by both our State Government and the Yes, it’s already that time of year in April 2016. With an interest in Tasmanian public. again! All Branches are now invited ‘Emerging Opportunities’, Sally will be to submit interesting items on their working towards improving WILDCARE activities and projects for inclusion opportunities for all sectors of the in the 2016 Annual Report. Newsy Tasmanian community, in a time of items in Word format, complete with changing conservation issues and photos and captions, are requested technological advancement. on or before the end of September. Please contact me if you have questions or need help. Your co-operation in responding early would be much appreciated and avoid that mad rush at the end of the year. New WILDCARE group at Doctors Rocks WILDCARE FRIENDS OF DOCTORS ROCKS

The Doctors Rocks Conservation Highway, to prevent the penguins The philosophy of our group is based Area is located five kilometres east of straying onto the road. But there are around working closely with Parks Wynyard. It is a long, narrow coastal still several kilometres of the reserve to maintain the conservation area reserve approximately seven kilometres bordering on the Bass Highway that particularly as habitat for little penguins. long and features a geological feature is still to be fenced and every season The objectives of this group include: called ‘Doctors Rocks’, which protrudes there are a number of penguins killed into Bass Strait. The coastal strip on the road. • offering tourists and local visitors an is predominantly rocky but there opportunity to see Little penguins The Wynyard Landcare Group have are a couple of small stretches of in their natural habitat during their made an important contribution in sandy beaches. breeding season (September to April) extending this penguin fence and The Doctors Rocks Conservation Area arranging for the existing fence to be • provide non-intrusive viewing is home to a significant number of maintained every couple of years. Most opportunities and interpretive talks little penguins, with large groups on of the Doctors Rocks Conservation according to established practices the immediate western and eastern Area is classified by the Waratah • observe and report on the behaviour sides of Doctors Rocks itself, and Wynyard Council and Tasmania of Little penguins smaller pockets of penguins along the Parks and Wildlife Service (Parks) as whole conservation reserve. The little a ‘No Dog’ zone. However, in recent • report on any changes to the penguins have no difficulty in traversing years, the little penguins have extended physical environment of the area the rocky terrain to get to their nesting their colony zone westwards into a due to natural weather events areas, but significant numbers utilise the ‘Dog off the Leash’ area. • engage in clean-up and general sandy beaches as access points from The concept of operating maintenance of the area the water to the foreshore nesting area. tours at Doctors Rocks started several • regularly maintain the penguin fence Many shore and sea birds, such as pied years ago, through an initiative involving and install artificial penguin nests, oystercatchers, red-capped plovers, Waratah Wynyard Council, Parks, a local sometimes called ‘concrete igloos’ pacific and sea gulls, and of course, the person with extensive experience with little penguins and shearwaters, are little penguins who had worked with • report to relevant authorities any seen in the reserve. Ringtail possums, Parks, the Wynyard Visitor Information inappropriate behaviour observed in bandicoots, rabbits, water rats, wallabies Centre and local accommodation the conservation area. and tiger snakes also live in the operators. Doctors Rocks has only been conservation area. a conservation area for a couple of years and is managed by Parks; prior to The small community of Doctors that it was a coastal reserve managed Rocks (approximately 20 residences) by local council. can be found at the junction of the East Wynyard Coastal Road and Bass It was decided to amalgamate Highway. A new housing subdivision is all interested parties and create being constructed at the western end. a WILDCARE group called the ‘Friends of Doctors Rocks Penguins.’ Doctors Rocks is well known locally as a very popular fishing spot and it is not unusual to see people fishing off the rocks and from boats during the warmer months for squid, Australian salmon and shark. In recent years, there has also been significant interest amongst locals in gold panning. A steel mesh fence has been constructed along sections of the reserve, where significant numbers of penguins nest within metres of the East Wynyard Coastal Road and Bass Weed control in the Furneaux Islands WILDCARE FRIENDS OF BASS STRAIT ISLANDS

Our WILDCARE group have organised Rabbit, Cairn, Isabella and Chalky Islands (Roundup used judiciously and sparingly and run 2 more successful and means we conducted the vital work for ‘cut&paint’ of cut stems) plus fuel enjoyable fortnight-long weed control of follow-up weed survey and removal for chainsaws and driptorches were working bees in the Furneaux Islands across approximately 120 Hectares of funded out of an equipment grant this year. off-shore Conservation Area. At low from NRM North. Accommodation tide one day, 2 FoBSI volunteers also and transport was provided by Mark Between May 23rd - June 5th a party waded across to Bird Island, just off Baldwin. Food costs were kept to a of 10 volunteers completed the huge Settlement Point, to conduct follow- minimum through edible donations by task of ridding the Wybalenna Historic up weed checking and control on this many Flinders locals: David and Jason Site, a very significant area of Aboriginal 1.5 Ha islet. Bellinger (potatoes and pumpkins) land managed by the Tasmanian Dave Freer (locally sourced meat and Land Council, of all boxthorn. The FoBSI has also run another 10 person fish), Olives (organic completion of primary control work working bee (July 23rd-Aug 5th) which live oil), Rachel Dallas, (fresh greens), on this weed here and at the adjacent continued the task of freeing beautiful Norm Hunt and Kelly Devlin, (ducks) muttonbird rookery area at Settlement , just off the west coast and the Flinders CWA (fresh herbs Point, an area under the jurisdiction of Flinders Island, from its massive and vegetables). Funds to cover the of PWS, represents the culmination of invasion of boxthorn. Over two-thirds remaining food costs were donated much dedicated FoBSI effort over a of its 39 Ha are now boxthorn free and by the Furneaux Landcare Group, Tree 5 year period. the crew who went there reported Action Group community plant nursery, many nesting pairs of Cape Barren The work mapped below represents Flinders CWA, together with additional Geese as well as the presence of huge >3000 person hours, the removal of donations by some of the participating numbers of (very noisy) little penguins. over 130 large to very large boxthorn volunteers themselves. bushes, both isolated and in gnarly Our working bees this year were A one thousand thanks to all involved! thickets, and total coverage of around funded through many sources and 145 Ha. with the much appreciated assistance of diverse groups, organisations and The weather during our May-June individuals. While most of the costs working bee was at times wild with lots of running the Roydon trip could be of heavy pouring rain and strong winds covered out of a single grant from but we were able to continue to work Landcare Tas, the rollcall of thanks for productively throughout, even luckily the resources allowing us to conduct finding 3 days of sufficiently calm seas the Wybalenna and outer islands and fine conditions to boat out to working bee is long and varied. 9 of the outer islands on which our group had already completed primary The cost of transporting volunteers to boxthorn control. Revisiting gorgeous and from Flinders was funded by 2 small wild uninhabited Cat, Storehouse, grants obtained from the WILDCARE Wybalenna waterhole now it has been cleared Sentinel, South Pascoe, Wybalenna, Board of Management. Herbicide of Boxthorn.

10 hard-working volunteers sitting where once all was boxthorn as the last of it burns down to nowt but ash in the foreground. From Left: Lizzie Cole, Bill Harvey, Mark Alexander, Jean Jackson, Kat Hopkins, Henk Broelsma, Sieglinde Hopkins, Meredith Burgin, Kate Hansford, Craig Dandeaux Leucochrysum albicans Smiths at The Nut Lagoon THREATENED PLANTS TASMANIA Story by Phil Collier THREATENED PLANTS TASMANIA Alison van den Berg

The purpose of this trip was to repeat In stark contrast to 2009, our total Weeding at Smiths Lagoon, Conara, the census of Leucochrysum albicans count in 2016 was 42 living plants. February 2016 that was previously completed in 2009. The full report for the trip analysed The aim of this field trip was to follow rainfall for the previous six months at up on our previous efforts in removing The previous census identified ten Stanley, and found that rainfall was woody weed species from this sites where the population of plants 25% less than the previous record low Midlands wetland site, home to at least was counted or estimated, with a total rainfall over the same period during the 12 threatened flora species. count of nearly 5000 plants. past 150 years of records. If seems likely The lagoon is on private property Our survey visited nine of the ten sites; that the extremely dry conditions are covered by a conservation covenant site 8 was too scrubby to approach responsible for the lack of living plants, under the Tasmanian Nature to check on the previous record of especially as many plants occur in dry Conservation Act 2002. one plant. We extended site 5 to a rocky places with shallow soil. nearby rock outcrop where we located Among the threatened flora species at The report recommends another field 11 plants. the site is the EPBC–listed Xerochrysum trip in 2017, hoping for better rainfall palustre (swamp everlasting), and the and a recovery in plant numbers. largest known Tasmanian population of the endangered Schoenus latelaminatus (medusa bogsedge), as well as several ephemeral plants restricted to wetlands in the Northern Midlands. The target weed of the day was Crataegus monogyna (hawthorn), which was treated on a previous trip in 2011. Our eager group of 5 volunteers, were led by Dr Richard Schahinger on a very warm February day. We covered the whole lagoon and were able to locate all of the previously treated shrubs. It was very satisfying to see Above: Intrepid volunteers searching for Leucochrysum albicans at the nut in Stanley that many of the hawthorns had died Below: Leucochrysum albicans (photos by Robin Garnett) completely, and those that did show signs of regrowth were struggling, and were treated once again. Very few new plants were recorded. Hopefully we will find the lagoon free of Hawthorn on our next field trip scheduled for 2021!

Volunteers cheerfully tackling the hawthorn Stuck in Yorktown Strategic the mud WILDCARE FRIENDS OF YORKTOWN planning FRIENDS OF PITTWATER AND ORIELTON LAGOON

On 21 June, 21 willing workers from On Monday 25 July, our little band of The WILDCARE Board of Management Friends of Pittwater Orielton Lagoon, Friends of Yorktown met for a working undertook a strategic planning session The Green Army, and Conservation bee. Our aim was to check on our recently. The Key Strategic Directions Volunteers , joined forces to heathland area which, over the last two for WILDCARE for the next 3 years are: plant 635 tube stock groundcovers, years, we have been supplementing 1. Fundraising grasses and sedges. with nursery-grown stock plants. We have had very few losses, which is 2. Renewal and relevance Although it was raining and the mud pretty amazing considering the recent 3. Building strong relationships was thick (adding 5cm to everyone’s dry spring and summer. We tended height) the group stoically stuck (!) to 4. Building effective internal some plants which were underwater, the task. The area had been subject to communications straightened up covers, put in more tunnel erosion and the project aims plants, then cut and pasted some 5. Raising the profile in the wider to revegetate the foreshore where cursed gorse and grubbed out some community Orielton Lagoon meets Miena Park. of the marauding Lomandra. For some 6. Reviewing and refining Board We look forward to visiting the site reason, this sagg thinks it has the right practices again in the spring to check on the to take over the world, or at least They look forward to implementing this plants and work on any weeding Yorktown, and leave no room for new direction across the organisation. necessary. Hopefully, it will all be green sharing with our other natives, such and gorgeous in the near future! as the Patersonia, Epacris, Hibbertia Sally Salier, Bob Tyson, Dave Harris and John and orchids. Work over for the day, Duggan get down to business to plan for Thanks to NRM South for organising the we enjoyed a scramble through nearby WILDCARE. event and providing the funding for the bush, searching for interesting fungi. plants - particularly Paul Gray and Ruth Osborne. Also, a very big ‘thank you’ to Sophia Newman for her unflinching efforts in leading the work groups.

Despite the rain and the mud volunteers were happy to do some work to protect this precious wetland.

Thank you to these people for their donations: Tracy Matthews, Saffire Freycinet Guests, Stephen Atkinson, M & D Jex, James Collins, Jacob Wilson, Wayne Gardner, Tracey Bagger, Craig Parsey, Kirk Stanton, Megan Alessandrini, Geraldine Whittle, John Murison, Lyndal Byrne, PG Dukes Pty Ltd, Lorraine Cotter, Robert Brooke, Jen O’Bryan, Jane Forster, Andrea Lewis, Anne Hornby, Sanne Stewart, Tracey Simpson, Andrew Smith, Greg Noonan, Donelle Gadenne, Tricia Sharples, Paul Dowsett, David Clark, Saffire Freycinet Guests, Jane Long, Zena Dempsey, Craig Parsey, RACT, Robert Brooke, Fiona Connolly, Robert Brooke, Heather Grainger, Phillip Wyatt.

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