BushcareJANUARY 2013 news Bushcare Christmas Party 2012 A great day on the Hawkesbury River for our Bushcare and Nursery volunteers. Notes from the Top End A personal account of the Australian Wildlife Conservancy. Wareemba teams attack the Arundo Making progress thanks to dedicated teamwork. Jumping Ants What to do if you come into contact with them. Bushfire Important things to consider for summer. + Staff reports ı Volunteer reports ı Bushcare training ı Office matters ı Diary dates and events Newsletter managed by Hornsby Shire Council Natural Resources Branch For more information visit hornsby.nsw.gov.au/bushcare BUSHCARE NEWS Fagan Park Eco Garden Tanya Mein, Eco Garden Officer The Fagan Park Eco Garden started staff, pick up brochures or read the garden or offsite as part of our Satellite out as a community endeavour in interpretive signs. The Eco Garden is Seeds and Seedlings program. 2000 with the additional support of an excellent example of gardening and We are looking forward to providing the then Northern Sydney Waste sustainability where we include fruit the community with more events in Board and Hornsby Shire Council. and vegetable growing, water 2013 as well as joining forces with The last couple of years have seen conservation, native plants, native the staff and volunteers at the renewed efforts under the direction bees and waste reduction. The Eco Pennant Hills Community Nursery of the Council Waste Education and Garden continues to be used for the so please keep your ears open for Parks teams. Council’s waste initiatives such as those activities. ‘Compost Revolution’ and the school We have increased community based ‘Ready Set Grow’ program. contact and education through free workshops, kids activities and open The Eco Garden wouldn’t be the days, with an emphasis on waste and success it is without the ongoing hard sustainability issues. Our focus is on work of our volunteers both past and providing a relaxed and informative present. We have individuals, families environment where visitors can and groups as well as school and wander through the garden, chat to community group visits. We certainly welcome new volunteers both in the Contact Details Hornsby Shire Bushcare Earthwise Cottage 28 Britannia St, Pennant Hills General Bushcare enquiries E: [email protected] Mail: PO BOX 37 Hornsby NSW 1630 Bushcare Survey needs your input Environmental Scientist – Bushcare You can help shape the future of Hornsby Council Bushcare. Leanne Johnston and Meron Wilson 9847 6362 Have your say and give us your suggestions for improving the Bushcare program. All Bushcare volunteers will soon receive a survey and your Coordinator Community participation would be greatly appreciated. We will be sending you an Programs email with a link to an online survey. If you receive your Bushcare News in Danielle Sutton 9847 6360 the post you will receive a paper survey in the mail. Nursery and guided bushwalk It will only take a few minutes to complete but will give us really useful information information to help us design a better program. Please fill out just one Incident and hazard reporting survey and email or mail back to us by the 31st January 2013. Thanks in 9847 4848 advance for your support! 2 january 2013 Welcoming new volunteers and Hellos & farewells farewell to others. Louise Rowsten New retires from Bushcare volunteers Every Monday morning for the past 14 A big welcome is extended to Paula years Louise could be found in the bush Ellis (Rosemead and Manor Road), at New Farm Road, West Pennant Hills. Cecilia Wong (Stanley Road), She was one of the original volunteers David Swain (Roselea), Mary at the site, working with the late Janne O’Byrne (Magnolia), Terry and Aaron Hourigan under the supervision of Semple (Fearnley Park) who have Sheila Woods. successfully completed their probationary training this year and Louise is a sociable person, having are now fully fledged volunteers. grown up with lots of brothers and sisters, and a good cook. Her fellow There are another twenty one Loiuse Rowsten volunteers Tony, Jacky and Sandy, volunteers who have attended and their Trainer Jane, particularly Bushcode, or completed their three enjoyed sharing these qualities with her over morning tea breaks. months on site with a Trainer, but not both. We look forward to them Louise was a keen bushwalker, and wore out the bottoms of her feet joining the registered volunteer team exploring the great outdoors. She has now decided to hand in her bushcare next year! pouch to spend more time in her garden and with her grandchildren. Group members are very sorry to see her go, and hope she will stop by often on her walks. They are pleased to be able to say that at the time of her leaving, the site is totally weed free (and should remain so until the next good drop of rain!) Farewell Clive and June Moller Clive and June officially have worked on their site since 1997, supported by a succession of Trainers starting with Sheila Woods and ending with Brendan Gulson. Now, eighteen years later, they have decided to hand in their tools. They have successfully regenerated a patch of Peppermint-Angophora open forest outside their home, where the land slopes down to Terrys Creek, and now look forward to watching the native birds and animals enjoy the fruits of their labour. They will try not to look at the groundcover weeds that lurk just beyond the site boundaries, and would Clive and June Moller (front left to right) cheer anyone who took them on. hornsby.nsw.gov.au/bushcare 3 BUSHCARE NEWS Wareemba teams Ann Brown attack the Arundo he Wareemba and Wareemba/Tyas bushcare sites jointly cover around 1.5 hectares along (mostly) the T western bank of Larool Creek, which links with Waitara Creek and the Berowra Valley National Park. Over the past 10 years the combined groups have largely eradicated the usual exotic weeds that had overtaken the creek bank and surrounding bushland. However once that hard work was done we were faced with tackling an enormous stand of Arundo donax or Giant Reed. Arundo is a member of the grass family, with canes up to six metres in height and capable of growing ten centimeters a day. The removal process is, as you can Wareemba before grant work imagine, a daunting task for a group of nine volunteers, most of us now at that ‘certain age’. Barbara Tyas was lucky to be made aware of, and we subsequently saw in the Advocate, twenty five Landcare Grants to be made available to community groups for special projects. We then discussed with our trainer, Jane Gye, our suitability for such a grant and after downloading and completing the application on-line we put together a brief PowerPoint presentation. We selected a dozen photographs highlighting the Arundo problem and ‘showcasing’ the restoration work in the sites, the spectacular waterfall and one of our neighbourhood picnics. Wareemba after grant work The Council Community Nursery came to the party with a commitment of 300 tubestock to aid in the restoration. Subsequently Landcare Australia provided us with a $2,000 grant, which enabled us to employ contractors. The funds would cover us for about 48 hours of labour so, to eke our funds out and make the most of the money, we elected to work a schedule of one day a week with the contractors. Each Friday between 9.00am and 2.30pm the contractor fired up the saws and we volunteers began to haul giant fronds uphill from the creek to the road, where they were cut and bundled ready for removal. Over the coming weeks we amassed some 300 plus bundles lining the roadside. Thankfully the council also donated a truck for the removal. With such dedicated teamwork and effort we actually managed to surpass the estimated area able to be removed. There is still a lot of work to do beyond our boundaries and perhaps another grant will enable us to pursue this to link our creek walk to the nearby remnant Blue Gum forest and Volunteer working at Wareemba further improve habitat along the corridor for birds and other wildlife. 4 january 2013 Over the past 10 years the combined groups have largely Wareemba creek with Arundo eradicated the usual exotic weeds Wareemba creek without Arundo that had overtaken the creek bank and surrounding bushland. Your stories and news items are always very welcome. Visit us on the web hornsby.nsw.gov.au/bushcare hornsby.nsw.gov.au/bushcare 5 BUSHCARE NEWS Trad Bash @ Terrys Creek n Saturday 10 November grasses and shrubs, right down to the it would release excess nutrients into Hornsby Bushcare Chain of Ponds that trainer Brendan the soil. Sonny asked me how many Ovolunteers and neighbours Gulson and I created a few years ago. I bags I needed. “Is ten too many?” I gathered at Lucinda Coates’ Terrys couldn’t believe how much there asked. Luckily he left me 40. The Creek Bushcare site to remove an suddenly was. I enthusiastically team filled a total of 36 from the site infestation of Trad (Tradescantia started work with my new Bushcare (Sonny collected them all the fluminensis) that had spread from a trainer Adam, but realised we needed following Monday)! fill pile into the bushland. a helping hand to get rid of the Trad. “Irene planted native tube-stock into We needed a working bee. The Terrys Creek valley lies at the the bare patches: mainly small shrubs, southern tip of Hornsby Shire. The “My cunning method was to tempt sedges and other plants that will build narrow corridor of bush along the Bushcare volunteers with a light lunch a more suitable habitat for small birds creek boasts one of the few and a yummy afternoon tea, then arm than Trad, and loads of native grasses.