28th Feb was the scheduled workday. But a few days before that, the “Men in Red”  visited. The Bushdoctor arrived with a fantastic motorised wheelbarrow to repair some recent stormwater damage.

A large section of previously un-supported, fragile headwall was washed out of the drainage line, with resultant silt mobilisation and worries about further damage from the next storm, or just from regular flows in the creek. Using all the remaining stockpile of rocks on site, the red demons excavated, shaped and armoured the whole section in just one day.

So, this is what it looked like when the group arrived for work on Saturday.

A little more work to do to finish this off and much more work to do in the immediate surrounding area, but this flow line has always been a worrying piece of the rehabilitation jigsaw.

So with this major item looked after, a lot of weeding and general maintenance was undertaken upstream on a very pleasant day for working.

After the holiday hiatus, which for Popes Glen is 2 months, there are always masses of weeds to deal with and jobs to tidy up at the urban interface in the Blackheath camping area. Sunny and hot, Saturday 23rd saw a group of motivated volunteers attacking Monbretia clumps in flower, with herbicide, swipers & great support from our BMCC Bushcare Officer. Most of the green visible in this photo is native, but the weeds keep getting in.

With such warm and wet conditions recently there was very noticeable growth of the more recent native plantings & self-seeded regeneration. Unfortunately, we also found numerous sapling-sized Crack Willows sprouting from the multitude of small live pieces left in the swamp from a previous large tree removal. The photo here shows one of these, with a small piece about 10cm long and 2 or 3 wide producing 5 or 6 stems and masses of fibrous roots. It needed a mattock to remove and there are about 30 more to wade through the swamp and get out next time; from previous experience we know they won’t do any harm in the meantime.

The choked hydration/pond outflow channel also had to be reopened, an enjoyable job even in the hot sun and very rewarding with immediate results. This was completed with “help” from a swarm of Damselflies, Iota Ringtail(Austrolestes io) seemingly enjoying the sun and water. Just 25mm long and stunning blue colour they make an interesting spectacle in flight with all 4 large wings a blur. A bonus on another very enjoyable and rewarding workday.

Here is the first “Flash” for Grant year 3. This is a very exciting period for the Volunteer Bushcare group and the Steering Committee, as it sees the completion of the largest and most significant section of the engineering side of the Project. That is, the storm control structure and the surrounding landscape have now been armoured with large rocks, more wood, geotech material and coir logs right down to the main outflow into the creek proper.

Read the newsletter for other very encouraging news.

The Masthead is dated 20th December and that is when the document was mostly finished, but publication and distribution was delayed until late January – we knew most of the recipients would not be in their office over that period.

BMBN News Flash 07 Dec 2014 compressed

Some of our regular volunteers with one of the many university & TAFE students who come to do research and of course you might recognise our Bushcare Officer!

This is the Newtwork Newsletter published at the end of our Environmental Trust Project’s second year.

BMBN News Flash 06 June 2014

As you have possibly noticed, this edition, number 5, was published with the wrong month in the heading. An error for which the editor takes full responsibility! So most of the work described in this edition occurred in April & May; and March in the banner is a mistake.

BMBN News Flash 05 May 2014

This is the first Network Newsflash published in Year 2 of out Grant, the fourth overall.  As you can see, it is over 6 months since edition 3 and that is due to the huge amount of other work both done and “supervised” in this intensely busy period.

BMBN News Flash 04 Feb 2014

As part of our Environmental Trust Grant Project community engagement & education module, we are publishing a newsletter 3 or 4 times each year. Here is a composite comprising the first three editions, which were sent to a list of interested community members during financial year 2012/2013. The individual pages were published and distributed on 8th November 2012, 11th February and 16th June 2013 respectively.

Project Newsletter Booklet Year 1