Spring is on the Way

• It’s fabulous of nature in Australia that many wattles flower early to presage the coming spring and cheer us up with their bright colours in the meantime.
• The wattle pictured is the indigenous Acacia paradoxa (Hedge Wattle) growing in Blacks Walk.  A very prickly customer, it is ideal in situations where you want to provide cover for small birds -or an effective deterrent for unwelcome visitors!
• Please check out our Noticeboard for a display of the wattles currently flowering in the park – thanks Megan and Anthea!

Wild, Wet and Cold!

• Ruth has risked getting her camera wet to bring this photo to us that seems to capture the essence of last month.  August was cold and wet – with occasional wild winds  – especially in comparison to our relatively mild June and July.
• The good news is that the signs of Spring are also becoming visible – in addition to the wattles flowering, birds are partnering and nesting – also the days are longer and the sun stronger.

Petition to Acquire Land Fails at Council

• Our disappointed friends at BRAG (Bellbird Residents’ Action Group) have let us know that Whitehorse Council advised they will not purchase the land at 60 Main Street as requested in their petition and supported by 675 signatories from the community!
• If you would like to know Council’s reasoning, you can read its letter on the BRAG web-site.
• Despite the disappointment, we thank the BRAG folks for their efforts in trying to protect and extend our park – which clearly enjoys a very high level of support from the community.

Community Working Bees

• Actually, the above shot is not from our latest working bee – it’s from one of our earliest in the early 1980s – getting on to 40 years ago.   Some interesting observations:
  • The person calling the shots pointing in front of the large eucalypt seems to be our current Chairperson Megan (!). [She doesn’t think so though…]
  • The photo seems to have been taken looking towards Kalang Oval  – nowadays the creek is much lower – no doubt due to increased flows following urbanisation creeping eastwards and housing becoming denser in our own area.  These tend to create more hard surfaces (rooves, driveways, wider/made roads…) which create more run-off.
• Here’s what our last working bee really looked like – at this point we were gathered around as the ubiquitous Megan thanked us all for our efforts on the day:

• The 4th August working bee was very successful with good support from the community – from both young and old!
• The good news is that we still seem to be getting a similar number of people along – and the park is showing the benefits of all those years’ worth of effort from the community !

Next Working Bee – Sunday, September 8th

Next Working Bee – Sunday, September 8th 09:00-12:00

• Our next community working bee will be on Sunday September 8th 09:00-12:00 in Blacks Walk – weeding and mulching under the watchful eye of Nicky acting as Site Manager and sustained by Anthea as Catering Manager for morning tea.  STOP PRESS – because the soil is so moist, we’re going shopping at the local indigenous nurseries for some grasses and ground covers to cover some bare patches.
• This is our last planned working bee for 2019 – so your last chance to make a contribution until around April 2020!
• We’ll meet at the seat near where the paths join.  Parking should be available near the Scout Hall or the Guides Hall.
• If you can’t work with us on the day, but you can make morning tea at 10:30, please do!

Maintenance Team Report

• Save the Swales!  – one interesting task the Maintenance Team undertook recently was to clear a shallow swale drain to help prevent flooding in a park neighbour’s property.  A swale is like a ditch but more broad and shallow – and usually covered by grasses or similar vegetation.
• Gradual silting up of the swale was blocking the normal flow of stormwater from Laurel Grove North through to the Waratah Wetlands.  This had not caused flooding problems until recently – the recent road and gutter repairs in the area have increased the flows and made them faster.
• The team’s work is only temporary until Council’s project to install a sediment trap and extended wetland is implemented soon.  Vicki’s photo below shows the newly renovated swale in operation after rain – apparently working well as intended.

• Sending the flow through the wetland is intended to slow the flow of run-off to the creek, allow sediment to drop out and permit the wetland’s plants to remove nutrients and pollution from the water.  The net effect is less erosion and cleaner water entering our creek, the Yarra River, Port Phillip Bay and the ocean!  Well done Vicki, Nicky, Matthew and Tom who did the hard yakka – “saving the swales” might well “save the whales” – every little bit counts!
• Otherwise, the team has been busy weeding Blacks Walk along the path towards Middleborough Road in the direction of the next working bee site.  In parallel, Graeme has been busy transplanting some recovered plants as clumps (mostly grasses) into various bare areas in the park.

Annual General Meeting (AGM)

• Our official Blackburn Creeklands Advisory Committee AGM was conducted on 23/7/2019. Speaking to the Annual Report,  our chair, Megan Short, noted the following highlights over the past financial year:
  • 2018/2019 was a year of two halves pivoting around Mary Crouch’s departure towards the end of 2018. More than $2,000 worth of tube-stock was planted in the first half before the need to regroup and continue under Graeme’s and John’s leadership – albeit with Mondays only during the week.
  • Council had asked us to discontinue spraying herbicides in the park.   This change has impacted our efficiency in site preparation in Monday working bees.
  • On the other side of the ledger, Parkswide has promised to put more work into the park – particularly in recognition of the loss of Mary’s prodigious input and the ban on spraying. We have seen early signs of Parkswide addressing that promise and new contractors have been appointed.
  • Megan acknowledged Andrea’s efforts as Treasurer in gaining our additional funding and in maintaining significant working relationships with Council.  Megan also thanked Anthea for her significant efforts with public communication via the Notice Board and John for the minutes, website and regular newsletters.
• All existing Office Bearers were re-elected.  The only change was that John McMahon succeeds Mary Crouch as Secretary – Mary having to resign when she left Blackburn.  The role of Minute Secretary has been subsumed into the role of Secretary.
• We’re very pleased Nicky and another John have been proposed to Council as two new Committee members.   A message on volunteering, passed on by Debra – one of our distant Friends – went like this:

Volunteering is the ultimate exercise in democracy.  
You vote in elections from time to time but when you volunteer, 
you vote every day about the community you want to live in.  
(Anonymous)

Sightings

• Ruth’s low-light shot below evokes the short winter days in the park.  Near the cricket nets at the Kalang Oval, it was taken at the ephemeral pond which has taken advantage of a natural soak there.  The little pond has become a favourite with our resident ducks!

A tongue twister – Wood Ducks at Dusk – in the new ephemeral pond near the oval.

Ruth’s next shots are a sample of other interesting August sightings in the park:

Close-up of a Fungus (damaged by heavy rain)

Better protected fungus growing on the underside of a log.

Looks like this otherwise tasty morsel might have some potent natural defences…

Close-up shot of the flower of the Running Postman (Kennedia prostrata)

• On a less happy note, the next shot shows pollution in the creek.  We can see rubbish, weeds and other detritus brought down during higher flows.  The milky brown colour that occasionally shows up is probably due to clay – arising from a burst water main somewhere in the creek’s catchment.  The height of the detritus in the vegetation at the right of the photo shows just how high the creek can get after higher rainfall events.

• Interestingly, rock visible at the bottom of the creek is quite common nowadays – it seems the creek has literally hit “rock bottom” so cannot erode much deeper…

Spring Bird Survey – Coming Up in October

• One for your diaries – the Spring Bird Survey will be back at the Kalang Oval Pavilion on the 19th October.  for more information – please click here.

Plant of the Month

• Given the number of wattles flowering in the park, it is appropriate that our plant of the month is a rather showy wattle – Prickly Moses (Acacia verticillata).  It gets its common name from its foliage which is comprised of short, sharp needles.
• It grows to a medium sized shrub and flowers from July to November.  It is a fairly common under-storey shrub.  Like the Acacia paradoxa (Hedge Wattle) we pictured at the start of this newsletter, it provides good cover for small birds.

Weed of the Month

• Weed of the month is Flickweed (Cardamine hirsuta) – an annual plant native to Europe and Asia that is beginning to reappear in the park.   Here is a cluster in Furness Park north of the bridge:

• It grows best in damp, recently disturbed soil – eg (ironically) following weeding.  These conditions are prevalent in plant nurseries and it may be introduced into your garden with nursery plants.
• It gets its name from its “explosive” habit of flicking its ripe seeds when the plant is touched – so it is much better to weed out before it flowers and sets its seeds in Spring until Autumn.