• Our photo shows the Billabong area – one of the most iconic spots in the park.  Extending and enhancing the area surrounding the Billabong is next year’s planned major project.
• In great news for the park, our indefatigable Treasurer (Andrea) has relayed that  Melbourne Water has approved our “Kalang Billabong – Completing the Circle” project for one of its Community Grants.  The grant covers two years of our 2020/21 activities and mainly covers plant purchases.

Next Year’s Project Area

• The project is to maintain and improve the existing Billabong pond areas as well as to undertake more planting as follows:
  • Area 1:  the bank going up the hill behind the larger billabong pond (ie to the south)
  • Area 2:  to the west of the billabong ponds on both sides of the track linking the area to previously regenerated area along side the path moving towards Pakenham St.
• Our objectives include:
  • Improvement of the habitat value of wetlands and waterways within the bushland park by improving fringing vegetation and also through linking the remnant canopy
    around the Billabong with remnant vegetation along the creek bank – including planting a few new canopy trees to replace those that have died or are dying.
  • Improving water quality of the outflow going to the creek.
• The work would be comprised of site preparation, hand-weeding and planting about 1,400 plants – in a mixture of Monday and Community Working Bees.

Items for your 2020 Calendar

• Apart from your walking, jogging etc in the park, there will be plenty of things to do in the park next year.   As a condition of our Melbourne Water grant, we have committed to provide 200 hours of in-kind services covering weeding, planting and project management.  Our Community Working Bees will go a long way towards meeting that commitment – so we look forward to your continuing involvement please.
• Other things to do could be: to participate in our Bird Surveys or come along to a BCAC Committee Meeting.

Community Working Bees

• To make our working bee dates for 2020 more predictable, Committee has decided that our working bees next year should be the first Sunday of each month.
• These run from May to October with the last two potentially being weeding-only events (depending on weather conditions).  For your diaries, the dates are:

3rd  May	7th  June	5th  July
2nd  August	6th  September	4th  October

Participate in a Bird Survey

• Bird Surveys are held in Autumn and Spring – dates to be advised.
• Venue: Kalang Oval Pavilion or the Scout Hall depending on timing/availability.

Come along to a Committee Meeting

• BCAC Committee meetings are held at 7:30 PM on the 4th Tuesday of each month excluding December.  Visitors are most welcome.
• Meeting dates for 2020 are: January 28th, February 25th, March 24th, April 28th,  May 26th,  June 23rd ,  July 28th (with AGM), August 25th,  September 22nd,  October 27th and  November 24th.
• Venue: Kalang Oval Pavilion, Kalang Street, Blackburn.

Highlights of 2019

Working Bees

• This year’s project area was the regeneration of a weedy area on the south side of the creek west of the Laurel Grove bridge.  During Community and Monday Morning working bees, we weeded, mulched and planted up the area as well as doing some in-fill planting in nearby beds.

• Our new young 2019 plants are clearly doing well – no doubt benefitting from the good Spring rains and the generally cooler start to Summer.
• Our program of community working bees from March to September was well-attended with several new faces making very positive contributions. In addition to the project work described above,  we spent several working bees in-fill planting, weeding and top-up mulching in Blacks Walk – renovating the creek-side patch from the Scout Hall around to the Middleborough Road entrance path.
• One Friend, Geoff, who has current best practice work safety experience, has helped us organize working bees with emphasis on the safety aspects – covering definition of the scope of the work, potential hazards, personal protective equipment and project specific instructions.
• So a big THANK YOU! to all our Friends who worked with us to make 2019 such a successful year in the park!!!

• Credit also goes to individuals Peter and Helen (on the hill in Kalang Park), Juliet, the regular Monday morning team (Alan, Matthew, Lisa, Nicky, Vicki, Nicola, Graeme and John) as well as the professionals – Council’s Parkswide team, its new contractors Haas and Gray and the Melbourne Water team.  Incidentally, the new contractors have fitted in well and Council’s new management plans for the park are also going well.

Bird Surveys

• Both Bird Surveys were well attended and very successful at their experimental new base at the Kalang Pavilion.
• Thanks to all who participated and especially to the kind photographers who shared their work for the benefit of those who couldn’t be there on the day.
• Thanks also to the Laburnum Cricket Club folks for their friendly cooperation in sharing facilities including their kitchen.

Recognition by Others

• Friends at BRAG (Bellbird Residents’ Action Group) raised a petition to for Council to acquire the vacant land at 60 Main Street for the park.  Even though the petition failed to move Council, BRAG let us know that their petition was supported by 675 signatories from the community!  This is especially remarkable because it was a very low key campaign conducted over a short period.   We think it clearly shows how highly valued the park is by the local community and the many other park users.
• “Victoria Walks” updated its Blackburn Creeklands walk and chose it as a “Staff Pick” and one of their “Walks of the Month” in April.  If you’d like to have a look at their walk or try it out, visit: https://walkingmaps.com.au/walk/3905  – please don’t forget we have our own walk too – the “Secrets of the Creeklands”.  Our walk is superficially similar but emphasises historical aspects of the park.

On the Debit Side

• Unfortunately we lost some key Committee/worker bee people during 2019 – Mary early in the New Year and Nicola mid-year.  Our photo below shows Nicola (L) and Mary having a well earned rest after spreading mulch in 2007.  That area is now nicely bushed up in one of our most successful regeneration projects.
  

  

• Both Nicola and Mary have kept in touch. Nicola is busy travelling all over the country training disability workers.  Mary has found a bigger “creek” for working bees (the Maribyrnong River) and is enjoying being closer to (and busy with) her three grandkids.  There’s a whisper around that it’ll be renamed the Marybyrnong soon! 😉
• Fortunately, we were lucky enough to gain two new people, Nicky and John, who bring new skills, experience and enthusiasm to Committee.  John is a builder who has brought some muscle to our working bees as well as his building knowledge to his Committee contributions.  Nicky is a horticulturalist/garden designer with a scientific bent who has shaken up a lot of our thinking on issues such as plant provenance as well as being a tireless worker in the field.

Council Projects for 2020

• Council will be quite active in the park next year on a number of diverse projects listed below:

Renovation of the Scout Hall

• Council plans to renovate the Scout Hall in Blacks Walk.  The renovation includes an extension which will bring the building out 7.5 metres towards Pakenham Street, a new kitchen, an office, more storage and bringing toilets up to current standards.
• Originally constructed in 1968, it is an important community resource – for the Scouts and also for educational programs – eg as a base for our Bird Surveys until 2019.
• Construction is planned to commence after Easter with completion expected in September.  The car park and creek-side path will be kept open during construction.

Furness Park Playground Update

• This is what the Blacks Walk/Garie Street playground looked like around the mid-1980s (?).  Furness Park’s playground is not much better today with its remaining two lonely swings!
• There have been plans for some time to upgrade this very popular young childrens’ playground.  However, Council noticed that parts of the wooden equipment had deteriorated to the extent that removal of the timber structures was required ahead of schedule for safety reasons.
• We look forward to a better play space being installed next year and trust that priority can be given to the project in the circumstances.

Laurel Grove Storm Water Treatment Project  

• A new storm water treatment system is planned for the Blackburn Creeklands.  It will be constructed in Kalang Park just west of the end of Laurel Grove North and will collect storm water runoff from the road system to the north. Most of the site is a boggy grassed area at present.
  

Upgrade of Bowls Club Car Park

• The Bowls Club Car Park is to be upgraded in the coming months.  Committee has long advocated for this work and we are pleased that Council has found the resources for the project to be done in-house.
• We have a long history of involvement with that car park – a member of our Committee, Mrs Thelma Osborn, designed the current car park in the mid 1980s so as to address the Bowls Club needs while also being a good fit for the park.

In the Corridor

• Covering details of the Corridor and the way the its protections have developed over time, we published a link to local resident Tony Kjar’s comprehensive document on the Corridor in our June/July news.
• Tony has recently revised his document to include impacts of the proposed SLO9 tree controls and recent, important, VCAT decisions which you can download here.

Sightings

• No – not evidence that Santa has crash-landed in Blacks Walk – the photo above shows Clematis microphylla seed heads.

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• In the festive season, we thought you might leave you to enjoy some more of Ruth’s recent “family shots” in the park:

• See you in 2020!  (would that be that 2020 vision?)