Members Updates

It was a grey, overcast morning as we arrived on site, to be greeted by a rain shower. We all donned our coats, which never came off as the rain showers kept coming in all morning, one after the other. So much for the forecast of 32C and sun/cloud. We had low/mid 20’s and rain on and off the whole time. Still, it was great to be out in nature with our cozy little group.

However, some were less impressed with the weather than others …

Morning rain greeting the team.

As there was no wind we worked in the south eastern area of the site for a change. Brad and his brother Peter who was out from Colorado USA, eliminated a large Bitou bush and then cleaned up this area of the non-native pigs face, before heading to the northern part of this site to get rid of another couple of bitou – and then helped rid central area of this site of the non-native pig’s face.

In the photo above, Arthur is facing away from the camera. He was working on getting rid of the kikuyu from an area of Lomandra and tea tree (Leptospermum laevigatum). Along the line of white weed bags you can see the start of the new demarcation line going east to west to stop the kikuyu heading up the slope into a beautiful area of native Themeda. On the right, Alex and Des talk logistics – this is the area where Alex was removing the non native pigs face.

Des and Arthur worked on the north/south demarcation line which is there to stop the non-native pigs face going over the bump into the kikuyu and the stopping the kikuyu of getting any further into our beautiful eastern dune area. They cleared kikuyu westward and Arthur did an amazing job getting this rotten grass out of a lovely clump of native plants of Lomandras and a tea tree. Merrilyn worked on one of her two most hated weeds, Gladiolus caryophyllaceous hybrid – (the other is asparagus fern) – she even brought along a sieve to capture the small bulbs at the bottom of the plant from a trowel full of sand. Now that is serious dedication and determination!

Alex and Leila worked on the Turkey Rhubarb which is well into the Westringia and hard to get to, but with a saw (this one is dying so no problem sawing it up!), they were able to get in and were really surprised how many bulbs they were able to find in that area. They also checked the nest, then joined the rest of the team over the other side of the track where Alex removed the non-native pigs face on the southern side, whilst Leila, Lisa (after working on the new demarcation line), Brad and Peter removed non-native pigs face from the central area of the eastern dunes.

Kathy, Ivana and Lisa created a new demarcation line going east to west along the southern slope of the eastern dune area. This line is to stop the kikuyu from the flat area of the eastern dunes moving into our beautiful Themeda grassland, which it is just starting to do. Aim is to continue to work above the line to make sure we get all the kikuyu out of there… and one day hopefully, we can attack the kikuyu in the flat.

At some point a competition started as to who can pull up the longest Kikuyu runner. You be the judge, but it looks like there is no end to the “lengths” we will go to in order to have fun and win :)

We didn’t stop for morning tea as no point just sitting in the rain, so we worked through until 11:15 and then left the site sopping wet. Kathy, Des, Lisa, Alex and Leila met up for a coffee where we chatted about Reefcare and life generally. Alex and Leila also leant about the old days when one could steam an envelope open – their jaws just dropped, so funny.

Text by Lisa, photos by Kathy and Lisa

What an absolutely fantastic turn up for Reefcare with such inclement weather – there was a 5% chance of rain at 9:00 (and it rained on time) and then cloudy, but how wrong was the BOM (as usual) – the whole group worked through light showers for over 3 hours without flinching. What a fabulous, dedicated team; but boy, did they all have a wonderful, deserved, great sense of accomplishment at the end! The Reefcare team were the winning warriors and they should all be so pleased and chuffed with themselves.

As we walked up to the top of the headland, we checked the hang glider site, which has remedial works done on it after last winter’s rain. There are now Bitou Bush clumps growing in the hessian matting. The plants are showing Bitou tip moth which eats out the shoots and stunts growth for a while.

Julie spent her time in her usual area just west of The Gully, concentrating on the removal of asparagus fern. The photos below really show the difficulty she is facing with so many of the asparagus ferns well intrenched within a good growing native.

Julie checked the Asparagus clump which was treated a month ago. Most of the crown is dead but a section has regrown slightly stunted leaves.

Des spent his time scouring the site for bitou, asparagus fern, burr medic and other weeds to try and keep our better areas as best we can.

Brad and Merrilyn attacked the Bitou on the northern dune area. We had left one previously as it had the tip moth, but it is growing too much, so had to go. They worked on the next bush, but did not have time to head further west. We cannot do much there anyway, as the Bitou is protecting the sea-facing dune. So it is a matter of cutting back on the land side to protect our beautiful Themeda grass.

Alex and Leila dealt with a Turkey outbreak which Lisa found a couple of weeks ago on the flat in some dying Westringa, which apparently was easily dealt with before they checked the nest area and found 2 pretty big bulbs – well over fist size. After morning tea, Alex and Leila went in for some asparagus fern removal up near the fence line along the top paddock.

Kristie spent her morning literally under cover – under an Acacia Longifolia sp sporae, painstakingly tracing Turkey Rhubarb (Acetosa sagittate) roots and bulbs – in an area which has already had 4 months solid attention – and it still needs follow up! As Lisa said to Kristie, it took 3 to 4 years of pretty solid work to finally rid the flat of the Turkey Rhubarb (Acetosa sagittate) infestation there.

Lisa and Mary firstly worked on the oat grass on the high western slope, with Lisa pulling the grass up and Mary cutting the seed heads into the weed bag – it was certainly twice as fast working together like this. After doing the Oat Grass Lisa helped Arthur with removal of the non-native pigs face on the western slope, which was interrupted with numerous small asparagus plants and a little infestation of Turkey Rhubarb – tracing the roots and bulb in that little lot certainly took some time. Mary then cut some Commelina to put in an area which was a little bare from pigs face removal from last month with exposed soil amongst the new plantings, hoping this creeper will take off. Mary then went to remove what I thought was Rabbit tail, someone else told me Bunny Bum and Kathy said Rabbits foot. It has been on the path above our site for many years, but this is the first time, we have had this weed it on site.

Arthur was new to the group and spent the whole time removing the non-native pigs face, but in doing this task after Lisa has finished with the oat grass and was working with him, was able to show him how to identify and remove Asparagus fern and Turkey Rhubarb (Acetosa sagittate).

Wonderful Kathy our supervisor worked on every weed and circulated, before morning tea concentrating on the removed of the non-native pigs face just above where Lisa and Arthur were working, she gave water to our plantings from last month (we brought 3lt on site).

Morning tea was later than the usual 10:30, but we had the whole time without rain and our wonderful resident magpies serenading us. We worked out that they do not like apple or sultanas. Merrilyn had brought along some beautiful home made pineapple cake and pumpkin cake made by a lady who runs a coffee shop in Cromer, whilst Alex add to our carbs with a an apple pull-a-apart scroll – but also some lovely juicy mandarins!

As per usual the magpies came to visit and check to see if we had any snacks for them.

It was a nice morning overall and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. We had a good turn up, and everyone stayed despite the on and off drizzle all morning.

Text by Julie and Lisa.

This weekend was a long weekend in Sydney with Labour Day on Monday 7 October, so most of our crew took the advantage of the extra day to go away – that left our Supervisor Kathy with the retirees who would never think to venture out of Sydney on a long weekend!

Julie spent her time in her usual area just west of the gully concentrating on the removal of asparagus fern.

Des spent the first part of the morning working on an area of Burr medic he found on the western slope, as well as the oat grass which is now coming up all over our site (source was the public track) and starting to seed, as well as his nemesis – the asparagus fern. Des also did some work on the bitou working east to west throwing cuttings in any exposed areas to try and get some mulch happening on any exposed sand area, and then he went back to target more asparagus fern along the western slope; which literally has 100’s of these little ones popping up all the time, probably due to the amount of huge advanced asparagus fern plants which surround our site. It was not that long ago Des and I spent 3 hours each just on those small asparagus ferns on the western slope and barely made a dint – Merrilyn complains about how many there are every month!

Lisa and Kathy worked in the western gully with our main focus being on removing the non-native pig’s face which was starting to smother our earlier plantings which are doing so well in this area – in doing so, we also removed quite a lot of oat grass and ehrharta erecta which fortunately a lot were not yet in seed so did not need to be bagged; and of course – a few small asparagus ferns.

The photos taken in the gully in this month’s report show the progress that Kathy and Lisa made down the gully of the non-native pigs face. We were stoked with how much we got done with just the two of us.

Julie was not able to meet up for coffee afterward, but Des, Kath and Lisa gathered at a local coffee shop to discuss todays work and then talk went into dancing venues and bands around the Northern Beaches.