What a beautiful sunny and warm day is was to work at Long Reef – and watch whales at morning tea time – and this is just into winter by 2 days – who would know! Lawson from Dragonfly Environmental was our supervisor for the day, this was his second time on our site, so it was great as he already knew a number of the Reefcare people and what our current priorities are on site.
Julie worked high up on the western slope removing more bitou, but she also planted 7 tube stock where removal of Bitou has previously taken place – there has not been much rain, so Julie will go back to site next weekend, and the one after – to water the new plantings as she reports the soil is very dry – which means she will also be watering the previous months plantings, which is great, as we have not had much rain the past month.
Merrilyn, Brad and Gen had about 17 tube stock plants which they managed to get in before morning tea – which is great work as terraces need to be made due to the steep slope, so it’s quite a slow job to get plants in the ground. They also took about 12 litres of water so these and previous plantings all got a good drink. This was done before morning tea and after morning tea, they worked westward with the removal of bitou. The cut bitou was put into the sand gully which will reduce erosion and eventually break down giving some substance to the exposed sandy soil in this gully area.
Before morning tea, Lisa, Ivana and Claire worked on the Turkey Rhubarb on the flat behind the sign – the number of bulbs that we are still finding after 3 years working in this area is ridiculous. John and Alex worked in what we are now calling ‘The Nest’ as it is an area surrounding by Westringa, also on Turkey Rhubarb bulbs – and they got even more than the girls. Alex found a one cent coin dated 1966 – we are wondering if it has doubled in value. Meanwhile Lawson roamed the site for Bitou.
Maria turned up at morning tea time – just in time to be spoilt, as Claire had brought lamingtons and John brought Anzac biscuits to share with the group – good timing Maria!
After morning tea, John and Claire worked on removing Buffalo grass and Kikuyu off some of the Lomandra along the northern edge of the site, Maria and Ivana continued on Turkey Rhubarb on the flat, whilst Lisa and Alex removed more of the non-native pigs face on lower western side of the site – just below where Brad, Merrilyn and Gen were working. Most of this was removed two months ago, but we didn’t quite finish, getting rained out at 11:30am. There is still a little left which Alex said he will finish off next month.
