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27 April Working Bee and more…

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Working Bee – 9am, 27 April 2025, Ruby Mackenzie Park

This month we return to the bushy area behind Ruby Mackenzie Park. We will undertake important woody weed control using the cut and paint method. Our efforts will help the Black Gum and the occasional Swamp Wallaby visitor. Please join us at 9am Sunday 27 April 2025.

Calendar Update

The committee recently updated Woodend Landcare’s calendar of activities. Please be sure to mark these dates and locations in your diary…

Biolink Planting Thanks

Some images and a note of thanks to those who attended out planting day on the 6 April 2025 from Woodend Landcare President, Peter Yates:

Thank you for your help with our Biolink Planting. Congrats on all your work and hopefully we will be rewarded with some decent rain soon.

It brought home to me what a great band of people we have, each helping in their own particular ways. We have a wide range of expertise and experience to draw on and we don’t always agree on the way to do things, but we always manage to tie it all together and produce a great result.

I won’t mention names, but I want to thank everyone, including those that did the planning, managed the funding, the sorting of plants, the publicity, the manual work on the site, the watering, the catering crew and of course my chauffer!

I think this was the trickiest planting we have done for a long time. We tried to plant a much wider range of species over a much more scattered range of sites, each with it’s own planting layout, and at the end of an incredibly dry period. The soil in some areas was so hard and dry that without the two augers and a steady supply of batteries, we probably wouldn’t have got there. 

We have some things to learn in terms of the timing and nature of future plantings. But that is the case with all our projects.

Thanks again to everyone for a big effort.

Peter  

Creekside Clean Up – Litter and weeds

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On Sunday 2 March, Woodend Landcare volunteers gathered along Five Mile Creek. We worked between Jeffreys and Campaspe Park for Clean Up Australia Day. While some folk went hunting for litter, others focused on weeds. The low water levels meant we removed rubbish from areas that have been difficult to access in recent years.

Over 3 hours, 16 volunteers collected 6 large bags of litter. An inventory of the rubbish was undertaken to report to Clean Up Australia. This important step enables data to be shared including how much rubbish was collected and waste trends identified. A snapshot of our Woodend Landcare collection includes:

  • Total number of items collected – approximately 650
  • Most common item – soft plastic (261 items including about 120 chip wrappers/lolly packets)
  • Aluminium cans – 39
  • Glass bottles – 13
  • Disposable coffee cups – 8
  • Paper – 247 items, almost half of which were takeaway food paper bags.

The use of the area for recreation was recognisable from the rubbish collected:

  • 28 dog poo bags
  • 6 tennis balls
  • A frisbee full of dog tooth marks
  • A small pink tennis racket broken into 8 pieces

Happily, we did not find any soy sauce fish, syringes, vapes, cigarette butts, nappies nor other hazardous items.

We collected some plastic plant guards used by Woodend Landcare or properties that were flooded in 2022. Since 2022, Woodend Landcare has changed its plant guarding practices. We are now using biodegradable cardboard plant guards and weed mats for all plantings within creek flood zones. We have committed to not purchasing any more plastic plant guards. We will use plastic guards that are already in stock or are being reused. However, these are only to be used above the flood zone. If you are undertaking seedling planting on your property, you might like to do the same. Contact us if you would like to know details of the guard and mats we use. 

All rubbish collected has been disposed of appropriately, including recycling and composting where possible.

A huge shout-out and thanks to everyone that lent a hand for the day. Enjoy these few happy snaps from the morning…

Photo 1: Katie, Heidi and Nic alongside the Woodend Landcare tool trailer with bags of rubbish and weeds collected. Photographer: Adam Bourke
Photo 2: Jim, Oswalk and Clarabelle removoing rubbish from within Five Mile Creek. Photographer: Simone Duffield.
Photo 3: Katie removing weeds from the Black Gum Biolink site. Photographer: Nicole Middleton
Photo 4: Some of the rubbish collected. Photographer: Nicole Middleton

Working Bee – 23 March 2025

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Our next working bee is on Sunday 23 March from 9 am to 12 pm. We will focus on removing woody weeds and ivy along Five Mile Creek from Thomas to Samuel Court. Park at Thomas Court and meet nearby in the Five Mile Creek reserve. Hope to see you there!

Removing English Ivy in Woodend

Thirteen adults and three children gathered at our Working Bee near the Rotary Exercise Track on 9 February. They aimed to remove the noxious English Ivy invading the native vegetation. Ivy removal in native vegetation has been a big focus for Woodend Landcare for years.

“Four years ago, when we started working here, English Ivy covered the entire ground. It was smothering any native seedlings that tried to grow.” Peter Yates explained, “The ivy was climbing nearly every tree trunk throughout the area. In some cases, it was smothering the entire trees.”

English Ivy (Hedera helix) loves the cool, wet, English-like conditions of the Macedon Ranges. It survives by creeping along the ground until it finds something to grow up, like a tree. It then climbs up the tree, completely covering it. Only once off the ground, the ivy will flower and seed. At height, this is the perfect location for birds to feed on the seed. The birds then spread the seed in their droppings, as they fly around. Bird droppings are crucial for the start of ivy’s life. They provide nutrients and moisture and offer a free flight to new locations.

By knowing the life cycle of ivy, we can target our eradication efforts to be most effective. By stopping it from climbing trees, we stop it from flowering and producing seeds. For trees that are heavily infested with ivy, we cut the ivy from the bottom 30 cm of the trunk. We also scrape the ivy from a 30 cm ring on the ground around the trunk. Eventually, the ivy will creep back towards the trunk and will start to climb up again. This process gives us a year or two to spray or hand weed the ground layer to stop its spread.

You can easily replicate this method at home. Simply prevent the ivy from climbing up any vertical structures including trees and fences. By doing this, you will stop it from flowering and setting seed. You don’t have to remove ivy from the whole trunk of heavily invaded trees. Simply cut the ivy at the base of the tree and every shoot and leaf above that will die. Over time, the dead ivy leaves will simply fall from the trees. This method does not kill the ivy on the ground. Nevertheless, it stops the ivy from being spread by birds into other gardens and the natural environment.

Join Us for Clean Up Australia Day 2025

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Sunday 2 March Working Bee – Clean Up Australia Day

Clean Up Australia Day occurs annually on the first Sunday in March. This year we are removing rubbish and weeds along Five Mile Creek between Jeffreys St and High St. Everyone is welcome to help us take positive and practical action to clean up Woodend!

Check us out on Postcards!

Nicole and the team featured on last Sundays episode of postcards! You can check it out here: https://www.9now.com.au/postcards/season-2025/episode-3. Woodend Landcare’s segment starts at 6:30 minutes.

2025 Calendar and February Working Bee

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Happy 2025 Woodend Landcarers! 

We hope you you’ve had a great start to the year and are looking forward to helping restore nature in Woodend with Landcare in 2025. We have won 4 grants this year, so we’ll be undertaking a couple of planting days to continue the Black Gum BioLink Enhancement project in the vicinity of the tennis club – Scout Hall – Jeffrey’s St. Throughout the year we also plan to take part in Clean Up Australia Day, visiting Quarry Road Flora Reserve and Slatey Creek Black Gum Reserve. 

Below is our our activities calendar for 2025 – make sure you mark these dates in your diary. Click here to download the 2025 Woodend Landcare Calendar – Printable version (PDF).

Our trusty Thursday Crew are back in action and continue to meet most weeks – contact Dave Bower (dvbower65@gmail.com) if you’d like to get involved.

February Working Bee

As usual we have December and January off each year. We begin our working bee season in the shade of the gum trees by Five Mile Creek, along the Rotary exercise track near Jeffrey’s Street. This has been the site of our annual February bee for a couple of years now and the impact we’ve made on the ivy can easily be seen by anyone strolling by.

  • When: 9am – 12 noon, Sunday 9 February
  • Where: Five Mile Creek near Jeffrey’s St

Don’t forget to check our website before the bee in case we have had to change locations or cancel at the last minute.

Taking Action Against Indian Mynas: The MRIMAG Project

The Indian Myna, while seemingly harmless, is a significant environmental concern in Australia. Its aggressive and adaptive nature has allowed it to disrupt ecosystems, threaten native biodiversity, and cause issues in urban and rural areas. Groups like the Macedon Ranges Indian Myna Action Group (MRIMAG) are taking action to combat this invasive species and protect the environment.

We have set up a new page to find out more about the MRIMAG project and how you can get involved – click here to view.

2024 in reflection

Woodend Landcare would like to express our gratitude to all our dedicated volunteers and generous supporters who have helped us achieve so much this year. Some of our 2024 accomplishments include:

  • Received Macedon Ranges Shire Council Healthy People and Environment Community Award.
  • Commendation presented to Nicole Middleton (our Treasurer) for the Joan Kirner Landcare Award.
  • Received donations from Woodend Rotary, Woodend Community Bags (MRSG), Natural Grace, Macedon Ranges Signs and several locals.
  • Filmed for Postcards travel and leisure tv show to air early in 2025.
  • Completion of the Pollinator Corridor Project, planting 750 understorey species along Five Mile Creek and surrounds.
  • Collaboration with Woodend Scouts to plant 660 seedlings for the Black Gum Biolink Project (Join us for more planting days in 2025).
  • Provided guided tours of our revegetation work along Five Mile Creek to two Victoria University student groups and the VNPA Nature’s Stewards program.
  • Negotiated approval by VicTrack to continue working to conserve the beautiful remnant flora along Quarry Road Rail Reserve
  • Applied for and acquitted 10 grants, including auspicing a GWW grant for Woodend Primary School
  • Monthly sampling of Five Mile Creek water to test for water quality (CMA Water Watch) and pesticide residues (Deakin University research)
  • Cleared 464 pieces of rubbish from Five Mile Creek for Clean Up Australia Day.
  • MRIMAG continued to reduce the impact of introduced Indian Myna’s on indigenous bird communities.
  • Sightings of platypus and rakali in Five Mile Creek within town, indicating a healthy riparian ecosystem.
  • Eleven Sunday working bees as well as Thursday Crew working bees during most weeks.
  • Gazillions of ivy, willow, blackberry, privet, broom, gorse plus other invasive weeds removed from our local environment.

Despite our successes this year, we only have 36 financial members, which is down from last year. If you’d like to support the amazing work of Woodend Landcare volunteers maintaining and enhancing the natural environment within and around our town, please sign up as a financial or financial/active member by clicking here.