Platypus on the bill

/ Woodend Landcare

Here is a great opportunity to learn more about this fascinating creature if you missed the Platypus speaker that Woodend Landcare hosted last year after a sighting in Five Mile Creek…

Are there platypus in your creeks?  Would you like to know more about them?

North Central Catchment Management Authority, along with the Glenlyon Upper Loddon Landcare Group and Wombat Forestcare invite you to join us at a Platypus information night.

The Australian Platypus Conservancy will present an illustrated talk about platypus and how you can help monitor them in the Loddon River System.

Date:    Monday 14 November 2011

Time:    6.30pm – 8pm (including a light supper)

Venue:  Glenlyon Community Hall

Admission is free and everyone is welcome. Don’t miss this great opportunity to learn about the habitat and biology of this unique animal.

RSVP by 5pm Friday 4 November to info@nncma.vic.gov.au or telephone 5448 7124, indicating that you wish to attend the Glenlyon Platypus information session and outline any dietary requirements.

Scouts lend a helping hand

/ Woodend Landcare
Woodend Landcare and the local Scouts had a good working bee on Sunday the 23rd of October at the “Scout Billabong” below their hall. Landcare volunteers did a lot of whipper snipping around the edges and between the older plantings. A small group of Scouts, their leaders Jenny and Andrew Johnson together with some parents helped us toplant another 100 Lomandras. Several of the Scouts have now qualified for their Landcare badges.
Our temporarily incapacitated Vice-President, Jo Clancy made a guest appearance at morning tea time. Many thanks to Linda Vale and Marjorie Wilton for a beautiful morning tea and of course thanks to all those who helped out with the cleaning up and planting. The area looks a lot better now.
The eastern third of the billabong is still unplanted as there are still some weeds to be dealt with. Woodend Landcare plan to do a larger planting there next year. The group will also re-visit the site now and then but we hope the Scouts will also do some maintenance there too.
The Woodend Scouts Team get stuck into the project with great enthusiasm

The Scouts Billabong now looks a lot better

A big thanks to everyone who helped out!

Working bee: Sunday 23rd October

/ Woodend Landcare

The monthly Woodend Landcare working bee is to be held this Sunday from 9.30AM.

We are joining with the Scouts to plant about 100 more native plants around the billabong below the scout hall. Access either from the scout hall and then walk down to the creek or drive in via Jeffreys Street.

Morning tea and tools provided. Depending on attendance, some weeding and cleaning up around previous plantings may be on the agenda, so bring your gloves.

What’s the Rush?

/ Woodend Landcare

Like everyone who ventures outdoors, we at Landcare are affected by the vagaries of the elements, especially wind and rain. On the bad side, we have seen some damage to previous indigenous plantings over the last couple of years due to soft wet soils, flooding and wind. But on the good side, we have witnessed incredible growth and recovery too.

We have also seen some new plants colonizing areas due to changed conditions. For example, we see lots of rushes (Juncus species) growing in areas that were previously too dry to support them. These plants grow as clumps around a metre tall and have needle like foliage. Some are local plants and some are introduced, but they all do a similar job in providing food and habitat as well as helping to filter water before it reaches the creek. There are about 14 species of native Juncus growing in the Macedon Ranges and at least 4 of them live along the Five Mile Creek. The introduced “Spiny Rush”, (Juncus acutus) is considered a noxious weed and is hated by farmers as it can be toxic to stock. For non-botanists it is very hard to tell the local rushes from the introduced ones.

I have been asked whether we should try to eliminate the rushes in some of our more park-like areas. My response to this, as always is to ask what might appear in those places if we got rid of the rushes? This is a guiding principle for our group whenever we do weed control work. It is great to get rid of a nasty weed, but that piece of bare ground will be colonized by a possibly nastier weed unless other measures are taken, such as mulching or revegetation with a desirable species capable of competing with the weeds.

So, for the time being we might have to get used to seeing rushes and other wet area plants growing where they didn’t grow in the past.

Peter Yates