UNSW Chinese Students Association lends a helping hand to Katoomba Falls

UNSW Chinese Students Association helping out with planting at Katoomba Falls

UNSW Chinese Students Association helping out with planting at Katoomba Falls

Our fabulous Blue Mountains put on a text-book Winter’s day for a small group of students from the University of New South Wales on July 14 – bright sunshine and crisp (cold) air – perfect for planting ferns along the newly refurbished walking track at Katoomba Falls.

The group may have been small but the amount they got done was not! Working with contractors engaged by Blue Mountains City Council (BMCC) who prepared the holes ready for planting, 120 Blechnum nudum, Gahnia sieberiana and Lomandra longifolia were very quickly in the ground, watered and protected from frost and wind with tree fern fronds.

The students were so enthusiastic and energetic that once the plants were in, we had plenty of time to enjoy a cup of hot chocolate and some delicious, locally produced biscuits before walking to the lookout, guided by Monica from the Bushcare Team.

Hopefully this was just the first of many more days such as this one, which not only showcased one of our local icons but also the wonderful work that BMCC is doing to protect the World Heritage on our doorstep

Chinese students Katoomba Falls

Vincent shows us how its done

Chinese students at Katoomba Falls

Edol, Mindy, and Vincent wasted no time getting in amongst it

Blaxland Scouts lend a hand to Bushcare in Glenbrook

1st Blaxland Scouts in Action

1st Blaxland Scouts in Action at Bush Place, Glenbrook

The newly formed Bushcare group at Bush Place, Glenbrook welcomed the assistance of local cub scouts and their parents from the 1st Blaxland Scout group at their recent meetup.

Ten year old Otto Timmins elected to assist a community group as part of his work towards the “gold boomerang” badge and, with the assistance of his father, made contact with the coordinator of the group to arrange the visit.

blaxland-scouts2

Otto Timmins doing Bushcare to work towards his “Gold Boomerang” badge – and he worked hard all morning!

Having the scouts on-board proved to be a fabulous help to the group, achieving much more than could ever have been achieved in a normal 3 hr Saturday session. The boys were a happy addition to the team being keen learners and helpers with a real passion for the natural environment. They truly added to the enthusiasm to our already passionate bush-carers.

We welcome the assistance of other Scouts whenever they can spare the time and are happy to assist Scouts in achieving badge competencies in the future.

A Win-Win for all parties!  Many thanks 1st Blaxland Scout Group!

Helen McFadden, Bush Place, Glenbrook, Bushcare Group

glenaslow@hotmail.com

Alex James also put a lot of effort into helping weed African Lovegrass

 

 

The Future is Wild

The Future is Wild posterVaruna (the National Writers House), in association with the Blue Mountains Conservation Society, presents the Mick Dark Talk for the Future 2016.

Jane Gleeson-White and Claire Dunn will explore responses to the challenges we face when contemplating a sustainable future and acting with the knowledge that we are not separate from but intrinsically connected to nature.

For more, see our calendar entry.

Obituary Neil Stuart 16/1/1937 – 26/5/16

Neil Stuart organised many streetstalls for the Friends photo by Rosemary Brister

Neil Stuart organised many street-stalls for the Friends photo by Rosemary Brister

Neil Stuart was the founding member of The Friends of Katoomba Falls Creek Valley in 1989 in response to serious threats to the valley. He ran the Friends but he never dominated it, always listening to different viewpoints on the various issues, which confronted us. In 1990 we started doing a clean-up of tyres, dumped below Cascade Street just before Ian Kiernan launched “ Clean- Up Australia Day”, in which we then participated until 2015 after we found it hard to find rubbish!

In 1991 Neil introduced us to bush regen, which we then did intermittently until 1996, weeding and planting from stock Neil grew in his backyard. Neil held various positions in The Friends, settling for Secretary and Treasurer, a role he performed exceedingly well for many, many years, penning letters to various authorities at the drop of a hat.

In 1996 I assumed responsibility for the Friends’ Bushcare Group, when we began to work monthly for 11  months of the year. Neil attended regularly and enthusiastically on most of our rostered days and annual Clean-Up Australia days. Neil also enjoyed the camaraderie of our post work day lunches often leading the discussions which ensued.

We also needed to raise money for our activities, which we did by holding regular stalls in an often icy Katoomba Street. Indeed, Neil’s jams, which he produced prolifically and enthusiastically was always our biggest seller because they were very good. He even had regular clientele who routinely replenished their supplies.

Over the last few years of his life Neil battled with cancer, facing his end bravely and resolutely. In his last months he was supported with home care by over 30 of his friends looking after him, taking him shopping etc. He died on the 26th May, 2016. We will all miss him.

Vale Neil.   by Les Petö

 

Connected Catchments

Creekline In Full Force Vale Street - June 2016

Vale St Baramy Trap in Full Flow – June 2016

On May 2 the Leura Falls Creek and Jamison Creek Catchment Working groups came together along with Blue Mountains City Council Natural Areas and Healthy Waterways teams to do “catchment crawls” (minibus tours of the key work sites) in each other’s catchments. Residents of the Vale St end of the Leura Falls Creek catchment were also invited.

In the morning, the Leura Falls Creek tour showcased the recently constructed stormwater upgrades including the Vale St Baramy Trap and raingarden – shown below in full flow with the recent heavy rains in early June. The Jamison Creek Working Group had an opportunity to see what types of stormwater management systems will be installed in the Jamison Creek Catchment in the near future.

After lunch, a tour of Jamison Creek Catchment gave us a chance to learn about where the upgrades are planned and how they will be constructed.

The stormwater improvement projects in both catchments are an initiative between Water NSW and Blue Mountains City Council. The catchment crawl was filmed by KFM Media, Katoomba. Thanks to the tour guides, Eric Mahony and Geoffrey Smith from Blue Mountains City Council and Peter Bennet who designs the Baramy Traps. Thanks to Monica Nugent for driving the bus. And thank you to every one who came on the tour.

Vale Street - June 2016

Vale Street – June 2016 11

Release of Council’s First Healthy Waterways Report

Rspencer long neck

Long neck Turtle Photo by R Spencer

Beautiful creeks and waterways are a wonderful part of our City – but how healthy are they?

From July this year, it will be easier to find out, with the release of Council’s Blue Mountains Waterway Health Report – a user-friendly brochure showing the results of Council’s Water Quality Monitoring Program.

Since 1998, Council has regularly tested waterway health at up to 50 waterways across the City. As a result, we now have one of the richest water quality data sets in Australia, and Council uses this data to inform its catchment improvement programs.

Council regularly tests the health of our waterways at over 40 sites across the city. the diversity of waterbugs such as crayfish is an indicator of creek health.

Council regularly tests the health of our waterways at over 40 sites across the city. the diversity of waterbugs such as crayfish is an indicator of creek health.

While detailed water quality reports have been published on Council’s website since 2006, the new brochure aims to make this information readily accessible to everyone in the community. It is hoped people will be prompted to think about local waterway health and what they can do to help.

The report card shows each sample waterway in the Blue Mountains, the catchment within which it flows, and its state of ecological health (rated Excellent, Good, Fair or Poor). In the 2016 report, 53% of tested waterways are in good condition or better.

Our city is lucky to have some of Australia’s best waterways, but they are also vulnerable to pollution – especially due to stormwater runoff from urban areas.

Urban runoff is consistently identified as the number one environmental threat to our World Heritage listing and presents challenges for local drinking water catchments, Endangered Ecological Communities, threatened species and the City’s tourism reputation.

Everything that goes into our gutters and streets ends up in our creeks

Try these few simple actions to help protect our waterways from urban runoff:

  • Keep pollutants out of drains (litter, soil and sand, fertilisers and pesticides, detergents, oil, animal droppings and garden waste).
  • Install a rainwater tank to capture rainwater from your roof and use it regularly.
  • Design your garden to allow stormwater to soak into the ground.
  • Control invasive weeds on your property.
  • Don’t dump fish or plants in waterways.

 The Report Card will be sent to all ratepayers with Council’s newsletter from July.

To find out more about our local waterways, visit  www.bmcc.nsw.gov.au/waterways

Blue Mountains Stream Frog Litopria citropa - Lucy Kidson

Blue Mountains Stream Frog Litopria citropa – Lucy Kidson

A very unusual bush invader!

Pseudopanax crassifolius

Pseudopanax crassifolius photo credit: Mike Hudson

One day, at bushcare with the Wentworth Falls Lake Bushcare Group, Ross Day called me over to identify a strange plant. It was like nothing we had seen before, five close vertical stems with enormous trifoliolate leaves springing directly from them on long petioles. Those leaves were dark green, only about 25 mm wide, but anything up to 400 mm long. And tough! They were also armed with vicious teeth along the margins.

It was identified by staff at the Herbarium in Sydney as the New Zealand Lancewood, Pseudopanax crassifolius, in the family Araliaceae. (It has a relative in SW Tasmania called Pseudopanax gunnii, and both are related to our Elderberry panax, Polyscias sambucifolia).

The intriguing ecology of this plant involves a straight upright trunk with largely inedible leaves. All this is designed to deter being eaten by the NZ Southern Giant Moa, a flightless bird 3 m high. Of course the Maoris killed the last one hundreds of years ago, but in evolutionary terms the tree hasn’t caught up yet! Even more amazing is that after 15-20 years, when the tree gets to about 5 m, well out of the range of the Giant Moa, it changes abruptly to produce broad succulent leaves in a short canopy, and then flowers more or less normally.

Don’t ask me how it got to Wentworth Falls! We surmise that it was a garden plant that was no longer required, dug up, and thrown in the bush to die. It didn’t, but put down roots in the damp leaf litter and survived. I suspect that it was lying down at the time, and that the present five trunks sprouted like epicormic regrowth from that trunk.

David Coleby, Wentworth Falls Lake Bushcare Group, davidcoleby@bigpond.com

Lancewood tree, Pseudopanax, New Zealand. Phot credit: Mike Hudson.

Lancewood tree, Pseudopanax, New Zealand. Photo credit: Mike Hudson.

Farewell to Ruth Ley

Accepting Minnehaha groups 20 year award in 2012

Accepting Minnehaha groups 20 year award in 2012

Music and nature were Ruth’s lifelines during her early years – they nurtured her and she wanted to give something back.

Ruth loved to get her hands dirty to help the bush. She proudly proclaimed her obsession with Bushcare, and backed that up with an impressive 25 years of volunteer work.

Ruth was a founding member of both Katoomba Creek and Minnehaha Falls Bushcare Groups and also worked with the Brahma Kumaris, Leura Park and Upper Katoomba Creek groups for many years.

Bushcare was never limited to monthly workdays, there was always something to check. She was the first to raise the alarm about the forest of broom seedlings emerging in early 2003 after the fires that roared through Govetts, Katoomba & Yosemite Creeks. This then flourished into catchment coordination. She played a big part in driving the massive effort to ensure that these creeks were not overrun by weeds. Ruth knew that tea and muffins were the key to success, ensuring a good supply of both as well as keeping everything ticking over in the background.

The Grose Valley and Bushcare will miss her – always there facilitating others if she couldn’t be there herself, or contributing to the bigger picture with  planning.

Ruth loved to get her gum boots on and rid the creeks of Montbretia. She was acutely aware of the small window of opportunity for treating it and often rallied support to join her for a bit of extra “guerrilla weeding”.

The Minnehaha Falls Bushcare Group is planning to run “Ruth’s Revenge” on her birthday next year to target Montbretia – Saturday 1st April, and would love Ruth’s friends to join them on the day.

Fencing at Minnehaha

Fencing at Minnehaha

 

BMCC wins NSW Excellence in Stormwater Design Award!

At a special awards dinner on Wednesday 6 April, the Leura Falls Creek Improvement project was announced as joint winner of the 2016 NSW Award for Excellence in Integrated Stormwater Design. Congratulations to all the Blue Mountains City Council staff and contractors involved in the project and the Leura Falls Creek Catchment Working Group.