Scholarships to Volunteers

Les Robinson has offered some subsidized places for volunteers to attend his training sessions.

Changeology (2 days)

The complete toolset for devising behaviour change projects + plus innovation skills, buzzmaking, and, for the first time, a systems thinking palette for sustained change. Really engage your community in change.

What it covers.

Date: 12–13 October 2015
Venue: The Coal Loader Centre for Sustainability, 2 Balls Head Rd, Waverton
Timing: 8.45 am for a 9.00 am start, 4.30 pm finish.

Yummy lunch and 180 page training manual provided. Numbers limited.

Facilitation Skills (1 day)

Lay a solid foundation for facilitating meetings and workshops in any context.

What it covers.

Sydney: 15 October 2015
Venue: The Coal Loader Centre for Sustainability, 2 Balls Head Rd, Waverton
Timing: 8.45 am for a 9.00 am start, 4.30 pm finish.

Yummy lunch and 80 page training manual provided. Numbers limited.

Please contact the Les Robinson to book a place letting him know you are a volunteer. Numbers limited. Bushcare will cover the cost of attending. 

Les Robinson Enabling Change
Enabling You to Change the World
Email les@enablingchange.com.au | Web www.enablingchange.com.au

Using Social Media to Promote Your Group

You may have mastered email, smart phones and surfing the web, what more can be done to get your message out to engage a wider audience? Greater Sydney Local Land Services will be hosting a free workshop where you will learn how to promote your group’s valuable work using social media. The workshop will cover the different types of social media, what is best for your group, using social media in a secure environment and how to share information about upcoming events and celebrating past events, activities or interesting things about your site.

The workshop will be held in Chatswood at a venue close to the railway station on Wednesday 7 October, 9.30 am- 1.30 pm.

Morning tea and lunch provided.

Please book online at http://greatersydney.lls.nsw.gov.au/resource-hub/events/2015/using-social-media-to-promote-your-group or contact Maree Whelan on 4352 5104 by Friday 2 October.

 

Engagement on the 2nd NSW Volunteering Strategy

 

Get involved now.

We encourage you to participate and provide your feedback in the online survey, special interest workshops, popup consults held in public spaces and through the take-home group guide.

1.     Online survey: Click here to participate in an online survey on volunteering

2.     Popup consultations: Click here for details on popups we are hosting across communities in NSW

3.     Special Interest Workshops: Click here for details and to register for forums that will be held by volunteering sector

4.     Take-home group discussion: Click here to download an agenda and a note-taking template. Please scan and send the completed note-taking template to volunteering@facs.nsw.gov.au.

Engagement on the 2nd NSW Volunteering Strategy closes on 9 October.

Best regards

Simon Watts
Director, NSW Volunteering
Participation and Inclusion
Department of Family and Community Services

simon.watts@facs.nsw.gov.au

Wildlife Box Guide

Greater Sydney Local Land Services are pleased to have developed a new publication Build your own Wildlife Nest Box – A guide for Western Sydney.

This guide was developed as an outcome of the Hollows for Habitat forum in May 2015. The booklet aims to assist the community build their own nest boxes whether individually or through local institutions such as Men’s Sheds.

The guide targets those species identified as most needing assistance in the Western Sydney region. It also focuses on improving the quality of construction to ensure nest boxes provide homes for our wildlife for years to come.

We hope you enjoy the guide.

LLS Wildlife Nest Box_

If you would like further information please contact Peter Ridgeway, Senior Land Services Officer (Biodiversity) on Peter.Ridgeway@lls.nsw.gov.au

Call for Volunteers

Help is needed with research into the hydrological functioning of temperate upland swamps within the Blue Mountains area
The work mainly involves helping collect water samples and taking discharge measurements in the swamps. The swamps are located in Medlow Bath, Katoomba, Wentworth Falls and Lawson. Some of them are in areas that require some moderate physical fitness. I can supply waders but people will need gum boots for some swamps. I can also supply lunch.
If interested, please contact

Kirsten Cowley
Macquarie University
kirsten.cowley@students.mq.edu.au
mobile: 0403 831299

Wombat Project

The program is a trail or pilot program  run the NP&WS from the Office of Environment and Heritage looking at mange management of a wombat population on the South Eastern Side of the Nepean river at Bents Basin.

Works that we will be undertaking will include constructing the wombat flaps when required and placing the flaps on the warrens, adding the paint and treatment to the flaps  and setting up the remote sensing cameras and retrieving camera cards.

Following flooding two weeks ago we will be re mapping wombat warrens and having to construct and replace burrow flaps as many of the warrens have been flooded and the animals have relocated.

We will be walking through some rough steep terrain, open areas and other sections are heavily vegetated creek lines and riverbank.

It is a good idea to bring a change of shoes to drive home with as it can sometimes be very muddy.

If you are interested in helping out can you please let me know what days suit you. BYO lunch each day

Below is a link to a you tube video the NP&WS has produced about the wombat program.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnyK3tL3Bdo

When is your help needed ? 
– Thursday 10th September: 9:00 am – 4 pm
– Friday 11th September: 9:00 am – 4 pm
– Saturday 10th October: 9:00 am – 4 pm
– Saturday 17th October: 9:00 am – 4 pm (check cameras only)
– Saturday 7th November: 9:00 am – 4 pm
– Saturday 28th November: 9:00 am – 4 pm (Retrieve all cameras & flaps)

There may be some other dates for an extra treatment and camera placement dependant on what we find this Thursday and Friday due to the flooding the other week where a large number of warrens where inundated. The wombats create new burrows which we now need to locate again and GPS so lots of work next week.

Start time and where to meet 

Start time is 9am and we will be meeting at the Bents Basin Office which is the first building on your left as you drive into the park.

Bents Basin is accessed from Wolstenholme Ave Greendale so if you are plugging Bents Basin into a GPS to get here make sure you put this address in. Do not put in the Bents Basin Road address as you will end up on the other side of the park. Once on Wolstenholme Ave follow all the way down the road until you get to the red Road Ends sign. Park Gates are on the right. Some GPS units like to lead you astray and tell you that you have arrived at Bents Basin when you are only ½ way down Wolstenholme Ave. We will open the out gate for people to enter in by as the in gate is an automatic closing gate and does not open until nine. Mobile Phone reception out here is lousy at the best of times. Rule of thumb is if you get it don’t move, don’t breath and act like a tree. If your carrier is Telstra you will have slightly more success than any other carrier.
This is a great project for members of the community to be involved in. No prior experience is needed, training is provided. You will be joining a great team of people and scientists  from the NP &WS, The Office of the Environment and Heritage to help the wombats at Bents Basin.   If you are interested in being involved in this project  and you are 18 years of age and older & of reasonable fitness then please contact in advance:

Lyndal Kaye
Senior Ranger Nattai
Metropolitan South West Region
NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service
Office of Environment and Heritage
02 46324504 (Mt Annan)
PO Box 7305 Mt Annan NSW 2567
email: Lyndal.Kaye@environment.nsw.gov.au

 

Coir Log Work at Jackson Park Bushcare Site

In Jackson Park’s August Bushcare session, the Group, with the help of Bushcare Officer Peter Chrismas, built a structure to collect sediment coming from the stormwater outlet.

Coir Log work at Jackson Park

Coir Log work at Jackson Park

The materials used were coir logs that were staked to anchor them into the ground so that the water is trapped in the structure and the sediment drop out and the cleaner water trickles onto the site.

After the first rain event

After the first rain event Photo: Chris Watson

Herbicide Holder Containers Needed

herbicide holders wanted 001 for webDoes anyone have surplus containers that are around this size?

We are looking for a bulk load of herbicide bottle holders as our supplies have run out. If you have any that we can collect either bring them along to Bushcare and if you are not an active member of a group at the moment call us at the office and we will collect.

P: 4780 5528

Thanks for keeping us from having to eat lots of pancakes!