Good synergies between CCA & Synergy

Synergy is a sponsor of Landcare Australia. Cottesloe Coastcare has been very fortunate to have our Mudurup Rocks project chosen to receive Synergy/ Landcare funding.CCA volunteers have been busy collecting seed and hand weeding the site to prepare the area for planting thousands of local provenance seedlings during the autumn and winter 2010. On Friday 13th November Synergy staff and CCA volunteers worked together in an afternoon of hand weeding. We removed many bags of dune onion weed, sea spinach and rose pelargonium seedlings. We cut the roots with knives and small trowels, to create the minimum of soil disturbance at the site. After a good afternoon's work the Synergy crew gathered at the Cottesloe civic Centre and enjoyed a well earned picnic.

Many thanks to Candice Grisbrook, Synergy's Corporate Affairs Advisor and to all the weeding team. You can hear Candice chatting about the project - here, in a short video clip.

Clean the Beach Community Project

Friday 13th November was the second Waves Surfware and Coastcare 'Clean the Beach Community Project'. Students from 4 schools participated Hamilton SHS, Mt Lawley SHS, North Lake Senior Campus and North Lake -English as Second Language students. I was lucky enough to go beach cleaning with a great team from Hamilton Senior High. Everyone did such a great job but I have to particularly congratulate Taylor and Callum. No rubbish was to horrid for Taylor to collect and no rubbish was in too difficult a spot for Callum to collect - it had to be cleaned up! Thanks too for the notes below sent to me by Val House. ( click on photos to enlarge)

Clean the Beach Community Project
Hamilton Senior High
Kerri Leonard and Lisa Moreschi had an enthusiastic group of Year 10 students at Leighton Beach to work with Coastcare to remove rubbish from a section of the beach and dunes. The event sponsored by Waves Surfwear, included training sessions on the fragility of the coast from Kate Sputore ( North Metro Coastcare Officer) and beach safety by two volunteers from Surf Lifesaving WA. The Surf Life Saving Club provided lunch for the students and Waves demonstrated their appreciation with a variety of products for each participant. Students recorded 5 hours of Community Service in their log book and can be congratulated on their positive attitudes to voluntary work.

Students (not in order): Aaron Muccarone, Jeremy Stewart, Samantha McLauchlan, Shane Walkley, Madison Maxwell, Isabel Reyes, ( pink balloon!),
Elizabeth Bird, Callum Farmer, Jayde Harshaw,Taylor Maselli. Teachers: Lisa Moreschi, Kerri Leonard andVal House

See 2 inter-glacial periods - right here!

Recently the Naturalist's Club had a presentation followed by a coastal walk, conducted by Vick Semeniuk. For the walk the group met at Cottesloe's Mudurup Rocks. Vick took us through a quarter of a million years of fascinating geology! Many thanks to Vick and the Nat's Club for a fascinating morning. See Mike Gregson's notes below, thanks Mike!
(As we were heading home Leeuwin sailed past in all her splendour.)



Dr Vic Semeniuk is a specialist in coastal formations. He gave us a fascinating talk on Perth’s beaches, dunes and rocky shores, describing a great cyclic pattern of sedimentation and landform development that occurred during the Pleistocene ice ages and interglacial periods, and which is still occurring today. He followed it up the next day with an excursion at Cottesloe’s Mudurup Rocks, where the geological processes he described are illustrated in the sand and rocks we were standing on.

Vic began by describing the way the waves wash sand up onto the beach, forming laminations. Sand grains, differing in size and density, are sorted by the variable energy of the waves. And because wavelength varies, so the beach changes hourly. This leads to a complex pattern of layering. As the tide recedes, bubble sand can be observed, caused by the waves interacting with tides. On the Saturday, Vic demonstrated the bubble sand that waves had created only a few seconds beforehand, and the layering of different particle sizes that had also recently been built by the waves. Layering patterns are not only the result of waves and tides, but also wind, storms and the slope of the beach.

Waves form ripples on the near-shore sea-bed. These ripples vary in size, depending on wave orbital velocity and water depth. They range from tiny ripples to the mega-ripples that we experience as sand bars that we wade over on the way out to the surf. Vic’s diagram of wave orbitals showed us how ripple size varies with depth.

During storms, flotsam is dumped in a chaotic and non-layered manner high on the beach. At Cottesloe we saw seaweed, cuttlefish-bones and Rams-horn Shells that had been stranded at the high-water mark in a recent storm.

Another feature of sandy shores is that sea breezes move fine and medium sand out of the beach to form dunes. As more sand is added to the beach, an “upward-shoaling sequence” occurs, and all the features described here – the ripples, the layering, the bubble sand, the chaotic deposition and the dunes – move seawards in order.

During the Pleistocene glacial periods, the sea receded to the edge of the continental shelf. With the sea withdrawn, all the features of the sandy shores that had been created in the interglacial periods became indurated by calcite cementation to form limestone. Vic showed us fossilised mega-ripples in the limestone cliffs at Mudurup. Above that we were shown fossilised bubble sand and fine layering. Above that again we saw a fossilised chaotic layer containing cuttlefish-bones, and near the top of the cliff, the layering pattern typical of dunes, also fossilised. There, preserved over tens of thousands of years, were the results of processes we could see occurring right now in front of us.

In the interglacial period after the ice age, the sea may return to the old shoreline. If it meets limestone there, it cuts a rocky shore, forming platforms, notches, benches and cliffs. Animals and plants live on these platforms and cliffs, causing erosion, and forming potholes which widen out and eventually fill with sediment.

Vic then took us in our imagination to the last interglacial period, tens of thousands years ago. The features of the eroded rocky shore from that time, such as sediment-filled potholes on a wave-cut platform, are preserved in the rocks that have subsequently been overlayed by a sandy shoreline that has itself been fossilised! And so at Cottesloe we can see (with some prompting by a scientist with an experienced eye) the record of processes occurring in two successive interglacial periods, one above the other. The upper sequence is a record of sandy-shore processes and the lower one is a record of processes acting on a rocky shore.

This topic beautifully illustrates the concept of uniformitarianism – that the present is a key to the past. The processes occurring today on our local shores can help us interpret the geological record to discover the history of the earth. Our thanks to Vic for shining a light back in time to show us the great climatic cycles that formed our present coastline, and for demonstrating how those processes are still occurring at this very minute.
Mike Gregson

IGA micro-bat box 2

 

See the previous post - 'IGA micro-bat box 1' to read the first part of this story!
We took some time to find a perfect site for the bat-boxes. The box needs to receive plenty of sun. Also bats need to have a clear flight path when they leave in the evening to feed. Joe told us that one micro-bat can eat 1000 mosquitoes a day! They feed around fresh water and have been observed catching insects around street lights.

 

There was lots of weedy teatree around the gum tree so the teatree was removed and Coastcare volunteers planted cockies tongues, basket bush and local wattles in it's place, which we hope, in time will provide habitat for insects for the local birds and bats.

 

As Joe climed up the tree to about 8 metres the children called out encouragement to him to "hold on tight Joe", and "be careful Joe, don't fall". He safely and expertly attached the two boxes and now we keenly await the arrival of some residents. Thanks again to IGA for funding the bat boxes and to Roslyn at Seaview kindergarten for her enthusiastic support of the project.

 

IGA micro-bat box 1

 

The children from Seaview kindy and their teacher Roslyn, joined a couple of us from Cottesloe Coastcare for the bat boxes raising ceremony yesterday. Drew Randall, from IGA Cottesloe (Eric Street shopping centre) was also there to witness Joe Tonga setting up the boxes. During the 12 months that IGA Cottesloe and IGA Mosman Park have had their no-single use plastic bag policy, CCA has received the donations that customers put in a tin, when they require paper bags. Some of this money has been used to build and erect the bat boxes.

 

Joe explained to us all that micro-bats ( which are only as big as a house mouse - with wings!) are losing their habitat. CCA is very keen to restore our local environment where at all possible so we are delighted at the prospect of providing a home to some micro-bats. Joe has an excellent website with lots on information on bird boxes and bat boxes : http://natsync.com.au

 

We were all amazed to learn that around 90 bats can live in one box! Joe said that they clustered together tightly to keep warm. He told us that the temperature needs to get up to about 45 degrees centigrade inside the box at breeding time.

 

One little boy is a real nature lover and wore his (plastic) chameleon, to kindy, strapped on his arm.
Read the next blog entry to see the boxes going up!

Woodside Works

On Thursday 15th of October a really enthusiastic group of staff from Woodside joined us for some weeding down at Mudurup Rocks. Woodside have been a fantastic supporter of the Coastcare program over the last few years and have contributed a valuable amount of staff volunteer hours – so we are always really glad to have them along!

This group was indeed keen, ready to go at 8.30am and determined to clear a huge area of pelargonium and other weeds before the morning was out! Fortunately the weather was perfect and along with a few dedicated CCA members (thanks to Frauke, Jan and Yvonne!) the Woodside crew worked tirelessly to clear over 45 full bags of weeds from this fragile site, which is to see a significant amount of infill planting next winter.

By 12.30 the volunteers were ready for a well deserved break and retired to the Civic Centre grounds for a BBQ. Thanks so much to Angela for initiating this day and her team for an awesome effort – we hope you enjoyed the BBQ and please feel free to come back anytime!

Whose coast is it? Adapting for the future.

Whose coast is it? Adapting for the future was the theme of the Fifth State Coastal Conference held in Fremantle last week. CCA was represented by Yvonne, Frauke and Sue thanks to the generous sponsorship of the conference organisers, Perth NRM and Lotterywest. It was an excellent conference covering big picture issues to great local stories like the turtle monitoring program at Port Hedland.

In Yvonne's words :

"Well, what an experience the last few days have been at the WA State Coastal Conference. It was a great opportunity to learn about the work being done by such a diverse group of organisations and individuals involved with monitoring, managing and caring for the coastal regions of WA. It’s amazing how much is being achieved. They are a passionate and knowledgeable group and many were so rightly recognised for their efforts at the Coastal Awards for Excellence held on the Thursday evening.

It was pleasing to hear several presenters make reference to the importance of preserving and re-establishing local native species which, for me, was recognition that what we are doing as CCA volunteers is worthwhile and valued. Whilst I really enjoyed all keynote speakers, I would have to say Prof Kingsley Dixon’s presentation was particularly fabulous because he spoke about the local native plants (and weeds!) we are so focused on in our volunteer work along the Cottesloe coast.

It’s good to look at the bigger picture every now and then and to understand the perspectives of others working to care for our coastline. But I have to say it’s on the dunes where I feel I’m most useful and happy. I’m looking forward to getting back to the dunes with HITS. After a few days of desperately trying to get my head around so many acronyms I thought I’d throw in one of my own (Hands In The Sand)."

These are some of the papers that we found particularly interesting.

Professor Kingley Dixon. Coastal restoration in a biological hotspot.
Kingley’s knowledgeable and enthusiastic presentation emphasised justification and reasons for CCA’s work:

• Coastal fragmentation causes loss of ecological connections - therefore restoration of indigenous plants is imperative to reconnect the ecosystems.
• The dynamic nature of our costal areas enables them to revegetate naturally, including all those robust introduced weeds – therefore weed eradication is necessary; without coastcarers’ intervention the weeds will displace coastal species.
• WA’s highly endemic plants have low ecological resistance, left to fight for themselves they will lose – therefore we need to help them.
• Science is essential to lead on the ground work to success, theorists must communicate with practitioners – good examples are higher seeds yield of the Coast Sword-sedge [Lepidesperma gladiatum] and the Prickle Lily [Acanthocarpus preissii].

It was wonderful news, that Kingsley is in the process of publishing a new book on coastal plants.

Dr Stephen Leatherman. What makes a great beach?
Dr Leatherman is the Director of the Laboratory for Coastal Research at Florida International University. In his spare time he is Dr Beach, coordinating the National Healthy Beaches Campaign. Each year in America the top ten beaches are nominated ranked against Dr Beach’s more than 50 stringent criteria that balance environmental and recreational criteria. The list is eagerly awaited each year and the spin off is that it promotes good beach management practices.

Dr Simon Thrush. Informing decision making for the sustainable management of coasts and estuaries.
Simon Thrush’s paper discussed the complex interactions involving biological, chemical and physical processes that occur in the marine environment. Understanding these interactions is important so that “threshold” events that will change an ecosystem beyond the point of no return can be identified. Sea urchins moving across sediment were one example. As the sea urchins move across the sea floor they stir up micro algae. This affects the rate of photosynthesis and thus the amount of oxygen in the water. A change such as a reduction in the number of sea urchins may cause unanticipated consequences and the ability to predict these changes is important. As he said, “the details matter in understanding your bit of coast.”

Professor Rodger Tomlinson. Coastal Planning Development and Working with Local Government.
The Queensland planning experience highlighted both problems and solutions. In the 1960’s and 70’s many Queensland coastal areas in Queensland were subject to severe storms and flooding. Since that time there has been extensive building on the sites that were flooded. As the climatic conditions of 30/40 years ago return, millions of dollars worth of housing is now under threat. University researchers and local government are now working together to predict threats and develop effective strategies.

Professor Richard Weller. How to harness the energy of population growth to our advantage.
As the speed of Perth’s population growth outpaces people’s imagination, and as most people in WA want to live as close to the coast as possible, Coastcarers should become involved in discussing possible scenarios that may prevent the further destruction of coastal areas for residential development. Richard Weller’s new, excellently produced and substantial book Boomtown 2050 provides comprehensive and stimulating food for thoughts.

Cottesloe was the focus for two papers.

Dr Robert Kay. Coastal climate change risk assessment in Australia: a view from the beachface.
Beach erosion and rising sea levels were much discussed and the importance of local modelling was emphasised. Cottesloe is fortunate in being the focus for Robert Kay’s detailed analysis of the likely impacts of rising sea levels. The report is available here.

Assoc. Prof. Lynnath Beckley. Staking a claim with beach towels. Recreational usage of the West Australian Coast.
Professor Beckley and the researchers at Murdoch University have used some interesting data collection methods to try to understand what people are actually doing on WA beaches. To find out what was happening on Perth beaches, including Cottesloe, the researcher flew with the twice daily shark patrol flights in the summer of 2003/2004. Their findings are presented in this report.

Our thanks to the organisers for bringing together such an interesting range of speakers and the opportunity for CCA as a community group to share in the knowledge that is here in our scientific community.

Posted by Frauke, Yvonne and Sue

Re-cycling & re-using weeds.

 

On Sept 23rd (see the last two blog posts) one Curtin Student chose a beautiful and age old method to recycle and reuse weeds! A daisy chain of Veldt daisy or Dimorphotheca ecklonis (was Osteospermum ecklonis).This weed is a woody perennial from South Africa which sends roots down from plant nodes. It is spreading rapidly in Cottesloe. The large daisy flowers in winter and spring are bluish-white or purple. It often grows locally as a garden escape or from garden rubbish dumped in natural areas.This plant should not be grown near our local bushland or dunes.For more information go to:
http://florabase.calm.wa.gov.au/browse/profile/18307

Weeding not surfing!

These photos were taken on the same day as the previous post, Wednesday 23rd September. 50 first year Urban and Regional Planning students from
Curtin University may not have realised that their field trip to Cottesloe beach was going to involve lots of hard work weeding but everyone did a great job and many bags of weeds were soon piled up. We targetted rose pelargonium and sea spinach, both weeds which would soon have totally smothered the small local seedlings, planted by Cottesloe Coastcare a couple of months ago. (click on photos to enlarge) THANKS TO ALL!

Curtin Students - the spiel!

On the field trip were first year Urban and Regional Planning students from Curtin University. Environmental and Coastal Planning 112 is a core unit taken by 80 plus students (enrolment has increased significantly in recent years, reflecting the urgency of local environmental issues, the demand for clever planners, and the quality of the course itself). A key outcome of the unit is to align theory and recent academic literature with field experience. The intent is to apply student-centred learning strategies, such as those developed by progressive educator John Dewey, to ensure that students realize they are dealing with real life scenarios and real landscapes. We are looking to develop planners who are sensitive to the breadth of relevant issues and are capable of innovative thinking,acknowledging that the tradition of making coarse decisions from a distant office are no longer adequate. Therefore, rather than being confined to abstract classroom activities they begin to make critical links between the environment and the culture surrounding it, and gain an appreciation for the complexity of the work carried out by groups such as the Cottesloe Coastcare Association.
KENT TURKICH BSc DipEd



Thanks to Kent and all the students for removing lots of weeds at Grant Marine Park. And thanks Kent for sending us the spiel above, about Environmental and Coastal Planning 112.

CCA/SLSWA/DHL team effort

Cottesloe Coastcare / SLSWA / DHL Working bee


As part of a national Surf Lifesaving ‘Volunteer Day’ initiative, representatives from Surf Lifesaving WA and staff from DHL (major sponsors of SLSWA) partnered with Cottesloe Coastcare Association on Wednesday the 2nd of September to carry out some weeding at Grant Marine Park.



The group proved themselves to be dedicated coast carers, with a fantastic level of enthusiasm despite impending rain. We managed to clear a huge pile of weed species from the park, with some particular care going into the newly planted site where weeds had been threatening to take over some of the seedlings.


After a morning tea visit from the coffee van (what a treat!) everyone got back to work and by lunchtime could be really proud of the achievement and difference we had made to the site.

Many thanks to all the Cottesloe Coastcare volunteers who turned up on the day to help; to the DHL crew who were a really keen and friendly group to work with; and to Scott and Maclain from SLSWA for facilitating the day.




(thanks also to Kate Sputore, the North Metro Coastcare Officer, for organising the day & sending this item for our blog)

Check out this cheque!

Phil Buzzard, the owner of IGA Mosman Park is pictured with me as he presented Cottesloe Coastcare with a cheque for $1612.60! This is the contribution IGA's customers have made to CCA. IGA Mosman Park and IGA Cottesloe have both had a NO PLASTIC BAG policy for the last 9 months. Customers are encouraged to use multiple-use bags or the boxes provided. If shoppers need paper bags it is suggested they may like to give a donation to a community group.
CCA has benefitted from this initiative at both stores as the Friends of Mosman Park Bushland ( FoMPB) had not yet formalised when IGA commenced their SAY NO to plastic bags undertaking. The money raised by IGA Mosman Park will now be collected for FoMPB.

Some of the money CCA has received will be used for the construction and erection of two micro-bat boxes in a tall gum tree. Micro-bats are losing their habitat and as they have an important role in our ecosystem, we are hoping to create a small colony in an appropriate piece of bushland. Did you know that one tiny micro-bat can eat 1000 mosquitoes in one day! The remainder of the money will be used to pay a contractor for expert weed control and to pay for local native seedlings which we will plant next winter.

CCA is extremely grateful for both generous donations - from IGA Cottesloe (Eric Street shopping centre) and IGA Mosman Park (off Wellington Street). Special thanks to Phil Buzzard and Drew Randall ( IGA Cottesloe).

click here to read the earlier blog entry about IGA Cottesloe's donation to CCA

Synergy/Mudurup project underway.

To find out where the Synergy/Landcare/Town of Cottesloe/CCA - Mudurup Rocks project site is, click here


The volunteers of Cottesloe Coastcare are delighted that the weed infested, untidy and eroded sections of the Mudurup Rocks area will be receiving lots of attention over the next 18 months. This project is guided by the Natural Areas Management Plan 2008.

Planting of species local to the site will happen in autumn and winter of 2010 so there is seed and cutting material to collect. Most of the seed was collected during the summer months in anticipation of our next project but some seed can be collected now.

The top photo is of parrot bush seed heads drying (Banksia sessilis) and the second photo shows some Banksia attenuata and Banksia menziesii cones - which I cooked on my barbecue, to open the follicles and extract the seed.

The third photo is of Ben Croxford of 'Nuts about Natives Nursery'. Ben has taken on the considerable challenge of growing some of the more difficult to grow local species, for volunteers to plant at the site next year. Some species have so few specimens remaining locally and the small amounts of seed we manage to collect is often unviable. For some species we must take plant divisions or cutting material. Ben is building up a small collection of stock plants at his nursery for CCA. He will then be able to take cuttings from these plants to build up greenstock numbers for planting out next year. Other seedlings will be grown for CCA by APACE Nursery, Fremantle.

In the bottom photo Ben and Anouska are carefully spraying the cuttings with water then wrapping them in damp newspaper. The cuttings travel to the nursery in eskies or styrofoam boxes.They are potted up in free draining potting mix, as soon as possible, once they have been carefully trimmed and dipped in an appropriate hormone gel.

We will keep up a blog diary as our new project develops. Watch this space!

Synergy/Landcare project at Mudurup

Ecological Restoration of Mudurup Rocks

Cottesloe Coastcare Association and the Town of Cottesloe have been successful in receiving a grant to the value of $34, 420 to carry out a coastal rehabilitation project at Mudurup Rocks.

This grant is courtesy of Synergy and Landcare Australia, and the work to be carried out over the next 12 months will involve the protection of valuable remnant vegetation, enhancement of biodiversity, planting of local native species and erosion control at this fragile coastal site.

The project will be facilitated by Cottesloe Coastcare and includes the opportunity for involvement of the local community, surfing groups, schools, and Synergy staff through volunteer work days.

A Handshake from Gilly.

On 2nd July, Mike and Kate drove up to Iluka to attend the presentation of sunshade tents by Suncorp. One of the 20 community groups in WA to win a sunshade tent was our own Cottesloe Coastcare. The tents, worth $4000 each, were presented by our great wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist, who is the SunWise ambassador for the Suncorp Bank.

The Sunshade Tent Grant Scheme is an initiative of Suncorp in partnership with the Scott Kirkbride Melanoma Research Centre. Scott Kirkbride was a young victim of melanoma, and the Research Centre, based at the WA Institute for Medical Research in Nedlands, was formed to increase funding for research and awareness of Melanoma danger. The tents are provided to successful applicants as a practical way to protect the community.

Gilly congratulated Cottesloe Coastcare for its valuable work, and pointed out how much time we spent outdoors exposed to the sun. He talked about the danger of ultra-violet radiation (even in cloudy weather) and cited research showing that shade could reduce UV by up to 75%. He hoped we would get plenty of use out of our shade-tent and that we would continue our good sun-safety habits throughout the year.

Some of the other community groups to receive a shade-tent were CanTeen (young people living with cancer), the Rottnest Voluntary Guides, the Cockburn Wetlands Education Centre and the Bunbury Netball Association. Members of the Joondalup junior Cricket Club, another winner, were at the ceremony, ready to play a scratch match with Gilly.

We were presented with a letter of congratulations and a bottle of suncream. The tent itself has now been delivered, and we are storing it with the trailer at the Council depot. We will be able to erect the tent near the trailer during our activities, providing a shaded place where volunteers return each time to pick up seedlings, water buckets and tools, and have their morning tea. We also hope to be able to lend it to neighboring environmental groups such as Friends of Mosman Park Bushland and Friends of Allen Park.

(thanks to Mike for writing this. That's Mike with Gilly in the lower photo)
Photos courtesy of Emma Lohe, Suncorp.

Among the cockies' tongues - after 20 years!

It was such a glorious day yesterday that anything outdoorsy was going to be nice, but planting in the Cottesloe Native Garden on Broome Street was particularly lovely - amongst the spectacular flowering cockies' tongues (Templetonia retusa). We put in some new Acacia lasiocarpa (dune moses), Hardenbergia comptoniana (native wisteria), Dianella revoluta and some more cockies' tongues.

The morning's work was all the more special for me because I'd been there, doing the same thing, about 20 years ago when I was at Seaview Kindergarten (which is right next to the garden - a lovely spot). The banksia I planted all those years ago is still thriving! (At least I think it's the same one, and I'm willing to claim it!) Even better, there was another Seaview alum (also called Kate) in the planting team so it was quite the reunion. I'll look forward to dropping by in another 20 years to see all those acacias and templetonias flourishing.

Yesterday also marked the last planting session for the year for the
dedicated CCA team - congratulations on getting 3000 plants in this year!
.................................................................................................................
(thanks for sending CCA this note for our blog Kate. We love to have enthusiastic young people join us in our work but what a special thrill to work with Kate and Kate where they planted trees as kindy kids!

Thanks to Elena's Mum, Merinda for the photos.)

Bathed in sunshine

Unlike Monday's session our regular monthly Sunday session had beautiful sunshine and a gentle breeze - ideal weather for planting at Grant Marine Park. Dom, Ben and Aaron from Hale School joined us and soon became expert at erecting guards around the new plants to keep the rabbits away.

Sarah, an Iona student doing community service work, was quickly into the swing of planting and helped plant some of the 100 or so new acacias, scaevolas and rhagodias that went in.

Dan, Steve and Marcus from NES Global also joined us as part of NES Global's committment to their Environment Week.

Having extra hands makes a big difference to the work that we get done and hopefully our visitors get as much satisfaction as we do.

Thanks for coming along!

Battered by storms

Thirteen boys and their teacher battled the elements for an hour on a Monday morning (June 29) to work on dune rehabilitation. They were Year 8 students from Scotch College and their teacher Lisa Evans, and they planted seedlings at the southern end of Grant Marine Park in gale-force winds. At times there was horizontal rain, but that didn’t deter the boys. In fact, the amount of care they put into the planting was remarkable in those adverse conditions.


Despite all the rain we’ve been having, the soil was still dry, so we watered them in, in the usual way. Our Coastcare Officer Kate Sputore and three members of Cottesloe Coastcare helped to make the whole thing run smoothly. I hope the boys had warm classrooms to go back to! They did an excellent job.

(Thanks to Mike Gregson for coordinating this stormy session! thanks Mike for the blog post too)

Sunday session

Cottesloe Coastcare has a regular working bee on the first Sunday of the month. On Sunday 7th June a group of 11 enthusiastic Cottesloe Coastcare volunteers plus the North Metro coastcare Officer, Kate Sputore put in a hard working morning.We planted local native plants at the south east corner of Grant Marine Park where an area of unused lawn is being returned to local native plants - so extending the natural area of the park.
 
The previously reticulated lawn was dead but it was very hard work creating holes in the dead material for planting. Mike and Anthony did a brilliant job with mattocks but I'm sure they will have had aching muscles the next morning. As always we need to water in the seedlings well, once they have been planted. Melanie (from CCA's QLD division!) is on bucket duty in this picture.

 
In this picture Elva,Marian and Kate(all in the foreground) are doing a great job planting seedlings.


 
Morning tea is always a good time to stretch the aching muscles, rehydrate and socialise! Some home made cake or biscuits is always appreciated by everyone. Kate made us all some fantastic chocolate brownies - many thanks Kate! Well fortified after morning tea, we were all able to finish off the morning planting of about 250 seedlings and erection of plant guards, by about 12 midday.
It was a great Sunday session - thanks to everyone!

Quintilian coastcarers

The morning of 27th May was a busy one for the enthusiastic Grade Fours from The Quintilian School. Members of Cottesloe Coastcare, Kate Sputore -the north metro Coastcare Officer and two teachers all worked with the children planting seedlings at Grant Marine Park.
In the photo above Kate is talking to the students about the area in the background of the photo, which was a lawn but is now being converted to local plants. The children suggested that lawn would use far more water than native plants and that fertilisers used on lawn can pollute ground water and the ocean. They also thought that birds, insects butterflies and bobtails would all be able to use the native plants for food and shelter. They thought the local plants looked better too!

In the photo above Jono, Tim and Carlo are doing a great job planting grey cottonheads with help from Marion.(click on photos to enlarge)

In this photo Tatjana, Claire and Abigail are receiving help from their teacher Robert Knott.

In this picture Inaraso and Insenna are being shown how to plant a seedling by CCA volunteer Sue.

Thanks to teachers Bronwyn Kay and Robert Knott and all the grade 4's. It was a really good working session and we hope you all enjoyed your time helping us care for the Cottesloe coast.

PricewaterhouseCoopers counting plants not beans

Team leader Lesley plus a group of willing workers from Pricewaterhouse Coopers joined Cottesloe Coastcare volunteers on Friday 15th May for a planting and watering session.

The first photo shows us all enjoying a delicious morning tea donated by Daisies Deli on Grant Street, Cottesloe. Many thanks to Ken and Daisies for the best muffins in Australia. You can see Lesley holding on to the tray and keeping everyone at bay, to give me time to take the photo!


We were very worried that the promised rain may not come so we watered the seedlings again which were planted approximately 5 weeks ago. CCA volunteers have been hand watering seedlings (planted in April and May) at Mudurup Rocks and at Cottesloe Native Garden. Let's hope that some good rain arrives very soon!

At the south-eastern corner of Grant Marine Park was an area of unused lawn. This required constant mowing, fertilising and used lots of water. CCA, working closely with Town of Cottesloe are now returning this area to low local native plants appropriate for the site. After the reticulation was turned off and capped and the grass killed, the site was rotary hoed by council workers. Pedestrians regularly walk across the site so a path was built, using crushed limestone. Then the area was mulched ready for planting.

Planting commenced here on May 15 with help from PriceWaterhouse Coopers. It was hard work digging holes in the old lawn but using mattocks and post hole diggers, plus lots of muscle power we were able to plant approximately 200 local seedlings.

Unfortunately we have a rabbit problem in the area and despite all Council's efforts to eradicate the rabbits this has not been successful to date. We therefore need to put plant guards on the plants, at least until they become established or else the rabbits would kill the tiny seedlings. A rabbit expert has been employed by Town of Cottesloe so we are ever hopeful that soon we will no longer have constant rabbit damage.



The third photo shows young Thomas and his family who came along to give us some support. Thomas and his Auntie Jan did a great job planting some grey cottonheads.


( click on photos to enlarge)

In the bottom photo you can see Janet from CCA (QLD division!) with two Council workers, Brett and Andrew, setting up the plant guards.

Thanks to everyone involved for an excellent working bee.

Coast benefits from bag ban!

Drew Randall from IGA supermarket, Eric Street Cottesloe is pictured handing Frauke Chambers (CCA's secretary) three heavy tins of coins. This exchange was a result of Cottesloe (and Mosman Park) IGA stores phasing out single use plastic bags.
If customers forget their reusable bags and require a paper bag the store suggests they may like to put a coin in the tins provided. Cottesloe Coastcare is very pleased to receive the takings.

The sealed tins were duly delivered to the bank and we were amazed when the bank rang to let CCA know that the contents totalled $836! This is enough money to purchase 577 local provenance seedlings which will further enhance the Cottesloe foreshore.
Many thanks to Drew and IGA Cottesloe for this wonderful donation to the local environment.

Congratulations to IGA for the iniative to lessen the use of single use plastic bags. The shop used to hand out 8000 plastic bags per week and no doubt most of those were not reused.

Cottesloe Native Garden continued...

Regular readers of our blog will know how precious this small section of native bush is to the members of Cottesloe Coastcare, and to other people in our community who love to walk along the sand path and listen to the birds in the grevilleas and grass trees. This is the only site in Cottesloe where there is such richness of local native remnant species. The limestone outcrops through the site provide a special habitat to many plant species which grow on no other sites in our town. ( see the article 'Plants to Plant' on our website for a full list of species from this site)


Town of Cottesloe has donated $3,000 to CCA to pay for seedlings of some 'very difficult to grow species' which occur at this site, many of these plants are in very small numbers. Some species have only one or two specimens remaining but CCA is keen to build up the numbers again so that there is a better chance of those plant species not being lost to our town - unlike so many others before them.


CCA volunteers planted several species including: Scaevola anchusifolia and Dianella revoluta.These two species have very few remnant plants in Cottesloe and now there is a greater chance of these species remaining here for future generations of birds, insects, lizards... and people to use and to enjoy!

This picture shows the site of our planting working bee. The area was thick with the troublesome woody weed, Victorian Tee Tree. Some of these weeds were removed during an earlier working bee and now we are keen to reintroduce the local plants which have been struggling against the weed invasion.

We will continue to update the blog so that you will see how this area can recover over the next few years. Weed control is a long term commitment so we will be looking for a few extra hands to help us remove Carnation weed and other nasties in the spring.

More planting - with Therapy Focus

Some long waited for rain suddenly
arrived as we all got to work on the morning of April 22nd. Unfortunately, however, it was a fleeting shower and so we could not avoid having to water in the seedlings as we planted. One day we look forward to planting into wet sandy soil... but this has not happened for several years!

A team of people from 'Therapy Focus' joined us for the morning. Therapy Focus is a non- profit organisation which provides services to almost 2,500 young people in WA. They provide therapy and professional services to children with a disability or learning disadvantage- to help these children grow to achieve their full potential.

The group watered seedlings that we planted three weeks ago, planted another 150 seedlings, expertly, and placed a truckload of brush material on the foredune infront of 'Barchetta Cafe'. Unfortunately some people insist on clambering under the fence to access the beach, causing erosion in this area. A load of brush was putting a stop to this activity before the summer but then the brush was all gathered up and burnt on a fire on the beach in January!!!... so we needed to start again to try to prevent this area blowing out during winter.

Anthony is a member of CCA and with his friends and family he cares for a section of the foreshore running north from the Grant Street ramp. For several years now his team have been planting and caring for seedlings in this area. Despite that commitment Anthony joined us all at Grant Marine Park, and here he is showing off his superior planting skills. Thank you Anthony, friends and family!

A group of workers from Therapy Focus (above) plus all the hard working Therapy focus team - with our North Metro Coastcare officer, Kate Sputore (below). It was Kate's birthday, but the wind was too strong to light the candles on her cake... so he she is clutching her cake so that it does not blow away in the wind, while we all sang her "Happy Birthday dear Kate".

We have started planting for 2009

The week before Easter was a busy one as we had four days of work at three CCA project sites. Woodside sponsored a small team of workers from Conservation Volunteers Australia to help us with our work. Many thanks to Woodside and to the hard working CVA volunteers.
We planted local provenance seedlings at Cottesloe Native Garden, Mudurup Rocks and at Grant Marine Park. The car park verge at Grant Marine Park was full of weeds. The seed from these weeds has been blowing into the natural areas of the park. Town of Cottesloe worked with CCA to get rid of the weeds and now we are planting the site with local plants. This will be more attractive and importantly will provide berries for the local birds and insects and provide plants for insects which in turn will feed all those birds that we all enjoy seeing.
This team of enthusiastic workers from the Business Analysis - Viability section of HBF joined us all on Thursday 9th April. Another great team of workers! Many thanks to HBF for their support.