Thank YOU

Thanks Robyn and Peta. Of course I am following in some big footsteps - Robyn has also been a Cottesloe CoY.

Awards like this are of course a recognition of a much wider effort and CCA would not be able to achieve all that it does without the fantastic support of all you volunteers who come along and weed, water, plant and all the other things that need doing...and make it a fun thing to do. So thank you.

We are also fortunate in Cottesloe to have councillors who listen and take action on issues that are important to CCA - and some of them even come along and dig and weed and water! So thank you Cottesloe Councillors.

The final link in the chain are the council staff who are willing to work with us and make sure we are all working to the same ends. Geoff, our council engineer, Dave, Ken and Andy and the guys at the depot and Kate Sputore our North Metro Coastcare Officer all play an important role in protecting our very fragile coastline.

Christmas Sunset

On Sunday 6th December, the Cottesloe Coastcarers exchanged buckets of water, shovels and gardening gloves for glasses of wine, picnic blankets and a football as we gathered on the lawn of the Cottesloe Civic Centre for our annual christmas party. The hidden culinary talents of the group were showcased with a wonderful variety of food bought to share. From quiches, Robyn's salad and Frauke and Sue's home made dips to Christmas tree shortbread biscuits, our tastebuds were certainly treated.

Not to be outdone, Cottesloe put on a spectacular sunset providing a beautiful backdrop for the evening. With a prominent topic of evening conversation being Keith and Frauke's imminent (and enviable) trip to Iceland to see the Northern lights, some of us quietly wondered whether they could possibly be better than the lights in the sky at Cottesloe that evening.

The conversation flowed freely between Councillors (thanks to Greg Boland and Pat Carmichael), contractors and CCA volunteers as we all reflected on the wonderful progress we made this year. Hot topics of the evening included Megan's successful completion of her PhD and how much Frauke's grandchildren had grown in a year. A huge thank you to Robyn, Frauke and Mike for organising such a wonderful evening. Along with the AGM, I look forward to the CCA Christmas Party every year.

[Thanks to Peta for posting for us.]

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

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!

Seeds for the future

It is that time of the year again - for some weeks Cottesloe Coastcarers have been collecting seeds of their local plants for future projects. Last Sunday, on our first regular working day, we had some welcome helpersAmanda, Lucy and Elena from Iona Presentation College spent a beautiful Sunday morning helping us to collect the somewhat elusive seeds of our coastal Scaevola crassifolia:
The light blue, sweetly scented fan-flower of this coastal species with its dark-green, fleshy leaves has been blooming profusely this year.

On the left CCA member Jan explains to Elena that the name of the plant means 'left-handed' because the petals of the flowers are arranged like the fingers of a left hand.


We also collected seeds of the silvery coastal daisy (Olearia axillaris), the striking red berries of the Rhagodia baccata and heads of brown spikelets from our local knotted club-rush (Ficinia nodosa).

The seeds will now be dried, processed and propagated for our future plantings - maybe our lovely helpers will be with us again in time to come when we plant the seedlings that have resulted from this Sunday's collections.

(Photos by Sue Freeth)

Sharing Experiences Sustains and Encourages Coastcarers

On Saturday, 7 March 2009 five Cottesloe Coastcarers joined about 15 other volunteers, contractors, students and Coastcare Officers for a fascinating workshop on the Rehabilitation of Coastal Dunes at the Kwinana Recquatic Centre. Craig Wilson, the Coastcare Officer for the South Metropolitan Region set the scene with his presentation on the planning of coastal rehabilitation projects

which gave us some useful hints on how to improve our own application for our 2009/10 Coastwest Project. Christopher Lukes, the Coastwest Coordinator at DPI added to this information and made us aware of some of the bureaucratic hurdles that need ingenuity to overcome.


With Julia Cullity from DEC we all tried to identify the numerous plants she had brought to demonstrate how often the 'goodies' are very similar to the 'baddies' and that it takes some sharpening of perception to be able to tell the difference.

This very hands-on, practical and useful approach was also taken by David Bright, a contractor with Environmental Services who had been involved in long-term coastal rehabilitation in the Coogee Beach area. His experiences confirmed some of CCA's and it was particularly encouraging to learn that the lifespans of weed seedbanks on dunes are relatively short so that we can actually expect to eventually get rid of our pet hates (i.e. Tetragonia decumbens and Pelargonium capitatum).

His success rates were impressive and he confirmed our deep-planting practice - he was particularly successful with planting cuttings of Spinifex hirsutus up to half a metre deep into the sand. These plants proved amazingly effective in trapping moving sand and increased the height of a foredune by 1.5 metres within a relatively short time.

David was emphatic about long-term planning, especially with respect to pre-planting weed control and seed collecting. He recommended ordering plants from nurseries in September in time for planting in mid-May, surprisingly early. His plants thrived on being watered regularly for the first year and not at all after that.
At the end of his presentation we went to the area he had been talking about and we could see for ourselves that his plants looked very healthy and there were comparatively few weeds. We were impressed.

Apart from the information gained from the presenters, it is always great to talk and network with other passionate coastcarers.







A big thank you to the organisers and the sponsors who made this whole day workshop possible and provided the food and drinks.

(Photos by Robyn Benken)

PLC Planting

Pouring rain did not deter an enthusiastic group of PLC students who joined us in a planting session at Vlamingh. All the plants had been grown in the PLC nursery, some from seed and some from cuttings, and were in excellent condition. They included acacia, hardenbergia and olearia and provided important infill to the recent plantings.

The girls worked hard and all the plants were staked and bagged by the time a large front came through, half an hour before we had finished. While the workers were drenched, the plants had an excellent start!

We really appreciate the time and effort the girls and their teacher put into both growing and planting the seedlings.

Planting local species is particularly important as it provides a much needed food source and habitat for birds and insects and adds to the interest and diversity of our local natural environment.

Grande Finale!

A well earned cuppa for some of the hard working planters at Grant Marine Park

We can all breathe a collective sigh of satisfied relief - this week the last of altogether 2,696 local seedlings for 2008 were planted by Cottesloe Coastcare members and their many helpers. All of these plants were propagated for us by APACE from seeds collected and cuttings taken by us from our local species - so they all belong here and will increase and sustain the growing biodiversity of Cottesloe's natural areas.

This year, we concentrated our efforts on nurturing and complementing our existing projects - as you have read in previous postings, we have worked with students from Cottesloe Primary School and Scotch College, with staff from Pricewaterhouse Coopers and Future Farm Industries, and volunteers from Conservation Volunteers Australia, sponsored by Woodside Industries. In addition to joining these groups for long hours of intensive weeding and planting, several Cottesloe Coastcare members worked individually on various sites in the dunes, at Mudurup Rocks and in the Cottesloe Native Gardens to ensure that gaps in the local vegetation will eventually be closed and introduced species removed.

Now we want lots of rain to enable all of our plants to grow and prosper!


[Photo by Sue Freeth]

Future Farm feature

Mike Ewing and his team from Future Farm Industries CRC took a morning out from their normal focus, researching new and adaptable farming systems, to get some hands on experience planting at Dutch Inn. Clearly a well-oiled team, they not only organised superb weather, but also fresh coffee to start the day!



Greg kept the water flowing, while Pollock socialised with the passing parade of people and dogs, and the rest of the team dug (deeply), planted, watered and staked. By the end of the morning some 200 plants, including knotty club rush, berry saltbush and Acacia cyclops, were in place, and Ingrid had the evidence to prove it.

Saltbush, with its ability to withstand drought and survive in saline conditions, is one of the species of perennial plants of interest to FFI CRC. As well, meat from lambs fed with saltbush is said to be tender, tastier and full of flavour. You can read more about FFI CRC at http://www.futurefarmcrc.com.au/ and the work on saltbush at Landline.

Dutch Inn is one of CCA's original sites and was in need of infill planting to recover some of the areas that had blown out. Cottesloe Coastcare really appreciates the time and effort the FFI CRC team put in to help us restore and protect the natural vegetation of our coastline.

Scotching weeds

Which plants are weeds? How do they get here? Why do we only plant local Cottesloe plants? These were some of the questions we discussed with an energetic group of Year 8's from Scotch College on Tuesday at Grant Marine Park.

Frauke and Jan emphasised the importance of local plants as habitat and a food source for local fauna such as insects, butterflies, lizards and birds, as well as their importance in stabilising the dunes and preventing erosion. Local plants also coexist well, presenting a diversity of species, unlike some of the introduced species, such as Tetragonia and Pelargonium, which quickly dominate and smother other plants. Many of our most invasive weeds have come from South Africa - and some like the Black Flag (Ferarria crispa), seem to thrive here even more than they do at home.

The boys then attacked a large patch of Rose Pelargonium and Dune Onion weed with gusto. Once cleared they replanted with some local Cottesloe plants - Coast Daisybush (Olearia axillaris) and Berry Saltbush (Rhagodia baccata) and watered them in.

Thank you again to the boys and their teacher for helping us - we really appreciate their help in the never ending battle against weeds - and hope they gained a little more knowledge about their local environment. You can read more (and see more photos) on the Scotch College website.

Aqua Viva!

Have you ever wondered how the young plants on the fore shore dune of our new restoration project opposite Bryan Way can look so healthy when even grown up people feel like wilting away during these last hot weeks? Part of the (or possibly even the main) reason is this:

The Cottesloe Council water truck and the friendly Cottesloe Depot staff regularly helped us throughout the hot summer to fill hundreds of buckets and carry the life sustaining liquid to the thirsty plants.


We planted some 2000 tiny seedlings last year and only 8 months later most of them are still thriving! Have a look the next time you walk past them - it is particularly pleasing to see how our site demonstrates the contrast to the other parts of the dunes which are overgrown with weeds. Soon we will be able to remove the bamboo sticks and the beauty of biodiversity and local plant growth will become even more obvious. A joy for everyone!

(Photos: Robyn Benken and a kind passer-by)

The lizard in the bottle

To celebrate Coastcare Week, Cottesloe Primary Year 4 students joined us at Cottesloe Beach for a marine debris collection. Kate Sputore, our Coastcare officer, talked about the problems that the litter we leave behind on our beaches causes marine animals and birds. A plastic bag looks like a jellyfish to seals and dolphins, but if swallowed may cause pain, internal injuries or even kill the animal.

Even small pieces of plastic can cause injury and death. Frauke shared the story of the baby albatross that died because its parents fed it small pieces of plastic, thinking it was food. The people who found the baby albatross belonged to the Tangaroa Blue Society which does fantastic work in the south west of WA cleaning up debris from the coast.

After last night's storm, the beach looked as if it had been swept clean of all rubbish but it was soon obvious that there was a lot of debris - especially small bits of plastic, cigarette butts and bottle tops. Bottles and cans, plastic bags, plastic spoons and other nasties were all soon collected and despatched into rubbish bags.

Just as we were leaving, Rumi, one of our sharp eyed collectors spotted a bottle with a beautiful West Coast Ctenotus lizard (Ctenotus fallens) trapped inside. It was obviously eager for a taste of lager but couldn't turn around to get out - or maybe was too drunk! Fortunately it was still alive so Kate gently ushered it to freedom. It reminded us all of the often unexpected effects of leaving rubbish on our beaches.

Thanks again to all the Year 4's, their teacher Mrs Ewing and the parents who came - you really made a difference!

"Let deeds not words be your adorning"

This is one of the tenets of the Baha'i faith and how true to their belief were the hard working people who came for their "service activity" to help us weed and water the coastal plants at Grant Marine Park on the 25 November, a blustery Sunday morning.
Cheerfully and diligently the group collected some 15 large bags of weeds (mainly the innumerable seed heads of the dreaded onion weed, Trachyandra divaricata), loosened the soil around the plants and carried countless buckets of water to all the thirsty seedlings which have such a hard time establishing themselves in our harsh environment.
Cottesloe Coastcare is grateful for any help that assists our young and as yet small and fragile plants' fight for life during the long summer months when they must endure extended periods of dryness and aggressive competition for residual moisture and nutrients from so many more robust and fast growing weeds which threaten to displace and smother them.

A heartfelt thankyou to the Baha'i community for helping us to increase the survival rate of our coastal battlers!

(Photos taken by Zarin Salter)

Connecting Land, Shores and Oceans

The above image was the symbol for the 4th Coastal Conference held in Denmark (WA) - land and sea along the coast were regarded as if through indigenous eyes as a living entity, as country to be protected. Almost 300 delegates from government agencies, educational institutions and community organisations exchanged information about their activities as managers and custodians of the immense coastal areas of WA - no less than 27.000 km (including the islands) of coastline with some 10.000 mainland beaches.

Two committee members of the Cottesloe Coastcare Association received funding to attend the conference to contribute to, share with, and learn from the knowledge and experience of so many committed people caring for our coast. The palpable good will, enthusiasm and willingness for hard work demonstrated by everyone inspired hope and optimism for the future inspite of the huge pressures of increasing numbers of people threatening to 'love our coast to death'.

One whole day was designated as a Community Forum to discuss Coastal Issues, Local Solutions. Some 20 community groups presented projects which showed how caring and committed individuals and small groups can make real differences, especially if they act in partnership with local councils and collaborate with a wide range of agencies. One of the most heart warming sights was a young woman who carried a baby kangaroo around with her in a shoulder bag because the joey still needed four-hourly bottle feeds. She belonged to the WA Seabird Rescue, a small group who rescues injured wildlife - they are in dire need of more helpers: if you would like to become involved, ring 9474 9055!

You can find more information about the conference, the key-note speakers, main issues and suggested solutions on our website: http://www.cottesloecoastcare.org/

Angels in the Dunes?

The heavens must have thought that angels were coming to help us plant - instead of the rain and wind that was forecast for Wednesday morning the 27th June, we had sunshine and blue skies! We were so lucky - just as we had finished planting the seedlings, the clouds burst and it rained beautifully to give them a good start for their growth. Was it because the 52 lovely students from St Mary's had a special connection to the weather god?!

Here is half of the group listening attentively to the demonstration on how to plant our precious seedlings:Meanwhile, the other half of the girls was walking along the beach, collecting rubbish and learning about marine life with our Coastcare Officer. Then they swapped. Both groups split into three- and foursomes with CCA volunteers and planted six different species of 200 Cottesloe coastal natives into prepared holes on our new Bryan Way foredune project.

For the girls it was a positive, hands-on experience of doing something pleasurable and practical, tangible and useful for the environment, and we appreciated their enthusiasm and obvious interest. Maybe they'll visit Cottesloe in a couple of years' time and see with joy how well their plants have grown and how much more interesting the dunes look with the weeds replaced by a wonderful display of local biodiversity.

(Photo taken by Sue Freeth)

CCA's Mountain Goat Challenge

Casual Cottesloe beachwalkers would have been bemused at the somewhat ungainly rearviews they may have seen on the 18 June, our second planting day at the Bryan Way project: it was a real challenge to dig holes, plant the seedlings and somehow manage to keep the water buckets upright on the hard & rocky, steep slope! Some of us wished for more youthful agility and more obedient leg muscles - however, our small group of indefatigable mountain goats succeeded in planting some 200 new seedlings, including those lovely sedges you see at the top of the photo.

As always at our beautiful worksites, the ocean lay shimmering beneath us and an elegant white yacht added to our aesthetic pleasures
[Photos taken by Kate Sputore]

Premier Planting at our New Project

Here is Robyn wielding her baton to get the CCA Choir warmed up for a perfect day's work - the blue sky and a shimmering ocean made the planting of the first 300 seedlings at our new project opposite Bryan Way a pure pleasure.

The seedlings comprised various species (including rhagodia, club rushes and prickle lilies, coastal daisies, sword sedges and wallaby saltbushes) which were ready to be planted from those propagated by Apace from the seeds we had collected and the cuttings we had taken in the Cottesloe area . In order to give them the best possible chance to settle into the dune, we dug ample holes (the photo shows Mike in action with his very own super-sized spade)


and watered them in with buckets carried from the wheely-bins which Paul from the Cottesloe Council Depot had volunteered to fill for us on this Saturday morning, the 9th of June.



Here is Laurel, one of the inaugural CCA volunteers, carrying water to the plants.



For three hours the slope on the site (we started on the most difficult part!) was the scene of intense actvity - about 14 volunteers getting their hands and knees dirty and straining to keep their balance on the steep terrain:















However, no planting day organised by Robyn is without a delicious interval - this time we had sumptious home-made scones with cream and jam that proved too tempting for everybody!


Even the most unsuspecting passer-by cannot resist being coaxed by Malcolm into planting at least one seedling - here it was the turn of a not any longer so casual visitor from overseas:





By lunchtime the water was used up and we all considered this to be a good sign that we had done enough - in fact most of us felt quite exhausted, but also immensely satisfied: can you see the pleasure in our faces?



(Text by Robyn and Frauke, photos taken by Robyn and Dieter)

Painstaking Preparations for our Precious Plants

Before the pleasures of planting, dune restoration requires careful preparation - seeds are collected, cleaned and propagated; weeds removed from the site; rocks, bricks and rubbish bagged and carted away, and brush laid to prevent erosion.

For some years, Cottesloe Coastcare volunteers have developed their skills in collecting seeds from those remnant local coastal species that we saved, planted and nurtured at Grant Marine Park, Mudurup Rocks and the Vlamingh Memorial site.


The seeds are cleaned and further processed at APACE in Fremantle where volunteers also participate in specially conducted courses.

For our new project at the foredune opposite Bryan Way, we have some 2000 seedlings comprising 19 local species prepared for planting in June.

This image shows the foredune opposite as it was: highly degraded and full of introduced species.

The first step in our site preparation was the removal of spreading weeds like Sea Spinach (Tetragonia decumbens), Onion Weed (Trachyandra divaricata) and various introduced grasses as well as woody weeds like Victorian Tee-Tree, Tamarisk and Agave Americana:

As you can see, Cottesloe Council workers worked with enthusiasm and we were able to use parts of the shrubs as brushing to avoid erosion. Some of the dead weeds will come in useful as mulch.

Several weed species cannot be successfully removed by hand and some chemical weeding must be done. We contracted the expert services of David Taggart of Biara Conservation Services to do the herbicide work at the site, to help prepare the site for planting once the rains commence.

Once the site was cleared of nature's introduced species, we had to clear it of human intrusions - we felt a bit like coolies, bagging house bricks and concrete debris that had been dumped at the site over the years as well as more recent throw-aways:
After a couple of hours of lugging the bags full of stones, concrete and rubbish up the dunes, we had filled a whole trailer and the site looked neat and tidy, ready for planting.


Eventually, when our coastal natives thrive at this site, the habitat for our local dune residents will be so much more pleasurable!