Category Archives: Weeds

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

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

 

Blue Mountains Have Your Say

Have Your Say on the Council’s proposed service delivery plans and budgets for 2016-2017.

The Council has prepared its Draft Operational Plan 2016-2017 and invites the views of the community.

The draft Operational Plan 2016-2017 includes:

  • Annual service delivery actions;
  • Asset Works Program;
  • Budget;
  • Rating statement; and
  • Fees and charges.

The draft documents are now on public exhibition until Wednesday 25 May 2016. The following documents can be accessed from the Library at the right of this webpage or hardcopies can be viewed at the Katoomba and Springwood Office of the Council or in Council libraries:

Draft Delivery Program 2013-2017 incorporating Operational Plan 2016-2017

Draft Fees and Charges 2016-2017

Lodge your comments via the online submission form below by Wednesday 25 May.

Here is the the link to the councils page:

http://bluemountainshaveyoursay.com.au/dop2016-17

Bushcare Boosters Training

The first of the three Bushcare Boosters training sessions was at South Lawson Bushcare Site.  Twelve people attended and it was a mix of presentation inside and a site visit.

The idea of these workshops is to give a big picture of planning and assessing your sites. The next workshop will be held at on Sunday the 5th of June and we will be looking at Fauna considerations on your site. Stay tuned to the events page to find out more.

The key take home from this session is;

  •  Everyone who is at Bushcare every month has something to contribute to the planning sessions and work plans for your Bushcare Group.  Every group has a work plan ask your Bushcare Officer to talk you through yours.
  • Information from out of area on weeds is vital as it can indicate how much attention we should be paying to emerging weeds. This site was Turkey Rhubarb http://weedsbluemountains.org.au/weeds/turkey-rhubarb and Arum Lily http://weedsbluemountains.org.au/weeds/arum-lily-2/
  • having a look around to see issues past the boundaries of your site is vital when planning for your work plan.
  •  The South Lawson Bushcare group has done some tremendous work to safeguarding the swamp and bushland areas.
On site with Geoff and some of the group looking at some fauna evidence at South Lawson Bushcare site

On site with Geoff and some of the group looking at some fauna evidence at South Lawson Bushcare site

Native Hydrangea (Abrophyllum ornans):  Mistaken for a Weed?

by Ian Baird Friends of Katoomba Falls Creek Valley Bushcare Group & Remote Bushcare

Over a number of years, I have walked the Victory Track along Saffasfras Creek from Faulconbridge to Springwood, exploring various tributaries and their associated gallery rainforests. On one occasion I was surprised to find, growing next to the track in the rainforest, a sparsely branched, medium-sized shrub with very large leaves, and observed that it looked a bit like a hydrangea. However, I had a feeling it was the native hydrangea and that I had seen a photo of it in Fairley and Moore (2000). I looked it up later, and confirmed that it was the native hydrangea, Abrophyllum ornans, a member of the Roussaceae family (F.Muell.) Hook.f. ex Benth. More recently, on two occasions, I have found individual plants near the track in the rainforest in different locations.

Native Hydrangea cf Lyndal Sullivan

Native Hydrangea photo courtesy of Lyndal Sullivan

The most recent sighting was of a plant (photographed) regrowing from the base after having been sawn off near ground level by someone. It occurred to me that this may have been a case of a well-intentioned, but misguided attempt at weed control by a bush regenerator or bushcarer, as the plant does stand out as something unusual. This is thus a salutary warning that the native flora contains many plants that do not necessarily fit the mould, in terms of many people’s perceptions of what ‘typical’ native plants look like, and the need for bushcarers to exercise caution. If in doubt, when deciding whether a plant is a weed. It is best to ask someone with appropriate ID skills before taking action.

The native hydrangea is the only species in the genus (monotypic). The species has previously been included within the Saxifragaceae, and more recently, the Escalloniaceae (with possumwood, Quintinia sieberi). Shrubs or small trees to 8 m high. Flowering October–December. Its habitat is warm-temperate and subtropical rainforest, especially along smaller watercourses or in gullies on poorer soils. The natural range of distribution is from the Illawarra of NSW (north of the Shoalhaven River) to the McIlwraith Range in far north eastern Australia. NSW subdivisions: NC, CC, SC.  For the plant description see Plantnet:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Abrophyllum~ornans

There are a small number of records for the lower-to mid-Blue Mountains, including one previous record from Sassafras Creek, Springwood by L.A.S. Johnstone in 1977. For Australian Virtual Herbarium map of records, where individual records can be examined, see: http://avh.ala.org.au/occurrences/search?taxa=Abrophyllum+ornans#tab_mapView

Weeds Blitzed at Kingsford Smith Park

Gang Gang St before

Gang Gang St before

On Saturday 27 February members of bushcare groups in the Leura Falls Creek Catchment and the Leura Falls Creek Catchment Working Group, came together for a weeding morning at Kingsford Smith Park. Since 2007 the group’s yearly get-together has taken place at the iconic Leura Cascades. This year, in order to tackle the source weeds in the upper part of the catchment, the groups decided to focus on Kingsford Smith Park.

The park has both historical and horticultural values and is significant to the Leura Falls Creek Catchment. It contains many noxious and environmental weeds. They are a problem not just as a source of propagating material – water, wind and bird borne  – but also because weeds are a major component of the vegetation that block views into the Park. A number of formed drains enter into the Park and ground water seeps in. The groundwater has a high impact on the creek and catchment because it picks up water from the Great Western Highway, the rail corridor and Katoomba township. A creekline forms within the park, and drains through private property before entering the Vale Street wetlands and joining Leura Creek. Leura Creek flows through Leura Park and into the Leura Cascades and the National Park. There is a significant stand of Mountain Ash – Eucalyptus oreades – within the park. This stand occurs in the triangle of land between William, Gang Gang and Lovell Streets.

The work on the day focused on removing the privet hedge along Gang Gang St, weeding in the ‘oreades  patch’, removing ivy from Tree Ferns, removing trad and spot weeding for noxious and environmental weeds. Team privet could probably get a Guinness Book of Records achievement for their work along Gang Gang St– the most privet removed in the shortest period of time!!

The get-together also provided an opportunity for a strong working relationship between Blue Mountains City Council’s Urban Weeds, Bushcare and Parks teams and the community bushcare groups. For all your work in the Park, many thanks go to David Whiteman and team, David Pinchers and Mark Vickers and team. To Karen Hising, Tracey Williams and Erin Hall, many thanks for the organisation of and support on the day and many thanks to the 17 bushcare volunteers for your amazing weed blitzing work. We all agreed that it was inspiring to start making a difference in this part of our precious catchment.

If you would like to find out more about Leura Falls Creek Catchment and the work that we are doing please contact Jenny Hill at jhill9228@gmail.com

"Team Privet" after a job well done

“Team Privet” after a job well done

Sublime Point Celebrates its 20th Birthday

The Sublime Point Bushcare Group (SPBG) in Leura celebrated its 20th Birthday on 11 January 2016. Since 1996 the Group has transformed, with the aid of a number of small grants, a six hectare Reserve in south Leura that had previously been seriously degraded over a substantial fraction of the total area. That part of today’s Reserve is now a flourishing native landscape. The whole Reserve is crisscrossed with walking tracks that have been engineered to reduce erosion.

Over the 20 years the Group has eradicated an impressive list of 33 weeds, including Buddleia, Tree Lucerne, Portuguese Heath, Holly, Privet, Monterey Pine, White Poplar, Lombardy Poplar, Pussy Willow, Chinese Elm, Watsonia and Yucca. But we still have difficulty with St John’s Wort, Catsear, Blackberry and a host of imported grasses.

The Group has a vibrant core of half a dozen dedicated bushcarers, augmented from time to time with other local residents. Most of them appear in the accompanying photograph.

photo of members of the group Lyndal Sullivan, Ross Day, Jeremy Townend, Brian Marshall, Anna Marshall, Piercarlo Cuneo, Joan Gahl, Libby Gahl, Rae Druitt, Christine Cuneo.

From left to right they are: Lyndal Sullivan, Ross Day, Jeremy Townend, Brian Marshall, Anna Marshall, Piercarlo Cuneo, Joan Gahl, Libby Gahl, Rae Druitt, Christine Cuneo.

By David Coleby, Convener SPBG

Picture of the group

From left to right: Ross Day, Jeremy Townend, Brian Marshall, Anna Marshall, Piercarlo Cuneo, Joan Gahl, Libby Gahl, Rae Druitt, Christine Cuneo, David Colby.

Updated Weed Website

The Bushcare office, Ray Richardson and Hugh Todd have been working quietly away on updating the new platform for the weeds website, and it is now live!

The finished website will have 64 weed profiles, and resources to help with weed control. We have changed the system so the website can intelligently resize to look good on all screens used for web browsing – from phones to desktops.

It can be found at www.weedsbluemountains.org.au, for those who would like to have a look around.

We have retained some of the fantastic features that Barbara Harley and John Penlington worked on, like the weeds brochure and some of the original articles.

Weeds website

Due to the advancements of user friendly web design we (at the office) can add articles and information quickly and easily. If anyone within the bushcare community would like to donate some time to work on the website with me, or photographs that are better than what we have, we would be very grateful.