Working Bee Sunday Nov 7th

Today was Lily's 17th birthday. It's been a while since she joined us at PWR. We weeded on the dune and the weeds were prolific due to the amount of rain. Melbourne's rainfall stands at 680mm for the year, the first above average rainfall for over 10 years I'm guessing. In attendence were Malcolm & Ruth, Carol, Anne, Janet and Annette with Ben arriving a little later. I departed early to check in with the Melbourne chapter of the Surfrider Foundation who were conducting a litter pick up along the foreshore in front of Sandridge SLC. I had lent them some pick up sticks.

Working Bee Saturday 2nd October

It will be interesting to watch this section of fenced foredune in the coming years. It has little spinifex to speak of. The next fenced section to the west has a degraded spinifex dune due to foot traffic and the furthest west, next to Webb Dock, is the best established as it has been somewhat protected by a 3 strand star picket fence for a few years.

The walk into the Reserve presented the newly cleared area immediately behind SLV HQ and the pruned Casuarinas along the carpark. David Hahir told me this was going to happen and that stage 2 of the fencing is imminent.

A small but efficient group attended today, myself, Carol, Jack, Janet, Tracey & Chris. Tracey is doing an anthropology PHD on Port Melbourne and attended as a study of local groups in Port and Chris picked us at random from the Landcare website. He travelled from Blackburn.

Anne was involved in setting up Pat Grainger's 80th at the Trugo Club where we all ended up in the afternoon. The day was the first real warm spring day and was also the replay of the drawn Grand Final.

The weeds are prolific this season. We set upon the vetch in the grass beds and Jack and I did a stint in the foreshore dunes. Weeds are everywhere and I will ask Michelle Ritchie on Monday if she can throw more resources at them next week because they will be seeding very soon. It was a pleasant warm morning. Janet and Anne are going to do some more again Sunday morning.

Working Bee Sunday 5th September

I will add pics later. They got wiped before I could add them. We weeded today, mainly vetch, near the noticeboard and the large "Remnant Vegetation" sign, itself a remnant of previous installations.

In attendance were myself, Carol, Yvonne, Ruth, Malcolm and Damien. It was a mild morning after a wild night, there was no apparent tree damage in the reserve. Damien and I checked the fences and gates, they were still all intact. Still no sign of rabbits.

I took a couple of pics of the recently fenced foredune. I wish to use this as a before and after representation of how the dune can regenerate if it is given protection from pedestrian traffic.

August 7th Working bee

On the way to the working bee I took this photo of bike path realignment in front of Live Saving Vic HQ. I also noted that LSV had got some bigger wheelie bins rather than the standard 240 lt ones. The previous ones often stood overflowing in their carpark and looked messy.
Today's working bee saw us plant approx 100 grasses in the NW corner of one of the newly fenced areas adjacent to the central track to the beach. The plants were Distichlis, Sporobolis & Zoysia which were thoroughly staked and plastic guarded. In attendence we had Mark (cub/scout leader) from Kew with son Rollie so he could get a cub badge for is efforts as well as Tracey who is studying anthropology at Melbourne Uni. She is doing a PHD on Port Melbourne.
After Planting we did some weeding in the Distichlis bed (western end of grasses). Weeds were vetch and other stuff. Damien from City Wide and I walked around looking for signs of rabbits and the search revealed no evidence, maybe one digging. As the Reserve had had recent rains which smoothed the sand, it was easy to see if any new diggings had occurred. Also plantings from previous months were still intact and coming on.

Working Bees June & July 2010

These two picture show our plantings for June and July working bees. Damien from Citywide brings along plants from St Kilda Indigineous Nursery and the necessary equipment for us to put them in. We use water retention gel to keep up moisture to the young plants.
The bottom picture is the result of planting Distichlis, Sporobolus and Zoysia in an area where Cynadon couch has begun to overrun Zoysia. Damien had sprayed the area to kill not only the Cynadon but everything else. It is a trial to see if we can stem the influx of Cynadon.