Cynadon Couch Grass in Zoysia Bed

The beginning of 2010 saw the Friends group tackle the the Cynadon invasion of the Zoysia Bed. The removal of this highly invasive weed will be our primary focus I hope for the forseeable future as we work to flank and hold back further incursions of this weed which spreads by runners and seeds.

We had noticed the presence of Cynadon a few years back but did little about it. It wasn't until we had a workshop with Biosis research consultant Jeff Yugovic in Nov 2010 that we turned our focus to the weed invasion. One of his main points was that we need to assist the vegetation that is already in situ rather trying to plant new veg of the top of it and around it.

Weed Management Workshop

Anne organised a weed management workshop facilitated by Jeff Yugovic of Biosis. 12 people attended on this wet morning and we went through some weeds and their management.

It was a very informative session and may well shape how we approach our working bees. Will we get new weed management tools? eg a weed burner. And will we cut back on the annual planting so we can address the weeds in a more systematic manner? Jeff recommends facilitating natural regeneration over planting. Will discuss amongst ourselves and with COPP staff.

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.

Second round of Fencing

This is the North-East corner of the second section of fencing. The notice board has been relocated as has the remnant vegetation sign from their original location about 75m to the west.



The second lot of fencing was installed in late October. It encompasses the grasses beds and forms the northern boundary of the new east-west alligned path which disects the reserve, see middle picture. In the foreground is the exposed plastic matting put down as a weed suppressor, propably in the 80's. It is impossible to remove and must hinder all plant growth.

The second picture above shows the northern side of this new fencing as it runs the length of the car park as far as the western grassed section.

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.

FOPMF Ordinary Meeting August 28th 2010

We held our quarterly meeting at the usual venue, Sandridge Trugo Club Garden City Reserve, at 7.30pm. In attendence were myself, Annette Stewart, Janet Bolitho, Carol & Yvonne Goudie, Anne Callaghan and Pat Grainger. Ben Piper turned up at 9pm having worked late but the meeting had just wrapped up.

Malcolm Cook who along with Ruth having recently joined our group, has agreed to take on the Treasurer's role. Michael Hutchinson our long standing reliable Treasurer has handed on the job.