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.

New Light Poles Go In Plus other additions

They were working on Saturday, Election Day, to get the lights attached to the poles. There are 13 of these double lighted Poles along the foreshore between Beacon Cove and the Sandridge car park plus 2 more lighting the car park itself. Like many new things they will take a while for the eye to get used to. The curved shape matches somewhat the curved line of SLV HQ, the other tall dominant feature at the west end of the beach.















The Play equipment is now up and running. A sand pit right next to the beach finds its supporters.















Its a bit hard to see in this picture of the BBQ site at the BC end of the beach. It is the small weather station attached to the top of the light pole above the BBQs. Will make enquiries at council and report back. I'm guessing it is linked to BOM but will verify.















This BBQ at the western end next to the carpark sits in a sheltered cul de sac. It will be interesting to see the use these BBQs get during the warmer months.

Old Fencing Being Removed

In this picture the older stainless steel wire fencing has been recently removed. This has been done by the contractors who are realigning the bike paths outside the SLV HQ. The wiring will be kept for other uses within the reserve. Not sure what this will be yet but its best that it is hopefully in safe keeping for the time being as it is expensive and would surely shrink over time.

No trouble with an east-west sight line now. Looks a bit stark at present.

Key to the Gates

David Hehir from COPP gave me a couple of keys to the four gates which allow access to the newly fenced off sections. Only two of the gates have locks on them at present but I understand the remaining two locks will be put on now that I have a key as we will need access for working bees.

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.

Rabbit Poisoning Concluded

Message from Michelle Ritchie, COPP Open Space Tech Officer;

"Program finished mid last week. Rabbit contractor will be around a couple times this week and then return to pick up signs. If you see any more on your travels please pick up safely and discard in the bin."

Damien and I walked around on the weekend and picked up three dead rabbits and saw no live ones. Many of the plants put in over the last couple of months are still going well due to good rain falls. Some of them have had the tops nibbled off but fingers crossed/wishful thinking, the rabbits have been all killed.

Sandridge Foreshore Upgrade

The Sandridge Beach Upgrade got underway in May or June which includes a variety of works as per the above sign. A point of interest is the works in front of the Greenhouse at the intersection of the eastern end of The Bend and The Boulevard. What is going to be put their and will it block their view? Council opinion is that the Banskia to the left in the picture of the Greenhouse was poisoned by a view hungry resident.
Of interest also is the gaps that exist in the fencing surrounding the carpark. Will their be closed to excluded jetski trailer access. I have posed this question to Zhanna the project manager.

Lease of PWR from POMC still in Limbo

Janet informed the group that the POMC still have a couple of issues with the Management Plan (MP); parking in the road instead of the car park and they that support the installation of the parking meters! It is curious how they operate in that they sent a representative to the Reference Group who did not raise these issues or offer any input towards the development of the Plan that I can remember.

POMC are believed to have put aside 50K towards the MP but are also stalling on extending the lease to COPP for the continued management of PWR. They are deciding whether they wish to take over management of the Reserve but stated that they wish it to remain open space. It appears to me that with the impending development of Webb Dock they (POMC) are keeping all their options open.

Local Paper Supports Reserve

You can't read it but this article by Benjiman Preiss, Emerald Hill Times June 2010, highlights that the Management Plan addresses both the environmental and safety issues for the Reserve. These issues were raised in the reference group and community consultation conducted earlier this year by the council to gain professional and community insight into the issues surrounding the reserve. The article also points out that the land owners, Port of Melbourne Corp are yet to adopt the plan or announce whether they will provide funding for the recommended upgrades.

Blue Wrens out today

My Camera was not versatile enough to record any pics of the little birds but I thought it was important to note that I heard and saw a couple of groups of blue wrens out feeding in the Reserve this weekend.
It was a pleasure to see the 5 or 6 birds in each group flittering around and their presence is a reminder of the importance of the recent fencing which will protect vegetation for them to continue to live in. The recent drought conditions would have made it tough on these little creatures but they looked perky as ever.

Race Horses - Frequent visitors a few years back

This sign will most likely be removed in the near future as it stands in the middle of a path to the beach. It is a reminder of the racehorse period in the reserve earlier this decade. I have lost my records and pics of the events but the reserve became a popular venue for horse swimming by racehorse owner Lloyd Williams.

It was a daily occurrence for several of William's trucks to arrive from Flemington Racecourse with up to 20 horses. They would assemble on the grass section at the western end then proceed down to the water and do laps up and back to the 1st rock groyne. I was concerned about the wear and tear these heavy beasts' hooves would inflict on the reserve as well as the shell habitat we know exists in the intertidal zone. The council supported my efforts to remove the horses from the reserve. It took about 18 months, the installation of 3 of these signs and finally the local law enforcement officers fining of the horse people before they seized their visits.

About a year later Lloyd Williams had purchased a massive property at Mt Macedon, installed a training track and swimming pool, had run ins with the local council and went on to win the Melbourne Cup with Efficient.

Rabbit Control

This rabbit baiting program was arranged by Michelle Ritchie (COPP Open Space Tech Officer) at a cost of $8K. Today I spotted 1 or 2 rabbits today next to a large bush of Atriplex, Coastal Saltbush, where I know there are numerous burrows. A few more weeks of the program are still to run so I hope the rabbits get into the poisoned carrot bait.

Gates -Management access to fenced areas

A cyclone gate was place in each fenced area to allow access for maintenance. I noticed today that two gates at the western end were open and being used for "beat" access. The gates are only screwed on so I am concerned about them being stolen. I have emailed David Hehir at COPP to ask if the gates can be attached in such a manner that they are not so easily removed.

The small signs are attached next to each gate.

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.

Perce White Management Plan Adopted

A long name, Perc (sic) White Reserve Landscape Management Plan and Master Pan, was adopted by council at the 24th May 2010 meeting. Anne Callaghan, Ian Gould (community reference group member) and I spoke to the councillors in support of the plans adoption.

Decisions still to come; Port of Melbourne support and funding for plan and funding from council in 2010/11 budget. Only $50K has been allocated in the COPP draft budget.

Protective Fencing Goes In at Perce White Reserve

The two pictures immediately above show remains of the stylish hardwood post and stainless steel fencing installed in 2007. Unfortunately much of it proved too tempting to thieves and begun to disappear soon after installation.

The fencing has been installed by a contractor under the management of David Hehir, Foreshore Coordinator, City of Port Phillip. The funding for the fencing came from the City of Port Phillip and a Federal Coastcare Grant involving the following Govt Departments; Australian Government Land & Coast Division, Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts.

The Grant process was lengthy with the submission preparation commencing in mid 2008 and approx $17,000 being granted in March 2009. Part of the Grant is to be spent on designing and installing six or seven Interpretive Signs which are yet to come.

The fencing was installed to protect the foreshore and foredune areas by reducing the number of informal tracks traversing the reserve, particularly in the Eastern Half. The fencing is in accordance with the COPP Perce White Management and Landscaping Plan 2010.