1) FRIENDS COMMITTEE MEETING AUGUST 20TH 2014 G

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1 News from Darebin Creek Nov 2014 Creek Dates for your Diary 2014/2015: - 30 th Nov. Cherry St Woodlands clean up - 12 th December Xmas Breakup Furlan Club - 18 th February AGM at DCMC 7pm 1) FRIENDS COMMITTEE MEETING AUGUST 20TH 2014 G The Friends of Darebin Creek was formed in 1995 to protect, restore and conserve the Darebin Creek and its adjacent parklands as a natural environment for the enjoyment of the community. Our meeting this month featured the Darebin Park Artist in residence Katie Roberts. Thanks to all the members that attended. Speaker: Katie Roberts. Gave a presentation about the art she is currently producing during her artist-in-residency at Darebin Parklands. She is creating a body of work mapping and redocumenting the Darebin Creek, its local environment and history. The project connects with her larger endeavour to map the Yarra River. It was great to see the Parklands and creek from an artist s perspective and her talk was very well received. She will be running art workshops at the Environment Centre in Meeting Commenced: 8.00pm. Present: Sheryl Sibbison, Maureen McDermit, Adrian Hotchin, Helen Walker-Cook, Phillip Orth, Peter Grenfell, Michael Bradley, Barry Simpson, Peter Timmermans, Jonathon, Paul Prentice. Apologies: Todd Hunter. Minutes of April meeting circulated. Minutes passed Adrian H, seconded by Phillip O. General report: June 29th Planting at Southern Road wetlands 15 volunteers on a wet day. July 13th Planting at Lakes Nature Reserve near Quarry Hills, South Morang. Conservation Volunteers helped. Planted wildflowers and low shrubs. 27th July National Tree Day. 18 volunteers planted in Reservoir. Very stony ground.

2 Liberty Parade Scout Hall looks like it has been restumped. Members felt this was a good thing as there is less chance of future development if owners are fixing up current building. Malahang Festival 16th November DCMC were invited to do a stall. Pete to Fleur s details to Sheryl to arrange Friends stall. Correspondence: Liberty Parade/Southern Rd Planning Application Helen Walker- Cook and local resident Peter Timmermans have alerted Friends to an application by Banyule Council for a planning permit to allow for development of the parklands to the rear of Liberty Parade and Southern Roads. A small pocket of land facing Southern Rd is on the application, but in order to subdivide and develop it, a restrictive covenant, stipulating that the land can only be used for recreational purposes, is to be removed. This covenant covers the whole area of bushland between Southern Rd and Bell St. Friends are concerned that if removed, it could lead to future development on all of the bushland in this area. Peter to speak to Adrian Infanti to ask him to draft an objection to council for Friends and local residents to object to removal of covenant on this land. Phillip Orth will also contact Adrian. Helen to attend next DCMC meeting to speak with committee about Friends concerns with situation. Contaminants in creek The discharge came out of the Bell St Main Drain between August, and possibly in smaller amounts previously. It is most likely coming from the industrial area bordered by Chifley Drive and Albert St, Preston a large area. The EPA were called, and we understand they were able to collect a sample of the polluted water from the drain. Apparently it smelled quite strongly like paint or glue and turned the creek white. If the EPA can identify who is doing it they can take them to court and impose a hefty fine. It is a pretty disgusting sight and the pollution will not be good for anything living in the creek. If anyone sees anything like this coming from a particular drain, you can call the EPA on DCMC has installed signs near all the major drains coming into the creek they can help identify the drain s location. City of Darebin Water Workshop Therese attended the first workshop of City of Darebin s Integrated Water Management Strategy. Peter read out Therese s brief summary of

3 the meeting. There will be more to come hopefully Friends will get more notice of future meetings so someone can attend. Waterbugs in upper catchmentreport of a specific water bug Koonungids, found in the creek. Reported to us by Phillip Littlejohn, a resident of Wollert and local naturalist. Peter will contact Phillip to see if he could give a presentation of his photos at the next or future Friends meeting. Bushcare Major Day Out Adrian Hotchin has listed our Southern Rd event. In conjunction with Bushcare Day Out. Peter to put Sheryl as contact for the day. 20th anniversary of FODC. Have obtained folders from Jamie Chancellor containing papers over the first 10 years of the group. Sunday 9 November Friends looking through archives at Gleeson Centre. Peter to book in and confirm. Work in Southern Wetlands, Michael Bradley. Events to come: 31st August Southern Road Wetlands planting. End September Mernda planting. Next meeting 15th October 26th October Bird Survey 30th November Cherry St. Reserved woody weed removal Dec 5 Friday Breakup at Furlan Club 7pm. Helen to book Meeting closed: 9.30pm.

4 2) SOUTHERN RD WETLANDS WEST HEIDELBERG PLANTING 31ST AUGUST Go Back The second Southern Rd wetlands planting was a very popular event we had 20 members and locals at the planting. Previous plantings were coming along very well with regular watering from the bush crew and we had really good rains after our planting. We were all rewarded with a great BBQ and drinks. Samantha from the Banyule bush crew has written an explanation about the wetlands and its function. Thanks Samantha. Southern Road Wetland Southern Road Wetland is managed by Banyule City Council s Bushland Management Unit. It is located in Heidelberg West approximately 500m south of Southern Road. The Ecological Vegetation Classification (EVC) for this area is Floodplain Riparian Woodland and the goal is to restore this area back to its pre- European settlement vegetation class. This restoration will be conducted in two ways. Firstly the Friends of Darebin Creek will be involved in intensive replanting of the wetland. Secondly Banyule City Council will be looking at ways to restore the wetland to functioning capacity. This may include the removal of choking weeds and the dredging of sediment. The wetland was awarded the Clean Water Award 1993 by the Environmental Protection Agency. How does the wetland work? The wetland collects storm water run-off from the surrounding area and filters material like phosphorous and nitrates before it runs into the Darebin Creek. These things are most commonly found in detergents, dog poo, fertilisers and litter. Wetlands have detention basins or ponds that slow the water flow so that a number of natural processes can occur, that includes trapping gross pollutants. This occurs because the plants naturally take up and lock in the nutrients through their root systems in order to grow. The wetland also naturally helps with sedimentation. As the storm water runs into the wetland it slows down and this causes the sediment to settle at the bottom of the wetland. This is why wetlands often need to be dredged to remain at their normal functioning capacity.

5 3) LAKES NATURE RESERVE WHITTLESEA PLANTING 28TH SEPTEMBER Go Back On a very warm Sunday morning in September a group of friends got together to help plant beautiful wildflowers in the Lakes Flora nature reserve in Whittlesea. It was the day after the Grand Final of the AFL so I m pleased to have seen five hardy souls turn up for the planting. Danika and the Whittlesea bush crew had everything prepared as per normal, plants ready, holes dug and ready for planting. Due to the dryness of the

6 soil we had to water each plant as we planted so it was a bit harder to plant than normal, the soil being very hard and friable (lucky for the post hole digger). We were planting species such as calocephalus and yam daisies and the site after burning back in April was already sporting some lovely stands of chocolate lilies and other natives. After a hard few hours (with a nice tea time in the middle) we managed to plant around 500 plants and definitely filled all the holes we could find. Thanks to all that turned up, it was much appreciated. Paul, Sanghee and Michael get ready for action 4) GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING 15 th October 2014 Meeting Commenced: 7.10pm. Present: Sheryl Sibbison, Adrian Hotchin, Phillip Orth, Peter Grenfell, Barry Simpson, Therese Quinland, and Maureen McDermit. Apologies: Helen Walker Cook. Minutes of August meeting circulated. Moved by Peter G to be accepted, seconded by Phillip.

7 Activities Banyule 31st August. Habitat restoration at the Southern Road Wetlands. 20 people attended, BBQ afterwards. Quite a few locals came along. Registered with Bushcare Major Day Out. Signage was an issue people were there and didn t know where to go. Peter G to print up some Friends arrow signs to go on stakes to direct people from the meeting spot. Whittlesea 28 th September, Planting at the Lakes Flora Reserve. Five people planted 500 plants. Day after Grand Final might have been an issue for small numbers. Correspondence: Adrian H: Invitation from City of Darebin to Carols at All Nations we felt that it was too busy time a year for Friends to hold a stall. Planning Scheme Application 233 Southern Road Heidelberg. Information session 9 th October Peter Timmermans Attended the council information session. After the initial hype only 3 community members attended which was embarrassing. The new covenant will be a municipal Reserve Status so we will have to keep alert to what will happen next, there will be community consultation Adrian Hotchin: Malahang Festival 16 th November 2014 at Malahang Reserve West Heidelberg. Sheryl and Adrian making a roster. 10am 4pm. Alice Ewing - Canine conservation volunteers. Regarded tracking tiger quolls. Unable to financially support Sheryl will contact her. Voting for Bank of Melbourne grant for DCMC Cleaning up Darebin Creek. Latrobe Uni Green Volunteers. Phillip has said they are welcome to our events. Will add them to our non-members database. Recreational Shooting of Native Waterbirds. A collaborative election initiative. Phillip replied with support but hasn t heard further. Spring Sustainability News Darebin. Add news articles by 16 th October. Will try and get articles in next year. VictorianEnvironmentalFriendsNET 88 - August Our Quarry Hill event was in this!! The venue was changed close to the day so we need to have a contact number when advertising ahead. Next events:

8 Darebin 26 th October. Bird Survey Meet Cnr Liberty Pde and Dougharty Road. 8am. Banyule 30 th November Cherry Street Grasslands weeding and wildflower walk. 10am. Sunday 9 th November Discuss 20th anniversary of FODC. Committee looking through FODC archives from over the first 10 years of the group. Gleeson Room at 10am. We need to be finished by midday. We will plan the April Anniversary DCMC event for Christmas breakup at the Furlan Club. 7pm on Friday 5 December. 1 Matisi Street, Thornbury. To be booked by Helen Speaker for next year s AGM: February 18. Need some ideas. Meeting dates for next year all Wednesdays. April 15, June 17, August 19, October 14 Hi Visibility vest order, New Map & Bookmarks: to be discussed at the next meeting. Big news, though sad for Friends: Phillip Orth is moving to Wellington, New Zealand by February, so won t be able to continue on as President for next year. He will be greatly missed and we really appreciate all he has done for the group over the last few years. Meeting closed at 8.30pm. 5) BIRD SURVEY IN HEIDELBERG WEST 26th OCT. Go Back A small but intrepid group of eighteen people met for the third annual Darebin Creek Bird Survey in West Heidelberg. For those who came along, it was a still, fine October morning perfect conditions for bird spotting. Michael Cincotta from La Trobe Wildlife Sanctuary gave participants a rundown on the survey method. We then split into three groups, with Michael and two other experienced birders leading the way. Michael s group spotted a Clamorous Reed-Warbler (pictured) for the first time. This fairly indistinct SBB (small brown bird) lives on insects including dragonflies, water beetles, grasshoppers and spiders. It has a very large range stretching from Northeast Africa through Southeast Asia to the Philippines, New Guinea and Australia. The total number of bird species spotted was 39, which was a drop from the 2013 survey count of 48. This may have been a result of having three groups out there rather than four or five last year. At the conclusion of the survey, we had a cup of tea and a chat about what we had spotted. A group of us used a pole camera to look in a few of the nest boxes in the area to see what was in them. One nest box

9 housed a dozing brushtail possum, another looked like a kookaburra was about to nest in it, as the box was lined with a fresh bed of gum leaves and a kookaburra was watching us closely. Unfortunately, a number of the other boxes were filled with common myna rubbish. These pest species fill up boxes with rubbish, such as plastic bags and wrappers to stop other hollow-using fauna from using them. The affected boxes will need cleaning out. We are hoping to continue running this event to help beginner birders such as myself to learn more about our local fauna. The area where we do the survey is quite large and varied, including thick bushland, grassland and wetlands, so we also hope to determine over time if bird diversity is remaining steady in this scenic area of the Darebin Creek. Thanks to City of Banyule Spring Outdoors for helping to publicise this event. Tea time after the survey. Clamorous Reed Warbler Friends Photos Please see our Facebook page quite a number of new photos have been added. We welcome any interesting photos from our members just to friendsofdarebincreek@gmail.com

10 Get Involved in Darebin Creek Events in 2014/2015 J - 30 th Nov. Cherry St Woodlands clean up - 12 th December Xmas Breakup Furlan Club - 18 th February AGM at DCMC 7pm Got anything to say? Contributions to the FODC newsletter always welcome. Please forward to fodc.articles@dcmc.org.au or friendsofdarebincreek@gmail.com Contact Numbers Phillip Orth President Water Pollution? (quote drain sign s number) Convenor/ Sheryl (h) Melb Wildlife Sanctuary & Membership Officer Sibbison Indigenous Nursery Shopping Trolley Hotline Adrian Hotchin Events Litter Report Hotline Wildlife Rescue Hotline Darebin Creek Management Committee Vic Police Motorcycle Squad NOTE: The Friends of Darebin Creek Membership Brochure comes complete with map and information in seven languages. Call Sheryl (tel no above) for copies to distribute to neighbours, schools and clubs, and other centres. Visit our website at