samantha in the media

Roundabout - chatting about all things environment
3MDR
hosted by Graham 'Bealy' Beal
4 Sep 2014

Awesome way to save platypus
Mail Newspapers
by Caitlin McArthur
9 Sep 2014

southern dandenongs landcare – another active year working hard for our environment

I was delighted to be able to chair the Southern Dandenongs Landcare Group Annual General Meeting and preside over their elections for 2014/15.

The range of activities of this group is phenomenal, they have environmental fingers in many pies and I’m inspired by the amount of activity this group undertakes to protect, enhance and preserve our local environment.

Vicki Boyle was resoundingly re-elected as
President of the Southern Dandenong
Landcare Group. Vicki is a human dynamo
and was awarded Yarra Ranges Environmental
Achiever of the Year 2012.

The President, Vicki Boyle, gave an extensive report of activities, some of which included:

• Participation in CWAD – Community Weed Alliance in the Dandenongs

• Partner is SREA – Southern Ranges Environment Alliance working on the Green Tracks program, an environmental program focused on the Puffing Billy rail corridor

• Targeted community engagement re weed removal with property owners abutting Moores Break, Ferny Creek.

• Works along the Belgrave bicycle track to remove blackberries

• Participation in the Minak Reserve biolink projct

• Assisting with the Green Army project to target Wandering Tradescantia

• Working with the Belgrave Traders Association for Weedbusters week and Clean Up Australia day

• Monthly stalls at the Kallista Market

• Working with the BEEGEES, Friends of Trestle Bridge, focusing on a stationers group (metro station), food growing and biodiversity improvements in the VicTrack rail corridor

• Participating in Selbyfest and Selby Community House, developing community indigenous plant garden

• Assisting Cardinia Creek Landcare Group with signage project to raise awareness of the local platypus population

• Partnering in the Yarra Valley Landcare Landcare for Singles event

• Partnering with Selby CFA for event catering and as a Clean Up partner

• Enhancing relationship with Selby Primary School and the Minibeast festival

• Working with the Selby Men’s Shed group (who build nest boxes for SDLG)

• Coordinating the local nest box program

• Recognising the contribution of long time locals who sadly passed away, the Beers, for their efforts in the enhancement of the local Selby environment.

• Running the Minibeast Festival and Awesome Ornithorynkids (Platypus Day)

It’s an amazing array of activities, an enormous contribution by all involved, volunteers working hard to enhance our environment and raise awareness about environmental issues. I am truly thankful for their tireless efforts.
 

Pictured from left to right: Mike, Leslie, Helen, Cr Samantha,
Jackie, Catherine, Darcy, Merinda, Frank, Vicki, Robert
and Catherine.

I’m delighted to announce the election of the following people to the committee for 2014/15:

President – Vicki Boyle

Vice President – Darcy Duggan
Secretary – Jackie Glenn
Treasurer – Mike Clarke
General Members – Navila, Catherine, Helen, Merinda, Frank, Robert, Catherine, Jenny and Leslie.

planting success

Sunday was National Tree Day, a day where people from across the country are encouraged to do something positive for the environment and reconnect with nature.  

 

I was delighted to join the Southern Dandenongs Community Nursery tree planting event, revegetation planting on Parks Victoria land at the back of the Birdsland Reserve in the Lysterfield Park. It was great to join locals to once again, revisit this site and plant a range of canopy and understorey plants abutting the riparian area of the Monbulk Creek, a local waterway significant due to its platypus population and proximity to residential areas.
 

 

There was also a concurrent planting event close by the nursery and Birdsland Environment Education Centre for families with young children.
 

I can report that 500 plants went in at Lysterfield Park, whilst the children planted 150 plants up at the Birdsland Education Centre in Birdsland. It was a great effort by all.

It's become a bit of a custom at the
Southern Dandenongs Community
Nursery to plant a tree to mark the
occasion, I was very happy to
oblige and be assisted by nursery
President, Garrique Pergl.

The day was a great collaboration of community, Parks Victoria, the Southern Dandenongs Community Nursery, Southern Dandenongs Landcare Group, Friends of Birdsland and Yarra Ranges Council and I was pleased to play my small part in improving the local environment.
 

 

There’s been amazing growth of plants put in earlier plantings and this region is going to provide a great buffer to Monbulk Creek into the future.

minibeasts on show at birdsland

Yes it's that time of year again, where young and old can learn all about our local little creatures at the Minibeast Festival. It's a great way to find out more about our local environment, particularly those creatures who inhabit our waterways and provide a valuable food source for our local icon, the platypus.

Where: Birdsland Reserve, Belgrave Heights
When: Sunday 27 April, from 11am to 3pm
Food: BBQ provided by Selby Primary, vegetarians and coffee lovers catered for
Cost: Free!
Activities: Platypus walk and talk, exploring minibeasts, giant yabby lantern making for the Lantern Parade.

Thanks to Southern Dandenongs Landcare Group for coordinating and Melbourne Water and Yarra Ranges Council for support.

The Minibeast Festival is an annual favourite, at last
year's festival I was delighted to add this lemon tree to
the sustainable garden at Birdsland.
Pictured left to right: Vicki from SDLG, Gavin from Yarra
Ranges Council and me, Cr Samantha Dunn.

ornithorynkids awesome again

I was delighted to attend the fifth Awesome Ornithorynkids (platypus) Day, a celebration of the Monbulk Creek platypus population and environment at Belgrave Lake Park.  A key event of the Southern Dandenongs Landcare Group, organisers planned a range of activities for all to participate in. 

This year I MC’d the night time creature sounds competition and I was amazed at how many creatures were readily identified by participants.

The day included a planting on the banks of the Monbulk Creek, a known habitat area for our local platypus population. Awesome Ornithorynkids provided a great opportunity to harness some community energy into replanting, with 300 plants put in on the day as part of the revegetation program.

Park Victoria were there with a wildlife display as well
as this fox, a widespread pest animal in
The Dandenongs.

An enormous amount of work has been completed removing weed nasties like Wandering Trad (ranked number 10 as worst weed in Yarra Ranges) under the Urban Fringe Weed Management Initative (UFWMI), a jointly funded project which has seen $1million of state government investment  over four years matched by council to start to tackle weeds across land tenures in the Dandenongs.

I can only hope that we see tripartisan support for this initiative into the future and a recommitment to fund the program as we head into an election year in Victoria. The UFWMI has had some great outcomes in terms of biodiversity improvements as well as continuing the great relationship between council and community environment groups in the protection of natural values and the threat of weeds.

There’s been an enormous amount done in the Dandenongs and Awesome Ornithorynkids is a great way to showcase this work, educate locals on our local icon, the platypus and harness some of that community passion into planting or other volunteer opportunities. Well done SDLG.

southern dandenongs landcare click over another year

It was terrific to be invited to chair the fifth Annual General Meeting of the Southern Dandenongs Landcare Group (SDLG) at Selby Community House.

From left to right: Vicki Boyle, President of the Southern
Dandenongs Landcare Group, Cr Samantha Dunn,
Lyster Ward and Betty Marsden AO, President of the
Save the Dandenongs League

I am always impressed by the breadth of activities this group undertakes, there's no doubt they are committed and passionate when it comes to improving our local environment and raising awareness about environmental issues.

In the past year the SDLG have been involved in so many activities. There are some key annual events the group are committed to including Awesome Ornithorhynkids day at Belgrave Lake, Mini Beast Festival at Birdsland and Selbyfest.

Other activites throughout the year include a regular and highly successful stall at the monthly Kallista Market, a partnership with the Belgrave Traders Association and the Weedbuster Day which will be once again supported in 2013 for a month by the traders. In good news to hand the owner of Jorgies (now Earthly Pleasures Cafe) has agreed to have the ivy removed from the building, ivy is one of Yarra Ranges worst weeds, ranked the number 2 worst environmental weed.

There's been support with the Southern Ranges Environmental Alliance, the newly forming CWAD, numerous Friends of Groups, the list is extensive and this report is in no way complete.

It was also terrific to hear from guest speaker Betty Marsden AO, former Shire of Sherbrooke Councillor and current President of the Save the Dandenongs League, talk about the history and activities of the League. Betty is an inspiration and living legend and gave great insights into the many battles the conservation movement in the hills has undertaken since the League was established in 1950.

I congratulate all involved with SDLG and thank you for the extensive volunteer hours you contribute to improving our environment, it is well and truly appreciated.

I'm pleased to report the new committee for 2012/13:
President - Vicki Boyle
Vice President - Darcy Duggan
Secretary - Anne Elizabeth
Treasurer - Mike Clarke
General Members:
Leslie Wilson
James Fraser

awesome again

Stax the Didgeman, read out the observations
of the first Europeans to see the platypus, which
proved to be very curious.

It was terrific to, once again, be part of the Southern Dandenongs Landcare Group's Awesome Ornithorhynkids day at Belgrave Lake Park (aka as Playtpus Day).

Funded through a Yarra Ranges Council community festivals grant, it is a great celebration of community, children and our famous local resident, the platypus. With plenty of activites for children including screen printing, face painting, story telling, arts & crafts and an interactive & live wildlife display, it is a wonderful way for children to spend the afternoon and learn more about our local environment.

Rudy the One Man Band
kept everyone entertained
with an array of specially
written platypus songs.

The day is also supported by the Selby CFA who provided the sausage sizzle and we were all entertained by Rudy the One Man Band and Stax who'd written some songs especially for the platypus, one of the highlights being the Ornithorhynchus Pokey (a hiliarious version of the Hokey Pokey).

Cr Samantha Dunn spots a couple of platypus!

The day included a platypus walk, led by James, who is one of the coordinators of this year's community platypus count. It's great to learn more about this fascinating animal and we all felt priviliged to know that we have them in our own local waterway, the Monbulk Creek.

Two platypus were spotted at the most recent count, with this information being fed back to the Australian Platypus Conservancy, who are the key body involved with conserving the species.

Belgrave Lake Park is a great venue for
Awesome Ornithorhynkids.

James talked about the importance of habitat and healthy waterways to encourage platypus and the platypus walk included an inspection of the most recent weed works and plantings undertaken by the Shire of Yarra Ranges and the local Friends of Monbulk Creek, Belgrave Lake. It's looking great.

Well done to organisers, a great day out for all ages.

awesome ornithorhynkids day - it'll be great!

Look forward to seeing you there.

birdsland discovery day - have your say on the masterplan

Cr Samantha Dunn on the boardwalk over the wetlands
area of this high conservation bushland reserve.

Join with me, the Southern Dandenongs Landcare Group and the Shire's Environment team for the Birdsland Discovery Day.

The day will celebrate this unique reserve and give community members a chance to learn about the draft Birdsland master plan.

Yarra Ranges council wants to hear what you think about the master plan, this is a 10 year plan that will steer what happens at our much loved Birdsland Reserve.

I'll be there will be there to listen to your views.
 
But there's much, much more:
Kids Activities
Story Tent
Espresso Coffee - yes the real thing
Planting Event
Nature Walks
Food is available too.

Thanks to Southern Dandenongs Landcare Group for their support.

Want to know more email Gavin Prentice on g.prentice@yarraranges.vic.gov.au
Can't wait till then? You can check out the Draft Birdsland Masterplan here.

birdsland discovery day

Mark the 9th September in your diary, it's Birdsland Discovery Day.

Enjoy this wonderful reserve and discover what's been proposed in the Draft Birdsland Masterplan at the same time. Back at council's meeting on the 24th July,we endorsed the draft to go out for public comment.

When: Sunday 9th September, 11am to 3pm
Where: Main Picnic Ground, Birdsland Reserve, 271 Mt Morton Rd, Belgrave Heights

Council officers and environmental volunteers will be there to talk about the masterplan. I'll be there as well to listen to your views.

Southern Dandenongs Landcare Group will also be on hand to show off one of the Shire's most unique reserves.

The day will include:
Kids activities
Story Tent
Espresso Coffee - that's right the real stuff!
Planting event
Nature Walks 
and there's food available too.

If you'd like to know more you can email Gavin at g.prentice@yarraranges.vic.gov.au. 

friends of birdsland - its official!

I couldn't think of a better way to launch Friends of Birdsland than at the Mini Beasts festival held out at Birdsland this weekend.

Southern Dandenongs Community Nursery
President, Garrique Pergl and Cr Samantha
Dunn stake out the Sheoak Cr Dunn
planted to celebrate the day.

It was wonderful to see a diverse range of community members visit the Education Centre and Southern Dandenongs Community Nursery to be enlightened about our local Mini Beasts.

It was terrific to learn about the importance of wetlands
in maintaining healthy waterways. This region of
Birdsland has had extensive work to revegetate it
back to its natural state. It's a wonderful habitat for
mini beasts and their predators.

Children had a great day out as Junior Scientists exploring our waterways for mini beasts. It was a delight to see the joy as they discovered boatmen, baby dragonflies and other waterbugs. Beth Wallis, Yarra Ranges' Water Management Officer was on hand with our microscope monitor, so children could see an enlarged view of their mini beasts on the TV screen. 

There were playtpus talks with Glenn Brooks-MacMillan, the new Southern Ranges Environment Alliance facilitator. 

It was wonderful to be able to launch the Friends of
Birdsland at the Minibeast Festival. It's a
bushland reserve that's very dear to people
in the region.

I had the great pleasure of launching the new Friends of Birdsland group and talking about the upcoming masterplan consultations for the reserve. To celebrate the occasion I planted a Sheoak (Allocasuarina) amongst the Landcare for Singles plantings.


Birdsland was originally a farm (owned by the Bird family),
there are still many relics of the old farm, Garrique found
this old farm tool whilst we were wandering around
 the heritage orchard.

Garrique Pergl, President of the Southern Dandenongs Community Nursery, spoke about the history of the reserve and led participants on talk, walk and gawk down to the wetlands and around the historic farm house and orchard. 

This palm tree is part of the original
farm cottage garden. The cottage
is part of the heritage on the site
and is protected with a heritage
overlay.

There were family plantings on the creekbank of Monbulk Creek, a waterway that is considered significant due to it's population of platypus and proximity to Melbourne. These plantings will assist in the health of the waterway to encourage 'mini beasts', food for platypus.

Kids had a ball playing games, being ably assisted by Southern Dandenongs Landcare President, Jackie Glen and the "Selby Fairy". Wonderful to see TVAG there, making sure there was food on hand with their sausage sizzle. 

Michelle Jones from the Community Food Harvest Group gave a talk on planting out a herb garden and growing your own garlic, whilst Tamara Griffiths with her assistant "Ducky"  talked about swales and heritage fruit trees. 

It was a wonderful day out, I commend the organisers for putting it together, it was lovely to see this part of Birdsland used as it was intended, for Environmental Education. 

sdlg welcomes a new committee

One of the joys of being a local councillor is the request to preside over elections in community AGM's. I'm always pleased to be part of this process, I'm always impressed by the enthusiasm our community has for it's various activities.
The Southern Dandenongs Landcare Group (SDLG) is no exception. A wonderful and dynamic group of people dedicated to improving and enhancing our environment and our understanding of the local environment.

From left to right: Anne Elizabeth, Mike Clarke, Vicki Boyle,
Jackie Glenn, Gillian Anderson, Cr Samantha Dunn
and Leslie Wilson.

It was terrific to be part of this occasion and hear the many activities this group has undertaken in the past year. SDLG were a constant at the Kallista Market helping locals understand what is a weed and what is a good indigenous plant to replace the weeds. 

They held two successful weed trade days, one at Belgrave Lake Park, the other in Tecoma. Yarra Ranges Council was very pleased to support these initiatives by funding plants, promotional material and a skip for the days. 

Not satisfied with one planting for National Tree Day, the group held three tree plantings, including Monbulk Creek - Colby Drive, Monbulk Creek - Trestle Bridge and Monbulk Creek - Colin Avenue. All of the plants, stakes and guards were supplied by Yarra Ranges Council from our Ribbons of Green program. 

Monbulk Creek got even more focus with a collaboration between SDLG and Belgrave Heights Christian College, which saw 2,500 plants planted to improve the riparian health of the creek in the Apsley Rd region. 

The SDLG also had a great program working with Mater Christi students, who are starting to make a real impact on their section of Monbulk Creek near Stoney Road. I congratulate teachers of Mater Christi for their efforts to embed Environmental Science into the curriculum. 

SDLG will also play a role in council's new Waterwatch Scheme, Council's Water Management Office, Beth Wallis, has been keenly working with volunteer groups to get out and start monitoring our waterways. 

Of course there's the ever popular Awesome Ornithorinkids Day, a day dedicated to raising awareness of our local platypus population, held at Belgrave Lake Park. Last year's was a delight as the resident Powerful Owl roosted just above us!

The group were instrumental in participating in consultations for the Shire's Flora and Fauna Strategy and I thank them for their time. 

This is a snapshot of some of the key activities of this group, it goes on, I am always impressed by their boundless energy for their volunteer work. 

I congratulate the group, your passion for our environment is second to none. 

I'm pleased to announce that the committee for the ensuing year is:
President: Jackie Glenn
Vice President: Vicki Boyle
Secretary: Anne Elizabeth
Treasurer: Mike Clarke
General Committee Members:
Leslie Wiliams
Gillian Anderson
Darcy Duggan

Well done for going that extra mile and dedicating time to these important leadership roles in the group.

belgrave lake finds some friends

It was terrific to attend the 're-launch' of the Friends of Belgrave lake Park this weekend.

The park contains some very significant vegetation as well as the Monbulk Creek and provides an important wildlife corridor link from the Dandenongs to Lysterfield.

Here I am pictured with Vicki Boyle, Vice President of the Southern Dandenongs Landcare Group and Garrique Pergl, President of the Southern Dandenongs Community Nursery, both of them environmental powerhouses of enthusiasm and knowledge about our local environment.


Part of the day's activities included some revegetation along the banks of the Monbulk Creek. It will be terrific to watch this replanting take hold and create a healthier habitat for our wildlife as well as provide important bank stabilisation.

Belgrave Lake Park provides some vital habitat for water birds in the area, significant willow eradication by Melbourne Water has seen a great improvement in the health of the creek and lake.


The Shire of Yarra Ranges has been undertaking major weed removal works on the land between Monbulk Creek and private land holdings (on the high side). It's terrific to see indigenous plants return as the weeds that were strangling them are removed.










Belgrave Lake Park has some important large old hollow bearing trees, they provide important habitat for animals that need hollows to make a home.

The Shire of Yarra Ranges supports over 85 Landcare and Friends of Groups. They do great work to enhance our natural environment. If you'd like to know more about your local Landcare or Friends of Group click here.

cleaning up in belgrave

Volunteers for this year's Clean Up Australia Day in Belgrave were very lucky the weather held out for them. Earlier rain did not deter people from coming out to help clean up Belgrave as part of this year's Clean Up activities.

I had the job of the town park which had it's fair share of food packaging and beverage containers.

Marina Dennis, coordinator of the Belgrave Trader's Association organised the day's activities. It's great to see the traders getting involved and really good to see Mikey from Belgrave Dry Cleaners and Glenn from Bell Real Estate getting down and dirty cleaning up Belgrave.

At this year's Clean Up I picked up dozens of cigarette butts, they were everywhere. There was also a lot of fast food packaging and drink containers too.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Vicki from the Southern Dandenongs Landcare Group was there lending a hand to make the Puffing Billy entrance more beautiful too.

It's amazing what a small amount of people can achieve, but sad and frustrating that we still need to dedicate valuable volunteer hours to cleaning up because people don't dispose of their rubbish properly.

Well done to all the volunteers, the town looks great!

awesome ornithorhyn-kids - awesome again

It was terrific to be part of the third annual Awesome Ornithorhyn-kids Day, at the Belgrave Lake Park. Organised by the Southern Dandenongs Landcare Group (SDLG) and supported through a community grant from the Shire of Yarra Ranges, families had a great day learning about not only about our local platypus but the importance of habitat to all of our wildlife.

Today I was launching a new 'housing policy' for some of the local wildlife. Here I am with SDLG secretary, Vicki Boyle and some new homes for Sugar Gliders, Kookaburras and Rosellas.

SDLG and Monbulk Landcare Group have working away constructing an assortment of nesting boxes for our wildlife. The nesting boxes will be installed in Shire reserves at Belgrave Lake Park, Birdsland, Butterfield Reserve and Moores Road Reserve.

Part of the day's activities included banner painting led by local artist pictured here, Emma Johnson.

Kids very enthusiastically painted all manner and colour platypus on the banners, which will be used to the promote the event into the future.

SDLG were able to provide a myriad of activities for children including a wildlife display by Animals of Oz. Other activities included platypus art, storytime, singalongs and Rudy the One Man Band.

Many small hands were keen to pat the croc, not to mention the snake, frill-necked lizard and the bat too.

In speaking to onlookers I talked about the new 'housing program' and how important it was to continue to provide opportunities for our native animals to nest as pressure on our natural environment continued to increase. I also talked about the importance of retaining trees with hollows and how the incremental loss of trees with hollows, both legally and illegally, has had a large effect on wildlife over the broader landscape.

Here's Blair installing the first nesting box near Monbulk Creek at Belgrave Lake Park.

















.

Glenn Brooks-McMillan from the Cardina Catchment Landcare Group spoke about the importance of healthy waterways for our local platypus population.

Another treat for people on the day, the local Powerful Owl roosting nearby. This species is listed as threatened and vulnerable in Victoria.








.
Pictured here, Jackie Glenn, President of SDLG and myself.

The SDLG work tirelessly to improve our environment and raise awareness of environmental issues in the local community.

It was a terrific day out, very well attended, the SDLG intend to make Awesome Ornithorhynkids an annual event. Let's hope next year our nesting boxes have some residents.