President’s message December 2024

As I write this, we have just passed the longest day and the Bursaria spinosa is once again out in full flower, so it time to summarise your achievements for the year.

Black Hill Conservation Park

The Amber’s Gully Free a Tree project aims to progress the restoration of grassy woodland by the removal of Erica and other woody weeds, and free large Eucalyptus from olives. In January 2022 the committee visited the site, and were unsure how to progress with such a large area, and limited resources. As a first step, a weed map covering approximately 30 hectares was completed, and the project area broken up into 15 manageable sites. 

I am pleased to report that in the last 3 years 221 volunteer hours and 471 hours of contractor work (funded by Grants and Donations) have been completed. Working from low density Erica towards the high density Erica, this has seen us reduce the Erica to very low numbers over about 27 hectares of the site, and we have treated olives around 100 old Eucalyptus. 

With the completion of this phase, another mapping exercise is to be undertaken, which will help guide the efficient management of the next round of work. There will be three parts, annual patrols of 27 ha site to find & treat any Erica that have been missed, treating the last few hectares of the “worst” Erica, and the potential to open new adjacent areas.

A few photos are provided, a poor quality black and white photo from 1980s showing the site just a few years after it was added to the Park. The colour photo is a recent photo and shows the establishment (restoration) of a complex but patchy mix of native vegetation. As each year passes these native plants add their seed to the seedbank, and each year some of these seeds will germinate to continue the restoration.

The restoration work at the Wildflower Garden, Ghost Tree Gully and Montacute Valley continues and volunteers have contributed 900 hours this year. It’s great to see the changes that are underway in the blue gum woodland and the challenging and important old quarry site.

Morialta Conservation Park.

The regular groups at First Falls, 4th Creek and Olive Hill continue their good work, and have  achieved over 900 hours of habitat restoration. These sites are in the high visitor area of the Parks and showcase bushcare in Eucalyptus woodland and winter creek riparian environments.

At the back of Morialta, 40 volunteer sites are visited each year, and about 800 volunteer hours have been completed. Here the sites are in the stringybark forest, blue gum/casuarina woodland, along the permanent watercourse and cliffs.

I cite these numbers, not to create a competition about who has done most work, but to highlight the diversity of sites that you work in, and whilst each site is unique, as your bushcare knowledge and experience increases, you are able to identify areas where other bushcarers work, not just in Black Hill and Morialta, but also in other Parks and private lands. When I see these other areas, I realise that we are part of a large network of bushcarers.

Horsnell Gully has not been forgotten, and the committee is considering if there are any lessons from the approach used for Amber’s Gully that can be applied to this Park. As a minimum we will be raising the profile of the regular events.

Thanks again for the energy and enthusiasm you bring to the group.

Paul Farmer 

President 

Friends of Black Hill and Morialta