Well, it's been an age since my last news post but that's because we have been so busy. More than half of the lantana on the western end of the picnic ground has now been removed and we are getting ready to focus on building a new Bushcare Mangrove Nursery.

Our goal is to be able to provide both Grey and River Mangroves to all bushcare groups with estuary frontage. That includes at least the Bangalee, Grotto, Ben's Walk, and Bamarang sites. Many more groups operate in areas where they need mangroves. Only one other mangrove nursery exists in the Shoalhaven and it has limited capacity and is generally used for private landholdings only. Our nursery will be exclusively for public water frontage.

The builders of the Berry to Bomaderry upgrade, Downer / Seymore Whyte, have very generously donated over 70sqm of geofabric to form the base of our new nursery. We have also collected old corrugated iron sheeting from various locations including the Nowra tip. All the hardwood was donated and has now been treated with a waterproofing agent to improve it's lifespan in the brackish water. Finally, we have an existing access to the river from the western end of the picnic ground near the Watersleigh fenceline.

Basically, every Sunday the tide is low, we will be working on the nursery. By late October when the mangroves are seeding, we'll have a large working bee to pot up as many mangrove seeds as possible.

Check facebook and this site for updates on the working bee.

This week, Bangalee Bushcare completed the annual fauna survey in conjunction with Shoalhaven City Council. We were also joined by the Shoalhaven Landcare Coordinator and students from Nowra Christian School.

​A total of 60 Elliot and cage traps were set up each night for four nights. The 60 traps were divided across four distinct zones - 15 in good habitat, 15 in habitat that has been regenerating longer than three years, 15 in habitat that has been regenerating for six months, and 15 in habitat that is still dominated by lantana.

Unfortunately, only 13 animals captured (and released!) over the four days. This was very few compared to normal years where we would be expecting to capture around 50 animals over the four days. We were expecting reduced numbers due to the drought and more frequent fox sightings but we not quite expecting it to be that low. Nevertheless, nature is resilient and the numbers will probably spring back as soon as the drought breaks.

The captures were as follows:
2 Brushtail Possums
1 Catbird
1 Antechinus (pronounced anti-kline-us)
9 Bush Rats

Most of the captures were in the good habitat but statistical analysis will show whether that was mathematically significant this year.

Last Saturday, Bangalee Bushcare held a major planting event to mark the 2018 Sustaining Landcare Week.

A total of 14 people attended the event, helping with everything from planting trees, making tree cages, watering and cooking. Through everyone's fantastic efforts, nearly 150 Lomandras were planted in the eastern gully to prevent further erosion while about 220 trees and shrubs were planted, caged and watered in the flatter areas around the gully. The volunteers contributed at total of 70 person-hours of work on the day! Well done!!!

Some of the species planted include:
Sydney Blue Gum
Woollybutt
Blackbutt
Angophora
Turpentine
Callistemon
Melaleuca
River Lomatia
Lilly Pilly
Red Ash
Red Cedar
White Cedar
River Oak
She-Oak
Koda
Plum Pine
Black Plum
Guioa
Maiden's Blush
Illawarra Flame Tree
Toothed Daisy Bush

Over the next few months, Bangalee Bushcare's regular volunteers will continue to water all the new plants as well as put in another 250 in various areas around the eastern gully.

It has been a while since our last blog post. Not that we haven't been busy though. Over the past three months, the volunteers at Bangalee have worked almost exclusively on the lantana on the downstream end of the picnic ground. We had made some initial progress in this area last year but did not focus on it until the cooler weather came along.

Continuing east from last year's planting area, we have now cleared 0.8 hectares of dense lantana and revealed a severely degraded gully. We generally followed our three step process, namely poison the lantana first, pile it up and dig out all the roots, and then burn the remains. Clearing the 0.8ha actually took less time than we initially thought - the effectiveness of glyphosate and fire!

As part of National Landcare Week, we will be hosting a major tree planting event. In total, we will be planting over 500 plants ranging from eucalypts and rainforest trees to erosion-stopping lomandras. The goal is to get a diverse range of plants into the otherwise bare area in order to kickstart the natural regeneration process.

The tree planting day will be on Saturday 18 August 2018 from 8am (for a 9am start) until sometime after lunch. There will be something for everyone to do whether it be digging holes and putting in plants or setting up cages and watering. Or if none of that sounds like you, just come along for the company! Tea, coffee and a BBQ lunch will be provided for anyone who wants to come along. 

On Friday 11 May 2018, Gareth Ward, the State Member for Kiama, attended Bangalee Reserve to officially launch Bangalee Bushcare's new website. Also attending the event were Shoalhaven City Council's Bushcare Coordinator, Peter Swanson, and several guests from Shoalhaven Riverwatch and Shoalhaven Landcare.

After Mr Ward had met all the volunteers and guests, he gave a speech to officially launch the website and to explain the vital importance volunteer environmental restoration organisations to the community and the health of the local ecosystems.

Mr Ward then planted a lilly pilly (syzygium smithii) to mark the occasion. "Lilly pillys are a very tough tree," Mr Ward said, "Like White Cedars, they are a really nice tree to plant." 

After Mr Ward had ceremonially planted the lilly pilly, Len White, the volunteer coordinator of Bangalee Bushcare, took Mr Ward and the other guests on a tour of the work conducted by the group over the past few years. Starting at the downsteam end of the current work area, Len explained how the group has been working through the lantana towards the bank of Shoalhaven River. He also showed the guests how the groups has been able to create straight maintenance lines up towards Koloona Drive. "The goal," he said, "is to be able to create clear maintenance boundaries so that we can monitor the rates of regrowth in areas we have cleared of weeds."

Len also showed Mr Ward and the guests the different stages of bush regeneration at Bangalee as well as the successes or failures of different weed control methods. For example, pointing to the northern side of the existing River Walk, Len said, "Over there, we simply trampled the lantana down rather than piling it up. Lots of Kangaroo Apple has grown but the dead lantana still covers the ground making it very hard to control other weed regrowth."

Len told Mr Ward and the other guests how vitally important the followup weeding team is as Bangalee. "Without the weeders, we simply would not be able to prevent re-infestation of areas we have previously cleared of lantana. They look after the new planting areas and ensure that no previously regenerated area gets overrun with non-native species."

Mr Ward reiterated how impressed he is that the group is actively experimenting with different bush regeneration methods and has learned the importance having different people concentrate on different tasks.

The tour then moved to the upstream end of the Reserve before everyone returned to the picnic ground for hot coffee and homemade cake and biscuits provided by Elizabeth White, another regular volunteer at Bangalee Bushcare. Assisting her with catering was her (and Len's) grandmother, Cheryl White. Cheryl maintains Bangalee Bushcare's largest home nursery with close to 2,000 plants in her care.

It was a very successful day and Bangalee Bushcare are sincerely grateful to Mr Ward for making to time to come to our bush regeneration site and share a morning tea with us.

Today marks two weeks since one of Bangalee Bushcare's newest volunteers, Saskia, held a Naming Ceremony for her five-month-old daughter, River. The weather was perfect for the ceremony which was held in the picnic area under the 100+ year old Oak Tree. As part of the celebrations, 50 tube stock and saplings kindly donated by family and friends were planted in our newest Lantana-free area. This spot was specially chosen by Saskia for its vistas over the Shoalhaven River and accessibility from the picnic ground. It has now been named 'River's Arbour' in honour of the event.

Yesterday, Bangalee Bushcare lodged an application for the NSW Environmental Trust's Restoration and Rehabilitation Program. Valued at $99,877, if approved, our application will allow us to carry out extensive regeneration works at Bangalee Reserve over the next three years. Our project, titled the 'Bangalee Riverbank Regeneration Project', includes the regeneration of 3.3 hectares of lantana infested river flats and the stabilisation of around 900 metres of eroding riverbank. The erosion control activities will be conducted in partnership with Shoalhaven Riverwatch who will provide materials and support throughout the project. As coordinator of Bangalee Bushcare, Len White will be the project manager throughout the life of the Trust grant.

Our proposal is divided into three distinct stages. In Stage 1, we will be repairing the two natural drainage gullies on the walking tracks on each side of the picnic ground. The exiting drainage pipes are severely damaged and no longer allow the free flow of rainwater. This has resulted in extensive sedimentation of the channels and also prevents adequate vehicle access to regeneration sites. Also in Stage 1, we intend to improve the initial 20 metres of access to the western end of the Reserve so that erosion control equipment and water for tree plantings can be brought in by vehicle instead of being carried by hand. This is absolutely essential to maintain efficiency as the alternative of carrying water and materials up to 350 metres will take a lot of time and effort!

Stage 2 of the project will focus on regeneration of the riverflats and riverbank on the western end of the Reserve. It will start by trialling large scale mechanical clearing of lantana using the services of Groundline Vegetation Management. This should quickly remove most of the lantana leaving only control of regrowth to be done manually. As soon as the lantana is cleared, we will start regenerating the site with native trees. Each tree will be protected from predators by a guard made from three metres of galvanised, 120cm high wire strung around three galvanised star pickets. We have proved at Bangalee that this caging method, while relatively expensive, is by far the most effective form of tree protection as well as one of the most durable.

Throughout Stages 1 and 2, we will be constructing the Shoalhaven Sand Sausage along the western riverbank in partnership with Shoalhaven Riverwatch. As each section is sandbagged, we will be revegetating the bank with Lomandras, River Oaks and other erosion control species.

Stage 3 will repeat the Stage 2 processes on the riverflats and bank on eastern end of the Reserve. It will regenerate an area from roughly where the jetty is located up to where the river walking track intercepts the Condie graves track. Once the project is finished, all that will be left to do is maintain the plantings and keep the weeds at bay until the trees get large enough to form a canopy. Between glyphosate, hand weeding, and watering with the IBC tank, the maintenance stage should be relatively easy.