After the fun of last week’s National Tree Day planting of 140 natives to attract birds, bees, butterflies and koalas, it was time to start watering. Council do not supply water for smaller plantings and we are not permitted to use mains water. Consequently we have to depend on water from our own garden tanks, which we bottle in recycled 3 litre milk containers and carry to site. Sheamus shared the load and added a dash of worm juice to his bottles, which will give the plants a good start. We will continue to water weekly for a month, unless it starts to rain again.
Mirandha and her Griffith Uni volunteer team of Lin, Lyn, Moeko, Thomas and Rashed joined our regular group members and quickly dispersed to water and put mulch around the base of our plantings. Next, it was back to the tedious task of removing Creeping Lantana Lantana montevidensis and Guinea Grass Megathyrsus maximus. Rashed tried his hand at using our Tree Popper, a very handy device that grips and easily pulls deep-rooted weeds from the ground. His target was Mickey Mouse Plant Ochna serrulata, an extremely deep rooted weed that is now showing the first signs of flowering. With the arrival of Spring, the plants will fruit and birds will disperse the seeds all around the mountain and into our gardens. If we do not get all the plants out before fruiting time, we remove fruiting branches and return later to remove the rest of the plant.
A lot of work was achieved at this regular Wednesday afternoon working bee. It’s so beautiful in the bush on a sunny winter’s afternoon – why not come out and join us, and meet delightful young people from all around the globe.
On Wednesday 25 July, students and a science teacher from Mt Gravatt High School, together with a team of Griffith University students rallied to plant 100 native tubestock, specially chosen to provide food and shelter for birds, butterflies, bees – and of course, our resident koalas! What a great team! In just over an hour all the plants were in the ground and it was time to protect them with plastic sleeves, supported by cane stakes.
On Saturday 28 July, we had ready another 40 plants to be put in by volunteers who couldn’t join us on Wednesday. When I arrived on site, I found a female Brush-turkey Alectura lathami checking out all the holes prepared for planting. Her curiosity and anticipation of a free meal made me laugh.
We had …. volunteers of all ages turn up: a special thanks to the three grandparents who more than pulled their weight.
Our 2012 National Tree Day planting was a great success: “ thank you” to everyone involved.
Your generous contribution will enhance amenity for community users and provide healthy habitat for wildlife in our 66 ha Mt Gravatt Conservation Reserve.
Granparents restore Mt Grvatt Conservation Reserve for future generations
Mt gravatt run – Uploaded by swaggydave on 17 Aug 2011
2011 Mt Gravatt SHS – National Tree Day Planting
“We felt gutted seeing the damage they had done. The irony is, that if we, CVA volunteers and Griffith Uni student volunteers hadn’t cleared out the area, they wouldn’t have been able to get through there!”
Susan Jones was talking about finding that mountain bikers have established a brand new trail right through the middle of the area restored by Mt Gravatt SHS students in 2011
No Motor Bikes No Mountain Bikes
and being prepared for our July 25 National Tree Day planting. The action was quite deliberate and systematic as the sign was thrown away and sapling Brush Box, Soapy Ash and Wattles were sawn off as well as broken down.
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Mountain
Biking is illegal in Mt Gravatt Conservation Reserve
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Mountain biking is not allowed in the Reserve. Signs at the Summit and at Gertrude Petty Place clearly state “No Motor Bikes No Mountain Bikes”.
Rider ignores No Bike sign
The bike in the video above actually leaves the road and takes a track straight past a No Bikes sign. Click on photo to enlarge. v
The mountain biking is not only illegal it is also damaging a unique environment that our community has fought to protect for over one hundred years: Mt Gravatt Historical Society, tells us that up till July 1893 the mountain and surrounds were designated as a railway timber reserve. In response to community pressure the Queensland Government of the time protected this special habitat by declaring the Reserve.
Mountain bike riders are actively destroying mountain habitat
Susan showing cut sapling
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I inspected the latest damage this week with Susan Jones. What really stunned us was the systematic habitat destruction with saplings sawed or broken off and used to make jumps for riders. Cut and broken trees included a four metre Early Black Wattle Acacia leiocalyx just about to flower. Early Black Wattle is the caterpillar food plant for Imperial Hairstreak Jalmenus evagoras, a beautiful butterfly which is returning to the mountain with the restoration of our bushcare sites. Other trees destroyed included Soapy Ash Alphitonia excelsa, caterpillar food plant for Small Green-banded Blue butterflies Psychonotiscaelius, Brush Box Lophostemon confertus, caterpillar food plant for the
Butterfly trees chopped up for bike jump
fascinating Four-Spotted Cup Moth Doratifera quadriguttata.
Many Lomandras have been destroyed by the action of bikes, including a flowering (male) Many Flowered Mat-rush Lomandra multiflora, caterpillar food plant for Brown Ochre Trapezites iacchus and Black-ringed Ochre Trapezites petalia butterflies: two of forty-five butterfly species found in the Reserve.
Young trees destroyed to make a bike track
It is hard to show the enormity of the damage. None of the trees were very large but the collage of cut stumps gives some idea of the number of trees destroyed to create track for entrainment of a small number of people.
And by the looks of it this is only the start. Following the track down from the Summit we found yellow markers tied to trees, not only along the track but also what appears to be planned as a new track taking off to the south. Trees had been cut or broken and yellow tape tied to others. It seems that this new track planning was only stopped when the tape ran out … evidenced by the empty spool discarded in the bush.
Further evidence of expansion plans is the cache of tools we found locked to a tree just near the path.
Yellow tape marking out track expansion plans
Track clearing tools locked to a tree
Our community investment
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Seeing the wanton destruction of our special habitat made me very angry, not just because of the personal impact on me, but also because this action ignores the huge ongoing contribution our community is making.
Conservatively calculated, Mt Gravatt Environment Group is responsible for over $30,000 in volunteer contribution during the 2011/12 financial year.
Over the same period our community has invested $19,905 in grants from Queensland Government, Brisbane City Council and Southside Sport & Community Club.
Donations and direct investments by community members exceeded $8,000.
Ongoing support and investment by BCC Habitat Brisbane program: plants for revegetation, equipment, training and public liability insurance.
Today we had the pleasure of welcoming Holland Park Kindergarten families to Gertrude Petty Place for a bush adventure. The children were excited about catching up with their friends after two weeks holiday and were brimming with energy.
We checked out a termite’s nest in an old ironbark gum where kookaburras nest each year and then headed off to search for native bee nests (Trigona carbonaria)in a nearby hollow tree trunk.
Bush tucker – food tastes better in the bush
The children have a native bee nest in a box at school, but they were fascinated seeing nests in the wild.
After a walk through the bushcare site everyone was feeling tired and ready to tuck into a picnic morning tea before heading off home.
Our young friends left with some local native ground cover plants that will be planted in the school grounds to attract butterflies, birds, bees and frogs.
Thanks Amanda for organising this outing and we hope to see Holland Park Kindergarten back in the bush soon.
Our community can be proud of the young people on the front page of the Southern Star this week, and, the article suggests, we can have hope for some amazing futures to be created by them.
More than 100 years before Sheamus was born, in July 1893, Queensland Premier Thomas McIlwraith “… in recognition of the resolve of the settlers, divided off 132 acres of the land [timber reserve], including Mt Gravatt Mountain, from the railway timber reserve.” Mt Gravatt Then & Now Mt Gravatt Historical Society.
The vision of community members over 100 years ago means that today our community has Mt Gravatt Conservation Reserve, a unique habitat with Echidnas, Koalas and forty-five butterfly species only ten minutes from the Brisbane CBD.
In another 100 years our Mt Gravatt community will reflect on the vision and commitment of young people like Sheamus who can see the value in being actively involved in restoration and protection of this unique habitat.
Female Koala at Gertrude Petty Place Photo by Susan Jones
This afternoon about 4pm we stopped clearing weeds and sat down at Gertrude Petty Place for a cool drink and something to eat.
To my amazement, a female koala jumped to the ground from a sapling gum a few metres away and headed out onto the grass. I squatted with the camera to take a shot, not realising that the Tallowwood gum I was hiding behind was the koala’s next destination! It shot up the Tallowwood, only stopping once to look back disdainfully at me.
People sometimes forget that Mt Gravatt Conservation Reserve is an enviromental park where visitors share the habitat with koalas, echidnas and many other species.
It is wonderful to see people enjoying the Summit and Federation Outlook tracks, particularly with the increasing sightings of koalas. However, many people parking at Gertrude Petty Place then go walking dogs off-leash in our conservation reserve.
The presence of this koala at Gertrude Petty Place today, is a very good reason why we should be encouraging dog owners to keep their animals on-leash in the Reserve.
Mt Gravatt Kindergarten is collecting specially marked Pauls Collecta Caps from milk bottle containers (2 litre and above) for a fund raising project to provide new homes for gliders.
As the land next door to the kindergarten was cleared for the new unit development on Shire Rd (going up to the Mt Gravatt Lookout); Brushtail Possums Trichosurus vulpecula, birds and possibly gliders lost their trees and therefore hollows for nesting in, and we found dead possum joeys in the playground most likely as a result of territorial disputes as their habitat suddenly shrank.
We have been collecting the milk caps since last year, to purchase and install nesting Boxes from Hollow Log Homes. Kindergarten families are donating their caps, but if anyone else from the local community would like to donate theirs to our association, we would be very grateful.
The entrance to the kindergarten is next to 23 Gosford St, Mt Gravatt.
With thanks from Melindi Robertson & Sue Lewin (CoDirectors)
Mt Gravatt Kindergarten is a valued Mountain neighbour sharing a boundary with our Gertrude Petty Place Bushcare site.
Mt Gravatt Environment Group is proud to promote this fundraising initiative which aims to restore vital nest hollows for wildlife. Most trees of Mt Gravatt Reserve are relatively young having suffered from farming and tree felling. Nest hollows typically start forming once trees are 100 years old so there is s critical shortage of hollows within the habitat.
Thanks to cartoonist and naturalist Edd Cross for the glider drawing.
Persistence pays off … for several weeks now, on Wednesday afternoons, students from Griffith Uni have been helping Mt Gravatt Environment Group eradicate Creeping Lantana Lantana montevidensis from an area to be planted out on National Tree Day 2012.
Sheamus, Jonny & Mirandha do a sweep looking for Lantana regrowth
It has been a long and tedious job, but finally, the end is in sight! What was once a thick weed mat is now clean and native grasses, lilies, lomandras and ferns are reappearing of their own accord. The chemical action of Lantana species appears to surpress growth of native plants so removal allows natural regeneration of the plants indigenous to the mountain.
Group Leader, Jonny, has been the backbone of the GU student group, and we say a big thank you to him and all the students for the volunteer hours they are contributing to improve our bushland.
Sheamus, Tekee, Jonny, Mai & Mirandha enjoy a well-earned muffin break.
We are pleased to welcome back Griffith Uni students to our Wednesday afternoon working bees where they are providing such great support in our bushland restoration work.
We continue clearing Queensland Class 3 weed, Creeping Lantana Lantana montevidensis. It has grown into thick ‘carpets’ through much of our local bushland, suffocating native vegetation as it takes over. It reproduces by seed that are dispersed by birds and other animals as they eat the fleshy red/purple fruit or it can become established in bushland from dumped garden waste. It spreads across the ground laterally, sometimes rooting at stem joints, forming a carpet smothering native plants.
Jonny, Shasha, Tekee, Sheamus, Susan and Maria-Dolores celebrate their efforts
Rather than poison these weed ‘carpets’ we are digging them out preserving the surviving native plants while allowing the native seed bank space to germinate and grow. Later, this option will save a lot of effort replanting and watering.
Tekee took on a particularly thick infestation and, with Jonny’s help, was able to roll up the ‘carpet’ and move it into a heap, where it will break down into mulch. Shasha and Maria-Dolores didn’t let the guys take all the credit though: they created their own huge weed piles.
As usual, Sheamus arrived first with his sleeves rolled up to work. Next on the job were a team of Griffith University national and international students: Mardol, Mirandha, Tumenbold, Jonny, Emilia and Jaime. An added bonus was the arrival of Peter a newcomer to Brisbane.
Today’s volunteers took on the tedious task of removing Creeping Lantana Lantana montevidensis and everyone pulled their weight (and weeds) magnificently.
Huge compost pile of weeds - excellent work!
Emilia busied herself collecting and piling up the weeds as they were pulled. The end result was a huge compost heap that will break down and eventually be spread as mulch.
Preparation of this area is now well underway for the second July ‘National Tree Day’ planting with volunteers from Mt Gravatt State High School.
Thanks to everyone who worked today – it was a great team effort!
handy device that grips and easily pulls deep-rooted weeds from the ground. His target was Mickey Mouse Plant Ochna serrulata, an extremely deep rooted weed that is now showing the first signs of flowering. With the arrival of Spring, the plants will fruit and birds will disperse the seeds all around the mountain and into our gardens. If we do not get all the plants out before fruiting time, we remove fruiting branches and return later to remove the rest of the plant.
Mount Gravatt Environment Group 
