I am proud to represent our community as President of Mt Gravatt Environment Group and sharing the latest news with this blog. However I have been struggling with how to report on commitments of our local candidates in next Saturday’s election.
“MEG is proving a major force for the environment and its work for Mt Gravatt Outlook Nature Reserve should be recognised and supported.
The support must now come from the community and this will hopefully lead our elected representatives into actions to protect the mountain and support its volunteer initiatives.”
Representing Mt Gravatt Environment Group I have received strong commitments from both Phil Reeves (ALP) and Ian Walker (LNP).
To help community members make their own decisions I have attached the key information provided by our candidates.
Last Saturday MacGregor Lions Club members returned for another great morning in Roly Chapman Bushland Reserve.
The team’s work restoring the native gardens has inspired the neighbours. Neighbour Sam came out to help and has offered to weed and water for us between working bees. Another close neighbour has offered water from his tank for the plants.
Liz from Hoad Street came out to work with us. As a result, the last bamboo in garden #1 was removed and 21 native tubestock that will support birds, butterflies, bees and frogs were planted out.
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Garden #2 was cleared of choking weeds. A carpet python hiding amongst weeds in garden #2 was disturbed and quietly disappeared into the Lomandras. Unfortunately he wouldn’t stay for photographs!v
At the end of the morning the proud team did pose for a photo as they reflected on what they achieved.
Join the Lions team restoring birds, butterflies, bees and frogs to this special environment:
Thursday 22nd March from 3 – 5 pm
Meet at garden #2 (from Hoad Street end of pathway).
For details email – Macgregor.Lions.Secretary@gmail.com
The team filled 11 recycle bags and 10 general waste bags, as well as, collecting a tyre, chair, metal, etc.
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Mt Gravatt Girl Guides – Showground
Nine volunteers joined co-ordinator Lizi Drysdale at the Guide Hut to Clean Up Mt Gravatt Showgrounds.
We are partnering with the Girl Guides this year to launch the first Pollinator Link between Mt Gravatt Reserve and Bulimba Creek with a pollinator garden around the Guide Hut.
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Roly Chapman Reserve
Brett Simpson led another team for Clean Up Australia in Roly Chapman Bushland Reserve.
It is inspiring to be able to join with other community groups to Clean Up our community.
We visited the David Fleay Wildlife Park today with Totsu, our Japanese homestay student. I used to read David Fleay’s nature articles in the Courier Mail in the early ’60s so it is always a pleasure to visit the wildlife park he established. This time was particularly special as we were able to see the platypus playing … feeding on worms, climbing to the top of their waterfall and diving off. Difficult to photography in the semi-dark.
The Nocturnal House is also home to Greater and Mahogany Gliders, Bilbies and the cute Julia Creek Dunnart which was running around then standing on its hind legs to inspect the tourists.
Saltwater Crocodile
In the Wetlands Habitat we found this male salty lurking. The staff told us that he had been fed yesterday and would not be hungry, however, he did seem to quietly drift closer as we stood on the bridge. “Tasty tourist snack … mmmm.” Click on the photo to enlarge and get the full effect.
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Cassowary
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Next we introduced Totsu to Australia’s heaviest flightless bird, the Cassowary which are native to far north Queensland’s tropical rainforests.
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Don't mess with these claws!
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A beautifully coloured bird but one you would not want to mess with … check out the feet!
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Totsu with her new friend
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Totsu was fascinated with the Cassowary ….
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Cassowary
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and he seemed to like her. Following her and butting the fence.
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Paddymelon with joey
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I was videoing the Cassowary when Totsu squealed. She had spotted this Paddymelon with a joey poking its head from her pouch.
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Brogla parents with 2 month old chick
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Seeing the Brogla family was special. The chick was only born in January … just a white ball of fluff and now half the size of his parents.
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Totsu getting close to Australian wildlife
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After watching a Kangaroo sitting is a tree we went to the Snakes up Close presentation where Totsu showed real courage reaching out to touch the python being demonstrated.
David Fleay has left us a special legacy. A place I am always happy to return.
Kerstie is a busy professional however she and her children have enjoyed being part of the Mountain Clean Up in the past. So this year she has volunteered to take on coordination.
Why do families like Krestie’s keep coming back to pick-up other people’s rubbish? I suspect that like me they love being in the bush combined with the simple pleasure of working alongside a group of enthusiastic cheerful individuals and, of course, there are always the surprises. Just ask John McCrystal how he felt to look up and see a Koala walking down the road towards them.
2012 will see Mount Gravatt Girl Guides and Mt Gravatt Environment Group partnering to landscape the Guide Hut as the first step in our Pollinator Link between Mt Gravatt Reserve and Bulimba Creek. Pollinator Links will bring birds, butterflies and native bees back to suburban backyards.
Roly Chapman Bushland is a beautiful peaceful habitat along the banks of Mimosa Creek. Be quite as you cross the pedestrian and you may see turtles sunning themselves on the rocks.
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Tailed Emperor Polyura sempronius - Acacia Way - Aug 2010
Like many visitors Minister Darling was pleasantly surprised by Mt Gravatt Lookout, the view over the CBD with the ranges beyond, Echidna Magic Cafe and picnic area all within a unique habitat which is home to Koalas, Echidnas and forty five butterfly species. With two hundred and sixty-three native plant species this unique 66 hectares has 10% of the species diversity of the whole 22.6 million hectares of Great Britain.
Koala Phascolarctos cinereus - Photographer Alan Moore
Delivering this report is another step in a process that started in July 1893 when, in response to community action, Mt Gravatt was declared an environmental reserve. Prior to that Mt Gravatt and surrounds were designated as a railway timber reserve.
In 2012 the problems are different but whole of community action is more vital than ever as we work to build long term security for this extraordinarily diverse habitat by engaging private property owners, community groups, university and school as well as local and state government departments in a collaborative effort to restore vital wildlife corridors. Therefore Mt Gravatt Environment Group initiated this report as an independent ecological assessment of the areas of Mt Gravatt Reserve and Roly Chapman Reserve covered by our Mimosa Creek Precinct Landscape Plan, including potential wildlife corridors links. The report was half-funded by an $8,000 State Government grant which was matched by in-kind support from researchers Biodiversity Assessment & Management Pty Ltd.
Key findings
Fauna and Flora Habitat Values
Essential habitat for Koalas within Roly Chapman Reserve can be preserved and expanded create wildlife corridors through Vegetation Communities 9 and 6:
Endangered habitat -Vvegetation Community 7 (pink); and
Of Concern habitat – Vegetation Community 8 (orange).
Forty-seven terrestrial vertebrate species recorded during field survey – two are considered species of conservation significance:
Koala – Phascolarctos cinereus
Topknot Pigeon Lopholaimus antarcticus
Nine species of Endangered or Vulnerable plants
Topknot Pidgeon Lopholaimus antarcticus
can potentially be restored by habitat restoration allowing natural regeneration.
Essential habitat for Tusked Frog Adelotus brevis – bushland to west of and including Fox Gully
Three species of mosquito eating micro-bats identified during field research:
o Gould’s Wattled Bat Chalinolobus gouldii
o White-striped Freetail Bat Tadarida australis
Eastern Bentwing Bat Miniopterus oceanensis.
Recommendations – Movement Corridors
Ground fauna, particularly mammals, have suffered series declines.
Corridor A – greatest potential
25 metre wide corridor connecting old farmland with Mimosa Creek across Klumpp Road
Significant increases in useable habitat possible:
9 hectare addition with revegetation of farmland
4 hectare addition with revegetation of grassed and weed-infested area along Mimosa Creek – Vegetation Community 6
Extensive revegetation of farmland and restoration of grassed and weed-infested
Corridor B – narrow potential corridor connecting Fox Gully with Mimosa Creek
Corridor C – revegetation programs to complement existing vegetation
Report in Action
Findings used in submission for purchase of old farm as part of BCC Bushland Acquisition program
Community volunteers starting on the next million trees
I am proud of what we have achieved with restoration of the two hectare Fox Gully Bushcare site. We have put in over 3,400 hours of community volunteer labour and we have planted just over 2,000 trees, grasses, herbs and vines. That is just 0.1% of 2 million, so I can truly appreciate what has been achieved by City Council teams, the contractors and volunteers right across the city.
Council and contractor teams
About thirty years ago I gained support of residents in Guthrie Street, Paddington and wrote to the City Council asking for street trees to be planted. I can now look at Guthrie Street on Google Maps and see those trees still growing and still providing shade in our hot Queensland sun. Not every tree has survived thirty years. Some trees barely survived three weeks before being pulled up by vandals but the Council team persisted quickly replacing the damaged trees. The 2 Million Trees project has persisted against much bigger set-backs, like replacing trees lost in last year’s flood.
So I am now looking forward to another thirty years, watching 2 million trees mature and grow, right across the city.
I had the pleasure, this week, of introducing our local state member – Phil Reeves MP, to one of the extraordinary and little known features of our unique mountain habitat – Luminous Mushrooms Mycena lampadis.
A lucky photograph, with a torch lighting a snail having a mushroom meal, also caught a group of mushrooms glowing in the dark. I don’t have an identification on snail yet however I will have a look at Semislugs – Family Helicorionidae – thanks to Helen Schwencke, Butterflies & Other Invertebrates Club.
Jon Kloske took some amazing photos like this amazing shot of mushrooms growing in a line on a rotting log over the track.
The MacGregor Lions Club team is partnering with Mt Gravatt Environment Group in restoration of the native gardens along this popular walk/cycle path Roly Chapman Reserve.
Roly Chapman Reserve is a special part of our local environment supporting a wide variety of native flora and fauna including the Striped Marshfrog Limnodyynastes peronii which we found at the Lions’ working-bee in December.
Frogs are a good indicator of the health of a habitat so finding a new species is very encouraging and a powerful acknowledgment of the value of the restoration work of the Lions team.
Roly Chapman with pretty Mimosa Creek meandering through bushland is also a key part in the wildlife corridor connecting Mt Gravatt Reserve and Bulimba Creek.
Join the team restoring this special place. For details email – Macgregor.Lions.Secretary@gmail.com or contact John Spriggs on 3849 6479.
Sheamus and I joined an inspiring group of Award winners honoured for their volunteer work after the January flood, protecting the Gateway Bridge from 150 metre section of the Riverwalk during the flood or helping disadvantaged people reconnect through a street soccer program.
Sheamus O'Conner, Young Citizen of the Year
The Lord Mayor honoured Sheamus, Mt Gravatt State High School Year 11 student, as Young Citizen of the Year for his passionate advocacy for the envirionment including his personal contribution to the restoration of Mt Gravatt Reserve. 2011 National Tree Day Sheamus led a team of fellow students and teachers in rehabilitating the degraded area at the entry to the Summit Track. Within an hour the area had been transformed from a barren wasteland into the makings of a great piece of wildlife habitat.
As a communty we can be proud to be represented by Sheamus who demonstrated his leadership style in his response to the Lord Mayor’s presentation.
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Mount Gravatt Environment Group 
