By: Michael Fox
Members of the Australian Chinese Youth Association (ACYA) joined me yesterday to restore Mt Gravatt Conservation Reserve. A diverse group with students from China, Japan and Australia, all passionate about working with China.
The team were also all interested in everything I showed them, like the Basket Fern Drynaria rigidula growing, not in cool shady gullies but on dry rocky Mt Gravatt.
Weed Busters at work removing Fishbone Fern
Casey asked what we do in the forest so I showed the National Tree Day plantings and explained our work educating and engaging community members with grant funding for interpretive signs and maps of walking tracks.
I put the team to work removing invasive Fishbone Fern Nephrolepis cordifolia. A native species indigenous to north Queensland it is an environmental weed in Brisbane spreading from garden waste dumped in bushland and smothering local natives.
Bark Cockroach
Remember I said the team were interested in everything?
We have never found so many different species at one time. Casey found one of our bush cockroaches: Bark Cockroaches Laxta sp. live in the leaf litter preforming valuable recycling work.
Black Woodland Cockroach
A Black Woodland Cockroach Platyzosteria melanaria is a new addition to our Flora and Fauna species list.
Brisbane Brush-footed Trapdoor Spider
Brisbane Brush-footed Trapdoor Spider Seqocrypta jakara is another new species identified.
Net-casting Spider
A newly hatched Net-casting Spider Deinopis sp.
Brown Huntsman
I think Wentao (right) set a new record for finding wildlife including a Brown Huntsman Heteropoda sp.
Weeding disturbed a Sugar Ant Camponotus sp. The ants immediately got busy relocating their larvae and when I checked today the site was completely clear.
Cute fungi were also found.
Tiny mushroom fungi.
Proud Weed Busters
Eight and quarter bags of weeds removed and ready to go to Green Waste at the dump. We compost most weeds onsite however the roots and nodules of Fishbone need to be removed from site or they regrow.
Thank you to the ACYA team. Looking forward to welcoming you back in two weeks.
Mount Gravatt Environment Group 