Mt Gravatt Environment Group | Mount Gravatt Environment Group

March 28, 2011

Mimosa Creek Precinct Landscape Plan – ver 1.6

Posted by Mt Gravatt Environment Group under Bushcare, Bushwalks, Mimosa Creek Precinct, Mt Gravatt Environment Group | Tags: Bicycle path, Bushcare, Clairvaux MacKillop College, community, Environment, Fox Gully Bushcare, Google Earth, Hibiscus Sports Complex, MEG, Mimosa Creek Precinct, Mt Gravatt Environment Group, Roly Chapman Reserve, Toohey Forest, Translink Park&Ride, Walking, Wildlive corridor |
[9] Comments

Mimosa Creek is beautiful crystal clear stream rising in Toohey Forest before it flows under the Pacific Motorway reappearing beside Klumpp Road, meandering through Roly Chapman Reserve where, if you are quiet, you will often see turtles.

Mimosa Creek Precinct is the reach between the Pacific Motorway and Clairvaux MacKillop College, also including three potential wildlife corridors connecting with Mt Gravatt Reserve.

In developing the Mimosa Creek Precinct Landscape Plan, Mt Gravatt Environment Group aims to provide a community focused approach to environmental restoration of this important habitat with a variety of owners including BCC, Main Roads Dept, Translink, Hibiscus Sport Centre (local & state government), community organisations, schools and private owners. The term Landscape Plan comes from the excellent Birds in Backyards – Best Practice Guidelines, and is used to encompass this complex ownership mix.

Download the plan here: Mimosa Creek Precinct Landscape Plan – ver 1.6 (web) It does not take long to read: it is mostly Google Earth pictures. Appendix PDF files: Roly Chapman Bushcare Plan – ver 1.5 Fox Gully Bushcare Plan 2011 – ver 3.6 Mt Gravatt Strategic Plan – ver1.0

The environment is the key focus of this Plan, however, building and maintaining long-term financial and community commitment requires identification of business opportunities and community benefits derived from habitat restoration.

We have already identified a number of direct community benefits from implementation of the Landscape Plan. Identifying business opportunities that directly contribute to restoration of Mimosa Creek Precinct, is not as obvious. However, to quote Peter Drucker:

“Every single social and global issue of our day is a business opportunity in disguise.”

BizEd july/august 2008

Read the Fox Gully blog post Business Goes Bush in Mt Gravatt.

What community and business opportunities can you identify?

March 7, 2011

The Summit Clean Up

Posted by Mt Gravatt Environment Group under MEG Activities | Tags: bushwalk, China, Clean Up Australia Day, Garden waste, Ian Walker, Krista Adams, MEG, Mt Gravatt Environment Group, Mt Gravatt Reserve, Southern Star, USA, Veolia |
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Congratulations to Sue Jones who organised Sunday’s Clean Up Australia Day in Mt Gravatt Reserve.

Left to Right - Sandra, Jian, Nancy and Sue

The team arrived early to prepare for sign-on and safety briefing.

Clean Up results were excellent:

31 volunteers
35 bags of rubbish (white)
20 bags of recyclables (yellow)
Most unusual item found:
- a full suitcase of clothing!

Michael from BCC Local Area Services also provided excellent support: ferrying ute loads of filled bags back to the Summit. I was little surprised to see an office chair go up on one load. Dumping of rubbish and garden waste is still one of the three big threats to Mt Gravatt Reserve. However, there was general agreement that the new gate at the Shire Road entry has made a big improvement. On Sunday we had a skip provided thanks to Clean Up sponsor Veolia.

The MEG Summit Clean Up was certainly the place to be on Sunday morning. Cr Krista Adams and Ian Walker the new LNP candidate for Mansfield Ward, and Ian’s wife Heather all joined the clean up. An official Clean Up Australia team to see the clean up on one of Brisbane’s iconic sites and the Southern Star was there: so be sure to read this week’s paper.

We had representatives from China and USA joining in to help Clean Up Australia along with members of a walking group, who love the Reserve.

At the end it was a real pleasure to be able to sit in the sun sharing a coffee from the Echidna Magic Kiosk.

January 17, 2011

Glow-in-the-dark Mushrooms

Posted by Mt Gravatt Environment Group under Forest Fungi, Gilled Fungi | Tags: Biodiversity, bioluminescence, Brisbane, Environment, Firefly Gully, forest fungi, glow in dark mushroom, MEG, Mt Gravatt, Mt Gravatt Environment Group, Mycena lampadis Luminous Mushroom, Springbrook Research Centre |
[6] Comments

Mycena lampadis Luminous Mushroom

Fireflies now glow-in-the-dark mushrooms!

Same mushroom under torch light

Carol, who sent the firefly photos, called me late the other night inviting me to see the glow-in-the-dark mushrooms in their gully. Extraordinary, spooky and a very very special experience: walking thought the dark with the only light these amazing fungi.

Seeing these luminous mushrooms during the day they look like just another delicate white fungi.

The Springbrook Research Centre has information on bioluminescence.

The Mountain continues to surprise and delight. Listen to my interview with Kelly Higgins-Devine: 612ABC Drive.

See more of our amazing mushrooms: read my article on Forest Fungi.

October 18, 2010

Blue Tigers visiting Mt Gravatt Reserve

Posted by Mt Gravatt Environment Group under Wildlife of Mt Gravatt Reserve | Tags: Blue Tiger, bushwalk, Butterfly, MEG, Mt Gravatt, Mt Gravatt Environment Group, Tirumala hamata, tourist, wildlife |
[2] Comments

Keep an eye out for the beautiful Blue Tiger butterflies – Tirumala hamata visiting the mountain at the moment. Note the tiger like spots on the head.

When I could not identify any caterpillar (larval) food plants in the Reserve for these butterflies I contacted Dr Carla Catterall who kindly shared her extensive knowledge. It turns our Tigers are tourists just visiting Brisbane on holidays.

Dr Catterall advises that the Tiger Blue is a migratory species – so to understand why we are seeing them we need to search for info about its migratory habits rather than its food plants.

Because of these large-scale coordinated movements by many individuals at once (which are poorly understood), this species appears and disappears in large numbers from time to time (and apparently there are a lot of them in the Brisbane region at present). It is also known to migrate over water (for example, I [Carla Catterall] have seen them flying across the ocean between Gladstone and Heron Island).

The larvae would have hatched, fed and pupated somewhere else, probably a long way away from Toohey Forest (tens to hundreds of km).

Thank you Dr Catterall.