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Welcome to our new-look WCL newsletter. We have updated the format to make it easier to read on the multitudes of different devices that many of us now have; we hope that you enjoy it. Please let us know if we can do anything to improve the look and readability of our newsletter.
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Landcare nursery open 1st Sat. of the month 9am to 12am.
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Where: 33 Kelsey Creek Rd Proserpine
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When: 9 am to 12 noon Tuesday & Thursday, & 1st Saturday each month. EFTPOS available.
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What: A huge range of local native plants grown from locally collected seed, at great prices from $3.50. Gift vouchers available for a gardener you know. Knowledgeable staff & volunteers are on hand for friendly advice.
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National Tree Day: 2 activities, 2 locations!
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Where: Pioneer Park, Proserpine
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When: 28th of July, 8.00 am to midday.
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What: Community National Tree Day Event – Whitsunday Catchment Landcare and Filbys Motors. Includes: Native plant giveaways and sales, Landcare information stand, Toyota Hybrid display, free jumping castle, face painting, BBQ, National Tree Day merchandise giveaways.
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Where: Galbraith Creek, Galbraith Park Drive, Cannonvale. On the left hand side as you drive in, look for the signs.
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When: 28th of July, 9.00 am to midday
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What: Tree Planting. Come along and lend a hand with the next section. While you are there, wander through previous plantings to see the results of previous years.
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Last year's planting at Galbraith Park (Photo: CP)
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Community Nursery activities:
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Where: 33 Kelsey Creek Rd Proserpine
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When: Tuesday & Thursday mornings 9am to 12 noon.
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What: Plant propagation, native seed sowing & preparation, nursery maintenance tasks, seed propagation and a great morning tea with a fantastic bunch of volunteers.
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For all of our field activities please wear closed in shoes, sun safe clothing, hat, and sunscreen.
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BYO gloves if you have them, water bottle and snacks. WCL will provide water refills.
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Native Bee workshop coming in August
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Images courtesy of Brymac Native Bees
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Where: Landcare Nursery 33 Kelsey Creek Road Proserpine
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When: Saturday 3rd August , 9:30 am to 12:30 pm. What: Come and learn all about Stingless Native Bees from Native Bee specialists Dean & Helen, from Brymac Native Bees! Morning tea will be provided, please advise us of any dietary requirements. Dean and Helen will have merchandise available for sale on the day, including quality OATH hive boxes $220.00 (empty) Native bee books and beautifully hand made Native Bees-wax Balms! EFTPOS available.
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Bring: Sun-safe clothing, a hat, closed-in shoes and a water bottle.
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What's showing: Aidia racemosa
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Aidia racemosa at Hydeaway Bay.
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Common name: Archer Cherry
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Scientific name: Aidia racemosa
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Description: A herbaceous shrub to 6m height.
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Distribution: Found in the northern parts of Queensland down to the central region, the Northern Territory and Western Australia, from sea level to about 500m elevation, in dry and monsoonal rainforests, vine thickets, and open woodlands. Also found in China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and New Guinea.
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Leaves: Opposite in appearance, but on closer inspection some 'pairs' of leaves are actually missing a leaf. Leaves are lance-shaped, thinly leathery in texture, dark glossy green above and paler beneath, tapering to an elongated, pointed tip. Stipules & domatia (leaf-mite houses) present.
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Flowers: Whitish-cream, with a strong jasmine-like perfume, to 1.5cm diameter, with a protruding corolla and anthers, forming clusters held on the upper side of branches.
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Fruit: Bright red to purple when ripe, globular, with a the calyx tube present at the tip of the fruit, about 1cm long, containing several small seeds. Edible, with a tart flavour. Flavour is improved when very ripe.
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Propagation: From fresh seed or cuttings.
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Notes: Will grow best in a protected position but it is a fairly hardy plant. The flowers attract butterflies and the fruit is eaten by many birds.
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Across The Top: Gardening With Australian Native Plants, Keith Townsend, SGAP Townsville, 1994.
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At the nursery this month:
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This month we have some Ganophyllum falcatum all ready to go. It's common name is Scaly Ash, due to its red flaky bark. It is a fast growing, hardy evergreen coastal shade tree, growing to 25m, with a dense, dark green canopy.
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Scaly Ash plants at the WCL nursery
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These are two that were prepared much earlier! Two huge specimens forming a grand entrance to an old Queenslander in Townsville.
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Mother of millions removal
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Earlier this month, a hardy band of nine WCL volunteers answered the call to remove Mother of Millions from the beach scrub at Nelly Bay, Dingo Beach. Lots of the weed was found growing among other plants or fallen trees. It seems to prefer the shelter, or could it be additional nutrients from the decomposing timbers and leaf litter.
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The ute tray was duly filled with bags of this invasive weed as the volunteers used secateurs to gently cut some of the longer stems, to prevent propagules shaking off the plant and dropping everywhere whilst getting them out of the undergrowth. Many small new plants had already rooted into the sand beneath the parent plants either from seeds or from propagules dropping off the leaves. One ute load or 160 kg of mother of millions was sent to landfill.
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In general, putting green waste into landfill is a bad idea, as it generates methane, however with weeds like this you must ensure that they die, either by bagging and disposing of them, solarising (cooking in black plastic) or making them decompose in water (weed tea). Putting them in the green waste is a definite no-no, as they will continue to grow. This hard work was recompensed with a great morning tea afterwards, in beautiful surroundings. The group went for a ramble in the beach scrub afterwards to enjoy the beautiful weather and collect some coastal seed for the WCL nursery.
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If you can donate clean chook food or potting mix bags for bagging weeds like this for the landfill, please drop them at the WCL nursery.
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Photos by CP and GH. Text by Dave.
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My Whitsunday Garden
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This is what I hope will be the first of a series about the gardens that people have created using our native plants. If you have some great 'before and after' pics and a bit of a story, please send it in. I would like to showcase how we can use our local natives in all sorts of different ways, to inspire current and future landholders and gardeners.
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We bought a house on a hill slope in the drier part of Cannonvale in 1998. The slope was hot, south facing and exposed, and the soil was depleted, decomposed granite, studded with protruding bits of Australia in the form of huge rocks, with a heavy clay layer beneath. The slope was up to 16 degrees and we had no vehicle access to the back yard; everything had to be lugged up hand, as devices with wheels aren't much help on the rocky, uneven slope. We did not own a mower or slasher. The objective was to plant out most of the block, to get some shade, stabilise the slope and eliminate as much mowing as possible. After accidentally chopping up a beautiful legless lizard with a hired mower, this could not happen soon enough for me! Native plants in tube-pot sizes were my choice, partly because I was in love with all of the strange new plants around me (I had recently escaped from Victoria), and partly because I wanted to provide habitat for birds and wildlife. Happily, they were also the most affordable option for us, with a brand-new mortgage to pay.
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Front, just planted, August 1998. The pre-existing Pongamia pinnata (centre) in new leaf, and Burdekin Plum (Pleiogynium timorense), far right. Tony removed the Poinciana for me later that year, but I was pulling out its offspring for years after.
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The backyard after planting, every stake marks a tree. The Cocky Apple (Planchonia careya: top left) is still there. The dodgy retaining wall was eventually replaced with a rock-wall, this also was quite a task.
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The original garden consisted of the usual bananas, coconuts, Poinciana, Triangle Palm, Golden Cane, Frangipani and a lot of sloping, rock-strewn, unmowable grass/ weeds. There was some sort of weedy succulent covering half of the front yard, lots of Centro vine including a massive one that hung off the front deck railings, Snakeweed and lots of Guinea Grass. We also inherited a small Pongamia Pinnata (Pongamia), several young Ironbarks (Eucalyptus Crebra/drepanophylla), a couple of Cocky Apples (Planchonia careya) and a Burdekin Plum (Pleiogynium timorense). There was one Bats-wing Coral Tree (Erythrina vespertilio) which had a grader wound to the trunk which ultimately killed it. A few of its descendants have popped up now. Gradually, with the help of Tony Vernon my trusty local tree trimmer, I removed most of the exotics, but kept the three clumps of Golden Cane near the house because they were a good privacy screen. One day I will remove them. Lesson number 1: work outwards from existing trees if you can. The shade under the existing trees was where I hand I weeded, as they were the places where nice little surprises appeared like Oplimenus aemulus (Rainforest grass) Lomandra longifolia (long-leafed Lomandra) and Dianella caerulea (Flax Lily), and the tussocky little native sedges, which would have all been killed by indiscriminate spraying.
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Lomandra hystrix (Mat Rush) in flower
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Dianella caerulea (Flax Lily) with fruits
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I was lucky enough to inherit a pile of mature Lomandra longifolia, lying uprooted under a tarp in the back yard when we moved in. I exhumed them, soaked them in buckets of water with some Seasol overnight and they magically revived. I planted them in the drainage lines, to slow the water flow and hold the soil. They also went in around edges, close together to form as a dense barrier to weedy intruders. They did so well that they are still doing their jobs today. I collect the seed every Christmas, multiplying the collection as I can't seem to have too many. I used to propagate them, but these days I just scatter the seed. They really are the workhorses when it comes to stabilising soil and suppressing weeds. They are so tough: I do water them occasionally when they look a bit sad in the dry, you give them one good water and the next day they look fresh again, this usually does them till it rains. Over time Dianella caerulea (Flax lily) appeared (brought by birds I suppose) and added some colour to the mix. Both also are great places for frogs and other little critters to hide. Lesson number 2: Stabilise and protect the soil. Bare soil is a magnet for weeds and will wash away when the rains come.
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The only way I was going to be able to afford to plant out this big area was to buy native tube-stock. The only place I knew of to get them was the then Mackay Tree Factory at Walkerston, run by Meryl Ritchie. The minimum order was strictly 150 plants, but I somehow persuaded her to sell me 70 tubes, which at the time I think cost $1.50 each! The range was limited, I had to cross Ficus opposita (Sandpaper Fig), Tabernaemonatana orientalis (Banana Bush) and Alyxia spicata (Chainfruit) off my wish list as they were unheard of. Digging 70 odd holes took most of my holidays and I literally hammered the top right off a crow bar doing it: there seemed to be a large rock in every spot I chose! Lesson number 3: digging is much easier if you wait until it rains...
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Progress at September 2000. Due to my haste, they grew slowly. My hand watering was less than consistent, mainly due to the sandflies! In my defence it was also very dry.
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I had a few wild flights of fancy: the Eucalyptus platyphylla (now Corymbia, Poplar Gum) did not at all like the hot rocky slope and expired early. The Araucaria cunninghamii (Hoop pine) which I put near it went yellow and did nothing at all until about 2007, when it suddenly went dark green and took off skywards: it must have finally cracked the clay layer. It is now a fine straight tree. Lesson number 4: look at what naturally grows there first! Apart from these, Meryl wisely steered me towards stock standard Whitsunday fast growing pioneers, including Acacia leptocarpa (Wattle) and A. holosericea (Silver Wattle), Macaranga tanarius, Glochidion lobocarpum (Cheese Tree), Scolopia braunii (Brown Birch), Pipturus argenteus (White Mulberry), Melia azederach (White Cedar), Polyschias elegans (Celerywood), Acacia leptocarpa (a local wattle), Sterculia quadrifida (Bush Peanut), Pittosporum ferrugineum (Rusty Pittosporum), Cupaniopsis anacardioides (Tuckeroo), Pongamia pinnata (Pongamia) and Pleiogynium timorense (Burdekin Plum). I also got a few paperbarks, Melaleuca leucadendra and a Melaleuca viridiflora, for the wet bit in the front yard. There were a few Red Cedars from a tree behind our old unit, but these were totally demolished by borers in a few years.
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Attracted by the bargain price, I got a round bale of cane tops delivered onto the front driveway, which I had to gradually dismantle in order to drag it about to mulch my new trees. Lesson number 5: square bales are much more user-friendly if you have to move them be hand! Friends helped us to develop a bit of a design for our plantings. I was impatient to start, so in defiance of all advice, I planted everything in the dry season, when I had holidays, and then I had to hand water them all the way through until it finally rained (January or February if I recall). This meant communing with the sandflies for an hour or two every week for many months! Lesson number 6: if you don't have irrigation, wait until it rains!
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2004: the canopy is almost closed at the front, so much less weeding to do. The foxtail palms were gifts that I later regretted planting: I removed them both a few years later.
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The back yard in 2004, still a long way to go before the canopy closed but the Kangaroo Grass (Themeda triandra) was doing its job covering the soil.
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Wet seasons were not particularly wet in this decade of the millenium drought, so by 2004 the back yard was still pretty open and many of the trees only a couple of metres high, but it was less weedy thanks to the clumps of Kangaroo grass. Thanks to the fast-growing wattles the canopy in the front yard had pretty much closed, so there was much less mowing to do. We left for a few years down in Brisbane at this point, and during this time things went a bit wild. I will leave the story for now and resume next month.
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Photos and text: Jacquie Sheils
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Weed Hall of Fame:
Guinea Grass, Megathyrsus maximus var. maximus (previously Panicum maximum)
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Guinea Grass forms perennial tussocks which outcompete native plants. Photo: Steve Pearson
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Recently Margaret, one of our long-serving nursery volunteers, mentioned that she could remember when this invasive grass first appeared in our region. In her lifetime it has become so ubiquitous it is almost impossible for those of us who were not here then, to imagine the place without it. No doubt many newly arrived people do not even realise that it is a weed.
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Form: A densely tussocking, shallow-rooted perennial grass reaching 1.5 to 3m in height.
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Leaves: Blades long & narrow, 400-1000 x 10-35mm, tapering to a fine point, margins flat and rough to the touch.
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Seed heads: Flowering can be year-round. Wide spreading, open sprays 120-600mm long, with many whorled branches to 250mm wide, spikelets 2.5-3mm long, often purple. Numerous small green seeds, 3 x 1mm wide.
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Spread by: Water, animals, contaminated soil on vehicles and machinery.
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Invades: Creek banks, roadsides, coastal dunes, wetlands, native forest, cane fields and disturbed soils.
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Notes: Introduced as a fodder for livestock, and now a widely naturalised environmental and agricultural weed. Guinea Grass increases fire threat during the dry season, as it produces large standing dry fuel loads, which increases the height and intensity of fires. These high, hot fires can kill young trees and prevent the natural re-establishment of native vegetation. 'Hamil Grass', a very large-growing named cultivar of this species, is also known to be present in our region.
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Be ready to mulch and plant out the area as soon as possible after removing the Guinea Grass, or it will simply re-establish. Smaller areas can be hand pulled if the soil is moist and the tussocks are not too big. Remove all of the soil from the tussock roots and leave them to dry out, or they may re-establish. Big areas of tussocks can be scraped using machinery. Bigger areas or deep-rooted tussocks can be slashed to a manageable height before spraying the new growth with Glyphosate. Expect to get some re-growth as this grass is everywhere and quite invasive. If you stay vigilant and remove tussocks when they are small, it is manageable.
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Weeds of the Mackay Whitsunday Region, Mackay Regional Pest Management Group, 2013
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How you can help
BECOME A VOLUNTEER: If you're interested in doing your bit for the environment and socialising with like‐ minded people, we offer coordinated activities on Tuesday & Thursday mornings and more. Contact us!
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MAKE A DONATION: WCL is a community not‐for‐profit group, relying on donations to assist with programs such as revegetation. We are a registered charity; donations of $2 or more are tax deductible. To make a donation please contact us or go to:
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CONTACT
CONTACT US FOR INFORMATION ON
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- Natural Resource Management
- Land Management Plans
- Native Plants
- Environmental Weeds
- Volunteer Activities
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WCL TEAM
Coordinator: Christine Peterson Admin/finance: Leigh Donkers Field Staff: Kayla Simpson, Rory Richards Nursery Manager: Nicole Murphy
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WCL Management Committee: Dale Mengel, Chair Jacquie Sheils, Secretary; newsletter editor Cath Campbell, Treasurer Jan Armstrong Canegrowers rep. John Casey Cr. Gary Simpson One Community position vacant
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