SUMMER 2014-15

THIS ISSUE:

Branch reports

Mary River Kids Day Out

Nature snippets

Volunteer Profile

Climate Action Summit report

The newsletter of the

Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland Bundaberg and Fraser Coast Branches,

members and friends

WAMBALIMAN, since July 1967

In the language of the Kabi Tribe which occupied the land from Maleny to Howard,

including Fraser Island and all the territory drained by the Mary, Burrum, Mooloolah,

Maroochy and Noosa River systems, “wambaliman” means simply “carry”.

2

WILDLIFE PRESERVATION SOCIETY OF QUEENSLAND

known as WILDLIFE QUEENSLAND

BUNDABERG BRANCH PO Box 1215 Bundaberg, 4670

President: Maureen Schmitt Vice President: Leeann Evans Secretary: Ann Jarman 4159 1931 Treasurer: Phil Jarman 4159 1931

FRASER COAST BRANCH

PO Box 7396 Urangan, 4655

President: Sara Gerdsen 41295789 Vice President: Peter Duck 41221998 Secretary: Vanessa Elwell-Gavins 0428624366 Asst Secretary (minutes): Ruby Rosenfield 41234765 Treasurer: Carol Bussey 4129 5979 Asst Treasurer: Linda Idiens 41242913 WAMBALIMAN Publisher: Wildlife Qld FC Editor: Jenny Watts 0400656325 Production: Jenny Watts Additional writing: Carol Bussey and Jenny Watts Proofreading: Andrea van Kampen

Things have been relatively quiet for our groups

over the festive season / summer holidays but there

was still plenty to fill this issue.

Congratulations to WBBEC for a second successful

annual Mary River Kids Day Out in Maryborough

in mid January. Also to the groups who supported

the event. There’s an article on page 16.

If you haven’t already seen it, the new Tiaro Inter-

pretive Centre which includes a new deck, a bronze

sculpture of a Mary River Turtle (known as 'Mr T'

by the locals), other artwork and interpretive sign-

age and information is worth a look. At Tiaro

Landcare’s “Experiencing the Mary” celebrations

in November we had fun anointing Mr T with Mary

River water as he finds his resting place in the new

centre after being commissioned by the FCRC in

2011. It’s a beautiful sculpture and the artist has

ensured he has represented the features of the Mary

River Turtle well.

Editor's Note

See WAMBALIMAN in colour

on Wildlife FC’s webpage http:/frasercoast.wildlife.org.au

Wildlife FC vice president, Peter, and Mr T

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Summer 2014/15 Contents

Wildlife FC President’s Comment 4 Wildlife Bundaberg President’s Report………………... 6 Wildlife FC Branch Activities……. 8 Various nature snippets…………. 14 Wide Bay Burnett Environment Council …………………………….. 16 Volunteer Profile…………………. 19 Branch Monthly Outings ……….. 20 People you meet………………….. 21 Climate Action Summit………….. 22

We welcome contributions from WPSQ

members and supporters. Send contribu-tions by email to duckz@bigpond.net.au or post to The Editor, Wambaliman, PO BOX 7396 URANGAN 4655

Submissions for the next WAMBALIMAN are due by mid April 2015

Opinions expressed in WAMBALIMAN are not necessari-ly those endorsed by the Wildlife Preservation Society Queensland, Bundaberg and Fraser Coast Branches unless specifically attributed to them.

NOTICE BOARD

DATE CLAIMERS

Saturday, February 7 Rainforest Identification Field Day Baldwin Swamp Shelter Shed, Steindl St, Bundaberg - Meet 3 of Australia's highly es-teemed botanists, Gwen Harden, Dr Bill McDonald and Glenn Leiper. RSVP to Monica Elsey, Bundaberg RC on (07) 4130 4505 monica.elsey@bundaberg.qld.gov.au by Feb 5

Saturday, February 14 Paddle - Burrum River with the Friends of the Burrum River System Group. See back page for details

Saturday, February 14 Cub/scout wetland activity - 4pm - Woocoo Park, Teddington Road, Tinana. All helpers and people with ideas welcome.

Saturday, March 7 Monthly Community Nature Outing Teddington Weir - Tinana Creek Ring Car-ol Bussey 4129 5979

Saturday, April 12 Monthly Community Nature Outing Maryborough Meander Woocoo - Pioneer Park - Aquatic Park - Bo-tanics on Bazaar (aka 44 Jenny & Peter’s - Queen Street, Maryborough). 2-3 hours. Shorter walks and car shuttle available. Ring Peter 41221998

Friday, April 17 Submissions due for Autumn WAMBALIMAN

Saturday May 2 Monthly Community Nature Outing Bauple State Forest spotlighting with Dr. Kevin Wormington - to be confirmed Ring Carol Bussey 4129 5979

Membership for 1 year $30.00 single $20.00 concession $45.00 family / non-profit $12.50 youth

You can join online or download a mem-bership form from www.wildlife.org.au Nb. When you join Wildlife Queensland you are automatically a member of any branch.

Want to join Wildlife Queensland?

THANK YOU VANESSA

Wildlife FC thanks Vanessa for the

huge amount of work she did to see

the production of the beautiful greet-

ing cards featuring our own photo-

graphs. Choose from 57 designs.

See page 8 for details.

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Wildlife Fraser Coast Branch President’s Comment by Sara Gerdsen

Do you remember the old math’s problem about the frog which tried to climb out of the well? It advanced during the day then fell back at night. Recently it has seemed to me that this is the state of environmen-tal affairs here on the Fraser Coast.

At the end of November, I attended the opening of the Bush Tucker Garden at the Botanic Gardens. Cr Garland provided funding for this project which is not only an educational tool but a gesture of rec-onciliation. Auntie Joyce explained how the Botanic Gardens are situated on a former Butchulla camp site known as Ea-gle Flats. At the same time in the media there was an ongoing debate about the Council’s intention to clear vegetation in Ernie Organ Park with particular empha-sis on the cotton trees once again. Mem-bers and other citizens wrote letters about this intended environmental destruction but to no avail it seems.

Just before Christmas, Carol and I ar-ranged a luncheon for Joan to present her Patron’s Award to John Parsons for his work educating the public about the im-portance of flying foxes in the ecosystem. Sadly that same day Carol and I discov-ered that a huge fire break had been bull-dozed along the edge of the Burrum Coast National Park destroying wetlands, habitat for Crinia tinnula, as well as im-portant wallum vegetation.

The Say No to Plastic Bags pantomime troupe has performed at Howard State School and at The Mary River Kids Day Out. As well, Di continued with the spot an eco-shopper campaign until the end of the year. Have our efforts paid off? My observations suggest we still have a long way to go to convert the general popula-tion to bring their own bags.

On a bright note the branch’s application for funding to rehabilitate Woocoo Park as koala habitat has been successful. At the same time nothing more has been heard from Council about their application (supported by the branch) to State Gov-ernment about the purchase of vacant land in Tinana to increase the area of reserve land for koala habitat.

Still, 2015 does start with several posi-tives. Cr Seymour has invited us to pre-sent monthly talks about important fea-tures of the Fraser Coast natural environ-ment. These will be held at Hervey Bay library. Carol has already started formulat-ing ideas for monthly bush walks. Ruby and Di have offered to continue present-ing wildlife-friendly garden workshops and hopefully we will be asked to give more pantomime performances.

So let’s not be discouraged there is work to be done.

Left: John pictured a year ago at the

presentation of the flying fox murals.

He was recently involved in the compi-

lation of a fact sheet “Flying Foxes of

the Fraser Coast” published by the FCRC.

It’s a difficult climb

2014 FCWPSQ Patron’s Award

- goes to John Parsons

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Donation Frog! At the Wildlife FC end of year breakup Ross Bradbury presented his much anticipat-

ed and appreciated donation frog to Wildlife FC patron Joan Coutts.

Joan was president of the branch when they fought to save a 200 year old Crow’s

Ash from the chop on the corner of Ann Street and Boat Harbour Drive, Torquay

during upgrades by Mains Roads in 2005. Unfortunately the campaign was unsuc-

cessful and the wood was used to make the lectern for the Hervey Bay library, some

was donated to the Butchulla people and some to Wildlife FC.

At the time fellow members and cabinet makers Ross Bradbury and brother Tony,

who campaigned especially hard to save the flying fox colony at Tooan Tooan Creek,

promised to carve a piece of the beautiful blond wood into a donation box for the

branch.

Sadly, not long after the tree was felled Tony, 55, died of a brain tumour but Ross

kept his word and, in honour of his brother, presented the one-of-a-kind box to the

branch. The carving has the most endearing little face and hopefully will appeal to

donors at public walks and talks!

Joan Coutts and Ross Bradbury with the donation frog

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continued next page

Wildlife Bundaberg President’s Annual Report 2014 by Maureen Schmitt

As presented at ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING WPSQ BUNDABERG BRANCH

BALDWIN SWAMP 30

TH NOVEMBER, 2014

Like all other years, 2014 has been a conceding year for the environment - not only on a local level, but also on a region-al, national and global scale. Unfortu-nately economics still rules the decision making process and politicians only need to cry “aussie-battler, disadvantaged, job losses or job creation” and environmental protection get thrown out the window.

On the local level, however…. Thankfully many of the bats that were so cruelly displaced from Bargara and the Botanical Gardens have found a home in Baldwin Swamp. Council signage around Baldwin Swamp has been erected to edu-cate the general public.

Barolin Nature Reserve continues to grow in popularity and Council continues to provide improved visitor facilities. Council has also held several tree plants involving local business people. One can only hope that the idea of putting a road through the western section of the re-serve is due to some temporary madness afflicting some of our Councillors which will pass once the hot weather leaves us.

The Central Branches Get-Together our group hosted at Mon Repos in July this year was a resounding success thanks to the hard work of everyone involved.

Our one display for the year was Polly the Pelican, the garbage hungry pelican from Hervey Bay. Polly was erected at Hinkler Place and Sugarland Shopping Centres and from what I hear, she received quite a lot of attention. Grateful thanks to Ann and Phil, our very dedicated secretary and treasurer, who organised collecting Pollie from Diane at Wildlife FC. Thanks also to Peter from Landcare who was brave enough to offer his services and vehicle to collect and then return Polly to Hervey Bay.

Pam has continued to send well-researched and spirited submissions on local key issues with the latest submission being comments on the Proposed Bundaberg Regional Council Planning Scheme, only being submitted last Friday. Many thanks to Pam for her dedication and skill.

2015 - what does it hold?

Well, I think we all agree that it will be just more of the same but you know what, I am starting to feel that it is the older gen-erations that are blocking environmental change. For example, I am very heart-ened when I turn on my computer and I am swamped with petitions and infor-mation from young people lobbying our policy makers about this or that environ-mental issue.

Let’s face it, we have come a long way but there is still a long way to go. I re-member when I was in primary school, we would draw our map of Australia and mark in the whaling stations – thankfully all are now closed and many are tourist destinations. And timber was from North Queensland and thankfully much of this area is now World Heritage Listed.

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At the local level, two issues spring to mind we could pursue in 2015.

The first is Baldwin Swamp, where Wild-life has been involved for a long time. Issues that could be lobbied are:

Declaring Baldwin Swamp Conservation

Park a cat-free zone thus allowing for the trapping and removal of feral cats caught in the area,

Advocating for the dredging of some of

the lagoons that are so shallow now that the magpie geese don’t have to swim, they just walk on the bottom

Lobbying Council to create more clear

water by removing some of the salvinia on the water surface

Advocating for the removal of environ-

mental weeds such as asparagus fern, cat’s claw vine and broad-leaf pepper

Continue to lobby Council to include

Gympie Estate in Baldwin Swamp

The second issue is the proposed sale by the State Government of a 259 ha block of unallocated state land along Bucca Road.

Over 100 plant species were recorded in a preliminary survey including two rare and threatened plants. Despite the clean and green rhetoric we receive from all levels of government, it seems they are all happy to allow the clearing of this huge tract of land for agricultural purposes. I feel this is morally and environmentally irresponsible and WPSQ could focus on its protection through letter writing, lobby-ing, media releases, visits to local politi-cians etc. and as well as joining with other groups such as Landcare to stop this madness.

There are many other worthy issues we could pursue but these two spring to mind. We are all busy people and we can only do what we can do.

Wildlife Bundaberg Branch President’s Report 2014 continued from page 6

In November Tiaro and District Landcare held a very successful evening called “Experience the Mary”. Amongst many other events Wildlife Queensland presented a cheque to the group representing the funds raised in its 2014 appeal “Reviving the Amazing Mary River Turtle”. Pictured here are representatives from Wildlife Queens-land including, Wildlife Queensland’s Policies and Campaign Manager Des Boyland, (second right) and State President Peter Ogilvie (far right) with Wildlife FC members Coryn, Jenny, Ruby, Carol and Peter.

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Wildlife Fraser Coast Branch Activities From mid October 2014 to mid Feb 2015

written by Vanessa Elwell-Gavins with photos from various members.

Submissions

We made a submission to the Senate’s

Inquiry into the Abbott Government’s at-tacks on the environment.

We made a submission to the Federal

Government on its Draft Conservation Plan for Migratory Shorebirds.

Meetings and Sub-committees

Our November meeting was held on

Saturday 8 November in Torquay. Our speaker was the excellent Ian Butler. Ian is a marine biologist and University of Queensland student who is studying Her-vey Bay's coral as he completes his doc-torate.

See next page

Administrative

Success! We have secured a grant for

$4,100 under the Everyone’s Environment Program to undertake plantings and an educational program in Woocoo Park, Maryborough. This will guide our pro-gram during 2015.

Our Secretary, Vanessa Elwell-Gavins,

who is Wildlife Fraser Coast’s nominated representative as a member of the Bur-nett Mary Regional Group for Natural Re-source Management, has now been elect-ed to the Board of BMRG for a three-year term.

We will conduct a survey of members

early in 2015.

Our blank greeting cards are now for

sale at the Arkarra Lagoons Tea Gardens, or direct from the Wildlife FC Secretary.

Plastics

Various bits of corre-

spondence are being prepared.

Anti plastic pantomime

presented at two events.

Koalas

The Koala Count took place on the

weekend of 18-19 October. Unfortunately the count was quite small, apparently reflecting a steep decline in the numbers of koalas in the Fraser Coast region. Next time we will invite participants to report ‘nil’ sightings.

See page 11

Communications

Wambaliman Spring 2014 was released

towards the end of October.

We have finalised a set of blank greeting

cards, using photos submitted by our members and their family and friends. 57 separate cards have been produced. People may purchase these direct from the Secretary (0428 624 366 or email: vanessa.egavins@gmail.com)

Ian Butler with branch president

Sara, at the November meeting.

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Wildlife Fraser Coast Branch Activities mid October 2014 to mid January 2015

continued from previous page

Hervey Bay’s Coral is Disappearing

In the absence of an article on Ian’s talk given

at Wildlife FC’s November meeting - Wamba-

liman is printing this article from the Fraser

Coast Chronicle 18 September 2013.

OUR coral is in trouble and according to Uni-versity of Queensland PhD student Ian Butler it's time to act.

Mr Butler estimates the 2011 and 2013 floods destroyed up to 60% of the coral in Hervey Bay waters, with the marine national park zone at the northern end of Big Woody Island suffering a near total loss.

He said floodwaters raced down the river and entered the ocean, bringing with them sedi-ments, fresh water and chemicals such as fertiliser or petrol.

"It bathes the coral in this water… but corals like to have clear, warm water," he said. Mr Butler said although corals spend lots of time trying to "clean itself up", it struggled when not given enough time to recover.

He said poor water quality was also a major problem facing the Barrier Reef and one way to fix the problem might be to plant more trees.

The researcher said 85% of the Mary River bank was eroding, and more trees and other plants were needed to rejuvenate and steady the area in case of floods.

He is urging the government to help protect Australian reefs and says global warming pre-dicts an increase in floods, which may lead to more dead coral.

Mr Butler said a world without coral would be a "sad, sad thing". "Coral reefs are beautiful... they are like the rainforests of the sea," he said. "Obviously coral is very important for fisheries, tourism and shoreline protection… the corals are also useful for medical things, like the treatment of cancer or the creation of sunscreen.

"I would recommend paying attention to what you're putting in the ocean.’

Workshops and Events

Sat 1 November: Our final walk for

the year was in the Mungomery Vine Forest Reserve (Dundowran Beach), followed by morning tea at Arkarra Lagoons Tea Gardens and a walk around the lagoons.

See page 20

Sat 1 November: Tiaro Landcare

presentation. This event celebrated the launch of an app to report turtle sightings on the Mary River, unveil a bronze turtle statue in Tiaro and for Wildlife Queensland to present funds raised to Tiaro Landcare for its work to save the Mary River Turtle. The new State Wildlife Qld presi-dent, Peter Ogilvie, and several Wildlife Qld Council members at-tended, as well as a few of our members.

See page 2 and 7

Tues 9 December: Presentation to

Howard State School - anti plastic pantomime.

See page 10

Sat 6 December:

End of year lunch at the home of Peter Duck and Jenny Watts.

See page 12 and 13

Sun 14 December: Linda Idiens

gave a talk at the Pet Expo in Maryborough.

Wed 14 January 2015: Mary River

Kids Day Out. Wildlife Fraser Coast presented their anti plastic panto-mime.

See page 16

Congratulations and thanks to the organisers and deliverers of these workshops and events.

As usual, apologies if there is any-thing major that has been omitted

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Wildlife Fraser Coast Branch Activities

Anti plastic pantomime - HOWARD STATE SCHOOL 9 December. Above: Linda

(jester), John and Dianne; below left, John and students; below right, Temp (hidden

plastic bag remover) and Diane (Mother Earth).

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Anti plastic pantomime - MARY RIVER KIDS DAY OUT, Queens Park,

Maryborough 14 January 2015—Linda, Carol, Sara, John, Gwen and Diane.

FRASER COAST COMMUNITY

KOALA COUNT This was initiated and run by Wildlife FC on the weekend 18 /19 October 2014. The team received 16 calls that reported 18 koala sightings. Sightings in Tinana were from Pioneer Park, Police Paddock, Hen-dersen Park, Cheyne Estate, Springvale Road, Iindah Road west, Matilda Way, and four koalas were sighted on Nerada Road. This confirms Tinana is an area of high human-koala interaction. The count has provided baseline data from which future counts could reveal trends in popu-lations.

Left top: Peter locates the posi-

tion of a koala sighting on map.

Left bottom: Col and Glenda

man the phones in the

Maryborough town hall.

Wildlife Fraser Coast Branch Activities

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Wildlife Fraser Coast Branch Activities

END OF YEAR BREAK-UP—

Above: What a great photo of two great members, John (left) and Alan.

Below left: Linda, Peter, Tony and Carol.

Below right: Diane, Linda, Cecile and birthday girl, Vanessa.

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Wildlife Fraser Coast Branch Activities

END OF YEAR BREAK-UP—

Above: Juanita, Denise, Diane and Glenys.

Below left: Jenny, Ross, Chris, Alan and Peter, Denise and Joan. Denise makes the

first donation to the new donation frog. Below right; Ruby and Peter.

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Botanical news

Census of the Queensland Flora 2014. This is an essential reference document for

those interested in native and introduced plants. The census published by the

Queensland Herbarium provides an authoritative published list of all the known

native and naturalised species of plants, algae, fungi and lichens in Queensland. It

updates the previous census (Bostock & Holland 2013). The latest census is only

available online and is free to download. The separate introduction to the census

contains much important information including a very useful list of changes since

the last census. You can check it all out at https://www.qld.gov.au/environment/

plants-animals/plants/herbarium/flora-census/index.html

Tony van Kampen

Macaranga tanarius The attractive macaranga in the photo (below) came up as a volunteer in our front garden. According to Nan and Hugh Richardson (Australian Rainforest Plants), macarangas are very useful pioneers on degraded rainforest land and are also being used for landscaping and it containers. The trees are dioe-cious and this one is a male. It is a har-dy plant and can be seen around Bunda-berg and Bargara as hedges along the road verge. It can be grown from seed or

from cuttings. Carol Bussey

Fontainea rostrata This Vulnerable species has a limited distribution and is restricted to the Wide Bay region. It is found at various locations around Gympie as well as a couple of sites further north on Tinana Creek south of Maryborough. Research on the spe-cies is currently being undertaken by sci-entists from the University of the Sun-shine Coast. Local volunteers are assist-ing with surveys to try and find more of these plants. Vegetation along Tinana Creek including at Teddington Weir is particularly important as it provides habi-tat for a number of threatened plants and

animals. Tony van Kampen

Above; Fontainea rostrata, female flower,

Photo by Ruby Rosenfield.

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Snake or Lizard?

The first thought that pops up when you see this little fellow is “death adder” because of his stripes and distinctive head shape. However, the photo is of a baby pink-tongued skink (Cyclodomorphus gerrardii). Baby pink-tongued skinks ac-tually have blue tongues! It is in a different genus than blue-tongues (Tiliqua). Pink-tongue skinks are mostly nocturnal so not often seen. We have seen an adult one here which was more colourful – with brown stripes and a more yellowish hue. Some adults lose their stripes and are a fawn colour. The snout to vent body length is 20 cm, total length 40 cm. They forage, especially on wet nights, for slugs and snails.

Carol Bussey

Metamorphosis By Audrey Sorensen

Thunder rumbled, lightning flashed The night reverberated with croaks

Frogs in amplexus in water splashed.

A raft of black dots in jelly floats Till tiny tadpoles appear in the reeds

The waterholes fill with miniature boats.

On aquatic weeds the tadpole feeds Legs appear, tail disappears

Life Cycle complete, Nature succeeds.

But with so many enemies, everyone fears They're becoming endangered, some species extinct.

Will there be frogs in future years?

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The WBBEC has kicked off the New Year with a bang with the Mary River Kids Day Out (MRKDO) held on Wednesday 14th January in Queens Park!

This was the second year that we have run this fun, family friendly and free Envi-ronmental Fun Day and it was equally as successful as the first!

The concept of the MRKDO was born in 2013 after the Environment Council had contacted expert Craig Franklin and ar-ranged for him to travel to Maryborough to engage with the community about croc-odile safety and the critical role they play as an apex predator in river systems. We had originally planned to run a forum spe-cifically focusing on crocodiles however after some brainstorming during a general meeting, we decided to broaden the focus and run an environmental education day focusing on the Mary River and her Spe-cial (threatened) Species along with Mary Croc-ins.

And so, the Mary River Kids Day Out was born.

In its inaugural year, we were unsure of how well it would be attended and re-ceived by the community, especially after very little advertising or promotion. But the old saying ‘build it and they will come’ proved to be true that day. 15 minutes before the event was due to start, parents and children began flocking in and by the time the event came to a close, we esti-mated that around 300 children had been present throughout the day. Craig Frank-lin attended on the day and provided one on one education about crocodiles as he made his way through the crowd with a juvenile croc to the delight of children and parents alike! Overall the 2014 Event was a massive success and we decided that we had to run it again.

The 2015 event was equally successful with an estimated 200 children attending between 10am-2pm. Free gift bags were in high demand and have ensured that beautiful Mary River Riparian brochures, activity books, stickers and magnets and other educational material has made its way into homes all over the Fraser Coast.

MARY RIVER KIDS DAY OUT

Wide Bay Burnett Environment Council

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Activities throughout the day included:

Wildlife Arts and Craft where they could

make a recycled paper bag puppet, card-board caterpillar or coloured in a Lung-fish, Mary River Cod or Mary River Turtle

Water Testing where children learned to

test for water quality parameters and learning how to count and identify macro invertebrates

Seed ball making where children could

make a seed ball that they can take home to plant and encourage the growth of na-tive vegetation in their back yards

Cats Claw Creeper basket weaving

workshops where they learned to make use of the invasive creeper and turn it into a lovely basket to take home

Learn about Cats Claw Creeper’s biolog-

ical control by getting up close and per-sonal with Tingid Bugs and Jewel Beetles

Mary River Threatened Species Detec-

tive Game where children got to play de-tective for the day and learn all about the Mary River threatened species

Meet some lizards and pythons from

Fraser Coast Wildlife Sanctuary

Story-time sessions including Wildlife

Fraser Coast’s ‘Plastic Bag Pantomime’ and WBBEC’s ‘Mary River- A Journey Through Time’ where children could sit back and relax on the picnic rugs under the shade of the Banyan tree

Learn about the Marvellous Mary River

Mangroves through the eyes of Lindsay ‘Butch’ Titmarsh and his photo display and

Take a ride through the park on the

‘Mary Croc-ins Express’ and see the Mary River high up from the banks of the river

Activities were well attended right throughout the event but particularly be-tween 10am-12noon before it got too warm.

Wide Bay Burnett Environment Council cont…

Previous page: Above: A little lad identify-

ing some macroinvertebrates.

Below: Weaving with Cats Claw Creeper.

continued page 18

18

Fraser Coast Regional Council’s

Community Environment Program News by Tina Raveneau

Or contact Tina 4125 9710 Tina.raveneau@frasercoast .qld.gov.au

This environmental education initiative has been so well received by the commu-nity and it is just fantastic to see so many children having fun while learning about the environment, the Mary River and why it is important to all of us and for our fu-ture. We must never forget that in order to convince a community why they should protect the environment, we must first show why it is important and why it mat-ters to them. We must show them the value of the environment in their own fu-tures.

While the event is funded and run by WBBEC, we simply could not deliver it to the community without the support and dedication of many local environment, catchment care, landcare and community groups.

Mary River Catchment Coordinating Com-mittee, The Greater Mary Association, Tiaro and District Landcare, Wildlife Fra-ser Coast, Bauple and District Recreation Grounds Association, Apex Club of Maryborough, Fraser Coast Wildlife Sanc-tuary, Lindsay ‘Butch’ Titmarsh and Erica Neate; from WBBEC, we thank you all wholeheartedly for your contribution and commitment to the event.

As a result of last year’s event, I was con-tacted by a number of local childcare cen-tres and providers and asked whether I

could attend their centres and give a local environment presentation. This is how the ‘Mary River- A Journey Through Time’ story time session was born. In 2014 I attended a number of centres and gave the presentation to many enthusiastic little kids who all thoroughly enjoyed it.

I am now potentially booked to attend at least 5 different centres in the next few months to give the presentation again and I am thoroughly looking forward to it yet again.

So, in wrapping up, let 2015 be the year that the environment is placed back on the agenda across the state and here’s to hoping that whoever forms government in Queensland post January 31st has the courage and conviction to consider the environment’s protection in all decision making and ensure that it is always a top priority.

Until then, remember ‘every bit counts’.

Emma-Kate Currie Manager Wide Bay Burnett Environment Council Inc

P.S. WBBEC has moved! We are now located in Shop 11/A, 224 Adelaide Street, Maryborough 4650 (Upstairs in the Sunstate Arcade and, yes, this is our postal address too).

Wide Bay Burnett Environment Council cont…

No report in this issue. Back next. See FCRC website for link to current news .

http://www.frasercoast.qld.gov.au/community-environment-program

19

Those of us who know Glenda through Wildlife FC would observe a sensible, hardworking and down to earth member. But her working life started very different-ly; she joined the RAAF to see the world! But as often happens, things didn’t go to plan. In her ten year stint in the air force she only saw Wagga and Canberra.

Nevertheless her working life has been varied, and far from ordinary. She moved onto the Australian Public Service, work-ing in both the Employment Services and Primary Industries departments. Her time in Canberra saw her study Horticulture part time and this led to work at the grow-ing houses of ANU, where she was in-volved in the difficult task of growing eu-calypts from cutting. Glenda also worked propagating plants at a nursery near Can-berra that specialises in developing new varieties of native plants.

These experiences have influenced many of Glenda’s subsequent pursuits. With her husband Adrian they spent four years in the US. There she joined a local Beautifi-cation Committee, established a town arboretum and earned the title of a Texas Master Gardener. A google search re-veals that this is a prestigious organisa-tion, and they get to wear very big garden-ing hats!

Back in Australia Glenda continued to advance her skills working in the natural environment by taking on a role of Team

Leader and trainer with Conservation Vol-unteers, and also teaching Conservation and Land Management and Horticulture at Maryborough TAFE, where she had previ-ously worked as a technician.

Not satisfied with getting her finger nails dirty in a nine to five job, Glenda has her own small propagating nursery at home in Maryborough where her focus is ground-covers and understorey plants endemic to our region.

A recent project Glenda has been very involved in is the production of the publi-cation Creating a Wildlife Corridor on the Mary River which details the work of the Greater Mary Association (of which Glen-da is currently the president) and local landholders to develop a riparian wildlife corridor along the Mary.

Glenda’s busy life also involves substan-tial family commitments. Adrian and Glen-da have two sons and a daughter, and two grandsons. She was born in Western Australia, and as most of her own family are still there, return trips to the West are frequent.

While Glenda says she loves to be in-volved with groups like Wildlife FC because of what she can learn (“wish I had a bota-ny friendly brain”), with the knowledge and experience Glenda brings to our group the appreciation is certainly reciprocated.

Peter Duck

Volunteer Profile

Glenda Pitman Member Wildlife FC

20

Branch Monthly Outings - November

Mungomery Vine Forest Reserve, at Dundowran Beach & Arkarra Lagoons and Wetlands

About twelve people attended this leisurely stroll through Mungomery Vine Forest Reserve to the Dun-dowran Beach. High up in the trees we spotted Cymbidium canaliculatum in full flower (photo 3). On the beach we admired the beautiful Casuarina equisetifolia, which has many com-mon names - including Horsetail She-oak; Beach Sheoak; Beach Casuari-na; Coast Sheoak and Whistling Pine. The specific name equisetifolia is derived from the Latin equisetum, meaning "horse hair" referring to the resemblance of the drooping branch-lets to horse tail. The “whispering” of the tails of minute scale leaves in the

wind is very characteristic of our

coast. Another interesting plant, which is not so common is Sophora tomentosa, called Necklace Bush (photo 1) because of its long string of

seed pods. Following the walk we

drove a short distance to Arkarra tea gardens, and after refreshments strolled around the wetlands (photo

4). On the water the delicate

'Snowflakes' Nymphoides indica was in bloom (photo 5). While native to Queensland it is a very cosmopolitan

species, found in several continents.

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3

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5

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People you meet……

Coral Turley-

It’s not every day you meet someone who has a plant species named after them! Coral turned up to our Tinnanbar branch outing with friend, Wildlife member Glenda Pitman. Coral was visiting from Esperance WA. We began to prick up our ears as Coral started reeling off the Greek and Latin roots of plant names such as leucopogen, the beard heath, “pogen’ meaning beard, and correct-ing our pronunciation “it’s “Hib – bert-ia, not Hi-bert-ia, named after Mr Hibbert”. Truly she knew what she was talking about.

Coral, a trained nurse, moved to Esperance with a young family. She gave up work for the family and home including trying to fig-ure what sort of plants would grow on the Esperance sand plains. This sparked a pas-sion for native plants and she joined a local group and became a self-taught botanist. She later worked voluntarily for about 30 years for the herbarium in Esperance, col-lecting, pressing, naming and cataloguing plants. During that course she discovered three new species, one in each of the ge-nuses Hibbertia, Goodenia and Stylidium.

I was amazed talking to Coral to learn that WA has a Regional Herbaria Network. Some research from me discovered that this links regional community groups to the Western Australia herbarium, “creating nodes of local expertise”. Hundreds of volunteers work in over 80 herbariums across the state. A Weed Information Network runs alongside. Check out http://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/rhn/

Gary Brooks-

Gary was our guide on the September Tin-nanbar outing; a very unassuming man who has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the local plants. Prior to the outing Gary provided us with comprehensive flora lists for the Tin-nanbar area. And then, at the conclusion of our outing he presented our branch with a DVD of all his wildflower photos that link to his plant lists. What a resource to possess! Our secretary (who has been dawdling somewhat over the DVD….) reckons it’s better than any field guide. Remarkably Gary has collected and pressed about 300 species (to be formerly identified by the state herbarium) .

Gary grew up on a dairy farm “halfway up” Bauple mountain. He worked for the PMG until a crook back forced a change of life-style. He moved to Tinnanbar in 1986 and because of his back he was restricted to walking for exercise. He soon became inter-ested in the plants and armed himself with volumes of Stanley and Ross and began to learn to identify the local plants.

He heard about a proposed 700 acre devel-opment nearby and contacted the state her-barium to see what plants were listed for the area. The response was…..one! And that was including the area 5 miles around Tin-nanbar. So Gary set about to record Tin-nanbar’s flora. He has entered species on to the Atlas of Living Australia www.ala.org.au , where there are now 277 species listed for

Tinnanbar. Jenny Watts

Coral (left) with friend, Glenda Gary (left)

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Report on CLIMATE ACTION SUMMIT Held in Brisbane on 20-21 Sep 2014 By Juanita Johnson

A good 250 people filed into the QUT Gardens Campus for two days of inten-sive workshops on how to spread the urgency of climate action to the Aus-tralian public and our neighbours.

It was wise to arrive with homework done giving a grasp of all the top line speakers and their presentations, guessing who could be one’s favoured presenters and sort out how one could shuffle most of them in to a tight schedule. I knew my top speaker would be Dr Jane O’Sullivan speaking on population control. Little did I realize what dynamos the Beyond Zero Emissions team had become.

QUT’s welcome by David Hood, AM told us that we are witnessing the most horrific change this planet has ever seen since life began; that our Government was not facing up to the issues, so it was up to us to get on with the job ourselves.

Next Professor Will Steffen from ANU gave us a climate science update – all problems! So far the ocean is absorbing 93% of the heat. Being fluid it responds in fits and starts with globally synchronous signals higher, not natural variables. Basic science says “warming of the climate system is une-quivocal”. In Australia, when it is affecting sports ovals and players as the news re-ports, it is getting serious! Rainfall is in-creasing from ocean heating. A warmer atmosphere contains more water – which comes in heavy falls events, though not in drought prone areas. Greenland’s ice loss has caused a 7 metre rise in their sea level. West Antarctica is also melting. The Climate Council’s “Guide to Communicating Climate Change in Australia” shows the economic costs from rising tides around our coastline are frightening.

Next was Simon Sheikh, founder of GetUp, reminding us that we scored the highest vote for voter disengagement by informal votes and minor parties in the last election. The PUP was a tipping point. One powerful ploy is to manage our finances wisely: Di-

vestment action was critically important in cutting off the apartheid power in S Africa; that coal is the asbestos of the 21st century; that the size of our Retirement Savings (RS) is the largest RS in the World; that we have $1.3 trillion in home loans in Australia. Our Big 4 Banks are in the top 10 Banks in the World. So make a home loan switch. If 2,000 home loans were to switch, that would equal $1 billion – a serious signal for the Big 4 who have left themselves wide open by being so expensive. Smaller banks have smaller charges. China peaks for 16 out of 20 mainstream market analysts. Recently China an-nounced: a) She would reduce the worst of her eco-logical risks and b) That she will move into alternative energy. China is now regarded as having the great-est movement into alternative energy. This puts our Superannuation funds under risk with the Big 4 Banks. Now is the time to align our money safely and with an ecologi-cally focused bank.

Reclaiming Democracy: Tony Lane, Treas-urer ‘Voices for Indi’ Cathy McGowan ran as an independent for the Division of Indi in Victoria at the 2013 Australian federal elec-tion, against the Liberal incumbent Sophie Mirabella. A grassroots campaign started when a group of locals gathered to brain-storm and see what they could do for the coming election. They chose not to talk about local affinities but focus on what the average person wanted. Some said: This electorate is only interested in the cost of living, which they chose to ignore. So their campaign motto was “Sign up to the values”. They told their group to bring someone they hardly knew to the next meeting and to Be your best self. From this humble beginning their candidate became a challenging con-testant. They trained their members to be-come alert scrutineers. Post election they demanded recounts. When a lost box of votes was discovered, it truly acknowledged the group’s success as McGowan claimed victory, winning the seat.

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Susie Burke, Public Interest, Environment & Disaster Response, Aust. Psychological Soc. We need to know the facts. The Arctic has lost two thirds of its ice mass; it is warm-ing faster than other places on the planet. Scientists generally agree on climate change but not the rate of change. We are all totally dependent on the five main cycles of the planet: water, carbon, ocean, atmos-phere and nitrogen cycles. Since 1970 we have destroyed 60% of the trees which help us sustain these cycles.

Morag Gamble, Founder of Northy Street Community Gardens: We were given invita-tions to visit the Northy Street Community Gardens and Crystal Waters Permaculture Village gardens. World agriculture is mov-ing into a monoculture which grows three species: rice, corn and wheat. Morag has visited farms in Denmark which grow crops sustainably and people are encouraged to eat less meat. Morag’s dream is to have small systems that supply small designs in harmony with na-ture. Doing it with others makes it workable; retro-fit the suburbs, keeping everything small scale. Morag spoke on our securing food security for our district. She is certain that no matter what the rise in temperature, we would still be able to grow our own food – provided we had water.

How to present Climate Change to the public: Terry McBride, ParraCAN. We need to re-member that we live on a living organism that is called a “Biosphere”. We can kill it. 1° heat rise means increased water vapour which means more storms, and floods (though not necessarily in drought afflicted areas). If we would find a 1° temperature rise difficult, what is going to happen with a 2° rise in heat? Every rooftop should be painted white to keep the planet cooler. He is amazed to see Queensland’s dark rooftops. Dr Stephen Bygrave, CEO, Beyond Zero Emissions (BZE) runs a think tank in Mel-bourne. Australia’s emissions are higher per capita than the USA. BZE are focusing

on 6 pillars of concern that we need to ad-dress, to enable us to move through this time of transition into a healthy sustainable future. They are: An Energy Plan A Building Plan A Speed Rail and Transport Plan A Land Use Plan Industrial Processes Plan A Renewable Energy Superpower BZE work in with Dr Jeremy Rifkin (a US advisor to UN and USA on future develop-ment models) as interviewed on Power for the People, the process of each of these phases are being published in book form. The Transport Plan is the latest published and The Land Use Plan is due out late Octo-ber. I brought back The Building Plan which is available for borrowing.

Dr Jane O’Sullivan from Sustainable Popu-lation Australia spoke on Australia’s rising population. Our natural growth rate is the highest of the First World Economies and it needs to be curtailed. Jane believes that couples should be given support for their first two children. If they have more than two children, that is their prerogative, but there should be no support for these children. They would be provided for by the parents.

Jane described the lessons being learned in Africa where some nations are encouraging family planning to limit their population, and some are not. Those nations who are en-deavouring to limit their population growth are experiencing higher wealth and well-being than their neighbours who do not en-courage birth control. Smaller families mean less stress on the parents to provide for them and this allows parents to plan their future and support the common good. It can be clearly seen that other nations who have overpopulated the land, have overexploited all their woodlands and wildlife in their con-stant search for fuel and food, so that the land is left parched and desolate with a vast population requiring foreign aid. Their gov-ernments are in disarray because they do not receive internal income to support the job of governing.

Report on CLIMATE ACTION SUMMIT Held in Brisbane on 20-21 Sep 2014 continued

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Report on CLIMATE ACTION SUMMIT Brisbane on 20-21 Sep 2014

continued

FRIENDS OF THE BURRUM RIVER SYSTEM GROUP

(aka Friends of the Burrum)

Everything permitting, our first paddle for the year will be on Saturday, February the 14th (St. Valentine’s Day). This will be a paddle with a difference, as we propose to paddle on the out-going tide from Wall’s Camp to Buxton (about 5k) and return on the incoming tide for our usu-al sausage sizzle lunch. Although the low tide is not all that low (1.26m) there could be almost as much sand bank(s) as water for paddlers to negotiate. Portage will not be necessary. The upside is there will be plenty of opportunities to get out and have a play on the sand banks.

Launching at Wall’s camp will be about 10am giving us about an hour to paddle downstream to Buxton. There we have a huge sand bank to play on, and / or the public boat ramp and adja-cent pontoon to allow you to go ashore and buy an ice-cream /a drink / whatever, at the store. When the tide turns it will be an easy paddle back through the sand banks to Wall’s Camp for lunch at about 1 pm. Outgoing / low tides on the Burrum are not as easy to predict as incom-ing / high tides, so the return will depend upon the day.

En route we will pass the islands and the mouth of the Cherwell River, the islands and mouth of the Isis River, and go across Buxton Hole (the deepest section of the entire Burrum River system).

Please RSVP to me for catering purposes. Newcomers / learners are most welcome.

Tim Thornton - Phone 0741290609

invite you to their next paddle!

Many Australians blame lax immigra-tion laws allowing too many displaced people into the country for our rising population. However, Australia’s intake of immigrants is on par with the rest of the Western World.

Gerard Wedderburn Bisshop (BAE) was an unexpected delight to listen to. He gave a passionate talk on how Australia is mostly misusing our land in chemical agriculture, raising beef cattle, and clearing bushland for these farming pursuits which are not viable in the long term. He is co-author in a soon to be published book The Land Use Plan.

In the Free Speech Forum a MD from Gladstone spoke of the damage to human health as well as the harbour and its industries during the work of extending the harbour for overseas supertankers. He gave graphic pic-tures of the before and during periods of this AU$60 billion ecocide covering 500 square acres of the harbour. The Bund Wall which was highlighted as being the supporting backbone for the venture was shown to be negligently designed, built and supervised by Gladstone Harbour Management. In order to save money, the geotextile was not used in its intended inner position, but used on the outside to cover over the entire wall. It was quickly ripped to pieces by the rocks used in raising the bund wall, allowing the toxic contents to ooze out. There occurred deaths of many endangered marine species.

I am so grateful for these two days of listening to and speaking with some of Australia’s foremost thinkers as they highlighted the serious concerns ahead caused by our nation’s un-thinking focus on momentary comfort.

Juanita Johnson