Friends of Piesse Brook

Bamboozle

Friends gathered to help the Gherardi’s burn off their stacks of bamboo.  The watering trailer came in very handy to control the burn.

 

Filming for the Awards presentation

DEC came out to video the group in action to create a video 'montage' for the awards night.  The video 'montage' will be shown at the gala dinner night for the awards presentation.  Bridget Hogarth and Linda Stanley will attend the gala dinner on 16th November.  Bridget put down as her 'special requests' for the dinner ' lots of wine please'.  Linda has agreed to drive Bridget to the dinner, provided Linda doesn't have to pour Bridget home at the end of the night.

 

Finalists in WA Environment Awards

The Friends of Piesse Brook are celebrating today as we have been announced as finalists in the Western Australian Environment Awards – a huge honour for our small group of volunteers.  We are finalists in the following category along with the following entrants:

Bush, Land and Waterways

• Friends of Piesse Brook Inc
• Rockingham Naragebup Regional Environment Centre
• South West Regional College of TAFE

The winners of the various categories will be announced at an awards presentation night on 16th November at a gala dinner.

War on Watsonia

14 Friends members and local residents gathered together to fight the good fight.  The battle commenced at two fronts, 250 Aldersyde Road where one battalion moved downstream and at Piesse Brook Orchard where the other battalion moved upstream.

The soldiers spent the day attacking the enemy Watsonia, with a break at midday for BBQ.  Several kilometers of Watsonia were sprayed and two battalions of triumphant soldiers trudged wearily home at the end of a very successful day. 

You'll see some great photos below as well as a cartoon published in the The Echo ......

 

Further Upstream

We now need to look further upstream and promote the work we are doing to land owners along the banks of the Piesse Brook from 250 Aldersyde Road (the limit of our work zone in 2007) back upstream to its source.  The Friends of Piesse Brook wrote a letter to the land owners further upstream to inform them of the work being done downstream from them and asking them to join in the project of removing weed seed sources from their properties.

Zig Zag Graphics agreed to support the group’s project by printing fridge calendar magnets for the group to send to land owners along with the letter requesting them to join in our project.  Eastern Metropolitan Regional Council agreed to help as well by duplicating the letter and posting the letter and magnets out to the land owners along the brook line.

In 2007 eleven land owners along Aldersyde Road joined in the project, from the limit of the first Aldersyde Road project zone, back to the source of the Piesse Brook in Pickering Brook there are another 70 land holders.  Let’s hope we can get them all board too.

Hats for workers

The Friends of Piesse Brook are now uniform. DEC has very kindly sponsored the workers of Friends of Piesse Brook hats.

The Friends wanted hats to identify workers in the National Park (as well as protection from the sun We often get asked by passers by in the National Park what we are doing and who we belong to The hats will indentify us for the wider community.

Aldersyde Road Project Project

The Aldersyde Road private landholder project was launched with an excellent start in 2007.  So far this is what has been achieved:

• First priority was the  initial blackberry and morning glory spraying.  That has now been completed. This has been a very effective first hit.  We expect that the follow-up spray will result in the control of at least 90% of the population  along the entire stretch of the 2km project.
• The second priority in Aldersyde Road was bamboo slashing. All bamboo stands have now  been slashed. This was very difficult as access was extreme in some places, although the results have been pleasing.
• The next few months priorities will involve follow up blackberry spraying and spraying of bamboo shoot regrowth.
• Watsonia is an obvious priority.  A community work day on Sunday 23rd September, a  “War on Watsonia” day  targeting this dreadful weed will help to get on top of this problem invader.

2007 Progress

In 2007 we started the Aldersyde Road Private Land Holder Project.  Private landholders from Hummerston Road along Aldersyde Road as far south as 250 Aldersyde Road, joined in the first stage of our project .