Green Army takes on the dunes
Our Green Army team spent another week with us in July and gave us a finishing boost with their enthusiasm and hard work. At Dutch Inn five year old Thomas Cooper and his mother Karin joined in to help with the weeding.
The last plant…. and lamingtons!
Whoopee! Planting is finished for 2016. It has been a very busy patch getting 4000 local provenance seedlings in the ground over 7 weeks. This past week we had an excellent Green Army team – a team of young people sign up for a 6 month period to work and to learn all sorts of skills at the same time.
Congratulations to Laurel Bant
On May 11th 2016 Town of Cottesloe held the annual ‘Volunteers Sundowner’at the War Memorial Hall. The event was scheduled during National Volunteer Week. The Town of Cottesloe Mayor, Jo Dawkins, said the Sundowner is a thank you to community volunteers. She mentioned that there are more than 6 million Australians who volunteer!
Our planting efforts have started brilliantly!
This year we have 4000 seedlings all grown from local provenance seed (which was collected and cleaned by our volunteers). Two nurseries have grown the plants for us and Town of Cottesloe have paid for the plants.
Celebrating 20 Years!
“Volunteers don’t get paid for what they do, not because they are worthless but because they are priceless.” In 1995 a small group of locals banded together to form the South Cottesloe Coastcare Association to to achieve a more robust and diverse ecosystem for the Cottesloe foreshore. In 2001 it became Cottesloe Coastcare and extended its range along the 4 kilometres of the Cottesloe coast.
Saving silky scaevola – year 9 of the story
During October 2006 I did a plant survey at Cottesloe Native Garden with the naturalist Robert Powell. We found only one silky scaevola (Scaevola anchusifolia) whereas several plants had been recorded approximately 15 years earlier.
Meet Ruby the new seadragon
Between 2009 – 2011 I led CCA’s campaign to have the weedy seadragon (Phyllopteryx taeniolatus) protected in Western Australia. During this time I often corresponded with Dr Nerida Wilson, at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) in California.
Summer Sessions Summary
It has been long and hot summer but as you can see from the photos, Cottesloe Coastcare volunteers keep busy. There is seed to collect – some big seed heads such as the Spinifex longifolius are not difficult to gather but as you can see in the photo of the Conostylis candicans that their seeds are very tiny indeed.
Kadjil the Crow man
Mudurup Rocks is believed to be one of the traditional haunts of the crow or warrdung according to Aboriginal oral history. Now the stories from Aboriginal elders have been recorded by Dr. Barb Dobson and Ken Macintyre, local anthropologists with a long connection with Cottesloe.
Pricewaterhouse Coopers on dune duty
Friday 14 November was another good working bee on the dunes. Pricewaterhouse Coopers have given us lots of help over the years with planting and weeding. We are very grateful for this on-going support.
Coast to Coast Conference 2014
I am very grateful to Lotterywest for sponsoring me to attend two days of the recent conference. It was held over 5 days at various venues around the Mandurah Performing Arts Centre. The first Australian Coast to Coast conference was held back in 1994.
Wonderful Woodside weeders
CCA had a very productive three day ‘weedathon’ in late October. We are very grateful to Woodside who sponsored two small work teams from Conservation Volunteers Australia (CVA) for the first two days.