Bushcare

To do this, they need three kinds of support;

1)  Feet on the ground (or bums in the dirt!).  The Group needs people to help out with weed removal. No experience needed and if you can work in your garden you can do bush regeneration.  You’ll be shown what’s a weed and how to kill it.  Use of herbicide is limited and not mandatory. It can be hot, cold, scratchy, itchy and sometimes stingy work, but it is immensely satisfying. AND it works.

2) The community to do nothing. If community members can’t help out “on the ground”, then the best thing for them to do is “nothing”.  Things like dumping garden waste on public land, letting dogs run loose in the dunes or bushland, building structures like steps and pathways and cutting down trees to improve views are all illegal and highly detrimental.  It’s best not to even try to weed as this requires specialist knowledge to correctly differentiate between weeds and their local “look alikes” .  And some weeds need special skills or tools to effectively remove them and others are retained to protect the environment while new plantings become established. And don’t plant anything, either. Plant selection and provenance are very important to retain vegetation as close to natural as possible.

3)  Support of Council. The Group operates under the approval and supervision of Council, in accordance with an approved strategic plan.  It reports its activities every week for monitoring [purposes, so make sure that the work is effective and not destructive to the environment.

Volunteers meet Friday mornings (weather permitting!) from 8am until 10am at the beach dunes.