not quite a mayhem

Friends of Freycinet Working Bee 1-5 May 2017

Last year we had a Monster May-hem event. This year there was no hem in our May, and it was a little less monstrous with only 10 participants for varying lengths of time during the week.

We had a comprehensive list of 20 jobs compiled by our friends at PWS Freycinet. We managed to add 5 to that list during the week and we completed 18 of these all up. These included;

Assisting Fee with cleaning the summer program gear.

Chipping and removing vegetation from around the workshop area.

Oiling the Cape Tourville boardwalk.

Oiling the deck of the Friendly Beaches L.O.

Painting the floors of the 2 toilets at F.B.

Picking up rubbish at all the F.B. campsites and trimming vegetation at beach access points.

Oiling the deck of the Richardsons Beach L.O.

Hacking the horrid heath at the Harveys Fm Rd. Site. 2139 of these plants were dealt with plus 87 sea spurge plants removed at Bingham’s Bay.

Removal of boneseed, sweet pittosporum and other weeds at Whalers L.O. Painting the fence at La Repaire.
Oiling the deck and balustrades at the above.
Painting the picnic table there.

At Saltwater Lagoon 690 Caper spurge plants, 1 sea spurge plant, and many thistles were removed.

We removed 99 psoralea and about 200 sweet pittosporum plants (many of them small) from the Coles Bay township roadside reserve.

A new supply of the very handy Sea Spurge cards was made.

Assisting with putting down a new gravel surface on the track from the VC to Ranger Creek.

Removed 3 sea spurge plants from Muir’s Beach below the EOTB resort. Picking up rubbish at the DMR quarry site.
Surveying the entire beach at Dolphin sands – no sea spurge found

The whole of Nine Mile beach was walked checking for sea spurge. None were found. This task does not have to be repeated as in our experience (and we have more than most) the beach structure does not lend itself to infestation by this weed.

The program was well organised by PWS and the week’s events went very smoothly. All 10 participants were accommodated in Adrian and Cathy Sullivans holiday home in Coles Bay for which we thank them profusely. Elise Wells baked us some fabulous cakes. Thanks Elise.

We met and worked with new staff at Freycinet and look forward to continuing our excellent partnership.

At the AGM Sally Salier stepped down from the role of Secretary and Adrian Sullivan was elected. Sally has given great service to our work here and I am sure she will continue to come to many of our events in the future.

The event was attended by Sally Salier, Christine Sedevic, Jenny Tudehope, Lorraine Cotter, Ian and Joan Fitzallen, Chris Woods and Bronwyn Batchelor, Greg Kidd, and Dave Harris.

The working bee was preceded on Friday by a meeting with Minister Groom. This was attended by Sally and Dave representing Wildcare Inc. and Friends of Freycinet respectively. The Minister was interested in getting the views of volunteers on their role in the management of the Park and the issues it faces with the ever increasing demands placed on it.

On the Sunday prior to the working bee, Sally, Chris and Bronwyn, and Dave attended a M.O.B. (Members Outreach Bash) organised by Landcare and hosted by the Friends of Rocky Hills for a Clean up Australia Day activity, lunch and a chance to network with other groups working up and down the coast. Lunch was provided by Landcare at a very clean Mayfield Beach camping area. We were able to give a short presentation of the work we do at Freycinet and gain knowledge of what other groups are doing and the problems they face. It was a valuable experience.

The advice from Volunteering Tasmania is the multi day events away from home count as 24 hours per day volunteering time as one is not home ‘to feed the dog’. I prefer to only count actual time on the job plus travel time to and from home to the event and time spent planning, organising and writing up reports etc. Participation in all these events by members totalled 413 hours.

Dave Harris, Friends of Freycinet Wildcare Branch.