Friends of Freycinet

 

Day 1

Volunteers (Ian, Joan, Bronwyn, Chris, Helen, Petita, Peter, Ros and John) met at the Freycinet Parks & Wildlife Service (PWS) workshop mid-morning on Monday to be welcomed and briefed by Ranger Marta on working bee plans and risk management. This was followed by a combined morning tea (thanks very much Joan for the yummy home-made biscuits), and early lunch. The afternoon was spent working on a tidy up of the Richardsons Beach campsites with Marta and PWS staff members Amy and Wolfie. We trimmed vegetation from around the campsites, collected rubbish and filled potholes on the access road.

Day 2

The initial plan for the day was to use the PWS boat to transport volunteers (three boat trips from Coles Bay), along with Marta and Amy, to Cooks Beach to then walk back to Hazards Beach -  clearing foliage and tree falls along the track. Unfortunately, this plan was foiled by waves preventing landing the first load of people on the beach. With the boat already on the water and a colony of seals sighted on Refuge Island, Skipper Steve kindly treated all the volunteers to a highly enjoyable viewing of the seals! Onto Plan B - weeding! Half the group went with Marta to Meredith Point (at the end of River and Rocks Road) to tackle gorse and thistles, while the rest worked with Wolfie near the Swanwick boat ramp cutting out boxthorn and cotoneaster. Weed removal count: Meredith Point 250+ gorse (8 flowering); 1000+ thistles Swanwick boat ramp 10 large boxthorn; 1 large cotoneaster

Day 3

We were down to seven volunteers, as unfortunately Helen was unwell and Ros had to go back to work. With Marta in charge we travelled to the Douglas Apsley and spent a couple of hours clearing drains and gutters on the Loop Track. After eating lunch at the waterhole we did some minor track clearing on the Apsley Gorge Track.

Day 4

Morning jobs completed included:

• Wolfie and Petita taking a truck to Swanwick to load the boxthorn and cotoneaster for disposal at the tip
• Ian, Chris and Peter doing maintenance work on the Richardsons Beach whale seat
• Joan, Bronwyn, John and Amy painting tables and BBQ surrounds at Ranger Creek
• Bronwyn, Petita and John making a start on sorting through the Schouten Island caretaker equipment
• Collecting, counting and cleaning FOF tools

A lunchtime BBQ (prepared by Wolfie, Marty and Amy) wrapped up another productive and enjoyable working bee. Many thanks to Marta and all the PWS staff for organisation of the week and to all the volunteers for giving up their time to care for Freycinet National Park.