Friends of Freycinet

Friends of Freycinet October working bee

No, the group wasn’t rubbish, they were great, but there was a lot of rubbish on the ground, especially around some of the camping areas. The worst culprits being mostly toilet paper, tissues, glass and plastic drink bottles. They were a cheerful mob though and diligently went about the thankless task of cleaning up after others. The only consolation was we did spot some orchids hidden in the vegetation.

The group did have some respite from rubbish over the three days of the working bee. Half the group put in some time at Honeymoon Bay. After an initial rubbish round, they straightened and painted bollards and posts, as well as putting a fresh coat of paint on the picnic tables and the BBQ shelter.  While the painters were hard at work a small group set off through the camping areas once again on the rubbish hunt, with a little vegetation trimming along the way, finally coming to a stop to remove some weeds at the Coles Bay end of Richardsons Beach – namely sweet pittosporum and arum lilies.

Meanwhile the other half of the group headed out to Cape Tourville fixing drains, trimming vegetation, a little bit of painting, collecting rubbish and enjoying the sight of passing whales from the viewing platform. This same group later walked from the Wineglass Bay carpark towards the lookout to block some short cut tracks that have been established near the steps plus clearing drains, doing some vegetation trimming as they went, and of course, collecting rubbish.

Other tasks over the three days included building an animal box for the injured/sick or just disoriented animals, laying the concrete slab for the new Park Entry Fee box at Douglas-Aspley and repairing a fence at the carpark at Denison South. A morning was also spent on the old DMR site on the Coles Bay Road removing recreational rubbish.

Thank you very much to all involved, it was another successful working bee. Apart from our Schouten Island working bee in December the next Friends of Freycinet working bee on the Freycinet Peninsula will be in March 2025.

Jenny, coordinator FOF