Earthcare News
June 2000
I do what I can, where I am.
Changes at the EcoCentre
Earthcare would like to welcome Emma Hess as the new co-ordinator at the EcoCentre. We also lament Neil Blake’s absence, who is on long service leave, although is still volunteering with the Penguins. Emma has taken on the Co-ordinator position in a part time capacity, which means that people wishing to access the Ecocentres’ facilities will have to do it on Monday Tuesday Or Wednesday 9am till 5pm. This will not effect any of the meetings held, Earthcare or otherwise.
The EcoCentre is at the corner of Blessington and Herbert St. St Kilda Ph 9209 6491
West Beach Natural History Project
Present
Your one chance to
Plant at Wild West Beach
Saturday 15th of July 10am –2pm
Corner Pier Rd And Beaconsfield Parade
Some tools and gloves, lunch and refreshments provided.
Don’t forget to Slip Slop Slap
For more details orif anyone has stories to
tell about West Beach or photographs please call Jo-Anne on 9533 8707.
Water Quality Testing at Cowderoy Creek
West Beach corner Pier Rd and Beaconsfield Parade
2nd of June at 2pm
Whats on
29th June, Earthcare meeting, West Beach. Speakers include Jo-Anne Thyer, David Harper ( CoPP Foreshore Co-ordinator) and Sarah Eggleton.
1st July, planting at the rear of Balaclava Station, meet at the Nightingale St Bridge at 10am
2nd July, Water Quality Testing, Cowderoy Creek, West Beach. 2pm
2nd July, Penguin Research, 6.30pm St Kilda Pier. Contact Angela 9527 8334 for confirmation
4th July, Writing successful Grant Applications, Presented by Katie McCracken, Greening Australia
Cost $15.00 Contact Kate Stothers 9457 3024 for details
5 July, Earthcare Committee meeting. All welcome. 7.30 at the EcoCentre
8th July, Friends of Sandy Rail Reserve Planting day. Riddell Pde & Oak Ave Footbridge Elsternwick. 10am Details Rob 9537 2599
15th July, Planting at West Beach. 10am –2pm Contact Jo-Anne for more details 95338707
22nd July, Greening Australia Forum: Remnant Vegetation – A Precious Asset. 9am- 4.30pm
Cost $30. Features speakers from Parks Vic., Bushcare Facilitator, Environment Vic. And more.
23rd July, Introduction to the propagation of Native plants, at SKINc. Ph Sally Daish 9690 5818
27th July Earthcare Meeting, featuring a presentation of the Ecohouse Project, 7.30 the EcoCentre
The EcoCentre is at the Corner of Blessington and Herbert St, St Kilda
Earthcare St Kilda Ph: 0500 832 784
PO Box 287 Elwood 3184
Contributors to this issue are Mark Casey, Emma Hess, Bronte Neyland, Josephine Samuel-King,
Alison Strachan and Zoe Hogg.
If you would like to contribute email us onkingcasey@one.net.au or zoemh@bigpond.com
Special Earthcare Meeting - West Beach
It is a good time to celebrate the history of West Beach and engage in dialogue with the council on its future. We have invited Carolyn Hutchens the ward councillor and David Harper, the Foreshore coordinator to join us at our next Earthcare meeting.
The History of West Beach - Jo-Anne Thyer
West Beach estuary - Sarah Eggleton
St Kilda Foreshore discussion paper - David Harper
Earthcare’s response - Jo Samuel-King
So Come and join us at the next Earthcare meeting, have your say and celebrate West Beach and its future. The Ecocentre at 7.30pm Thursday the 29th of June.
St Kilda Planning and Design Framework Discussion Paper:
West Beach and its future
The future of the St Kilda Foreshore, (West Beach included) is open for discussion. The City of Port Phillip has produced a St Kilda planning and design framework discussion paper that is available for viewing at the EcoCentre and at the Town Halls. The Earthcare committee nominated Josephine Samuel-King to coordinate Earthcare’s response to this paper. The draft response is attached below. We hope it sets out a vision for the future of the St. Kilda foreshore and West Beach in particular. Jo would appreciate any comments and can be contacted on 9534 5751.
Earthcare’s Response
Introduction
Any redevelopment of the foreshore in the City of Port Phillip presents two key opportunities:
·The extension and consolidation of indigenous coastal habitats
·The building of sustainable developments
Extension and consolidation of indigenous coastal habitats
The extension and consolidation of the indigenous coastal habitat is considered suitable for any redevelopment of the foreshore for the following reasons:
·The City of Port Phillip has, as a key objective of its sustainable environment strategy to "protect and enhance Port Phillip’s indigenous flora and fauna (SES 3.4.2).
·The consolidation of the already existing islands of indigenous coastal habitats (Elwood Foreshore, The coastal banksias of Catani Gardens, West Beach, Fraser St. Dunes, Sandridge Beach and Webb Dock) will create a wildlife corridor.
This corridor will:
·increase the value of the already existing areas as wildlife habitat
·reduce the incidence of weed invasion
·improve the visual amenity of the foreshore.
·Indigenous coastal plants are ideally suited to the harsh coastal conditions.
·The use of indigenous flora encourages
community participation in planting and maintenance.
Sustainable development
Sustainable buildings are ideal for any foreshore developments. This is of particular relevance for the following reasons:
·The City of Port Phillip is committed to
Environmentally sustainable development. It has as a particular objective " to reduce its
non-renewable resource consumption and implore responsible use of renewable resources". This objective is met by the promotion of sustainable developments such as the Inkerman street development and the Ecohouse project.
·The beauty, fragility and significance of the foreshore environment demands that any future development follow current "best practice"
standards.
·Sustainable design features may include, shading of west facing windows, outdoor shaded areas and the use of small wind turbines and photovoltaic panels in order to generate power.
West Beach Reserve
We presume that the area referred to as the ‘nature links reserve’ is the West Beach Natural History project, known by local residents and Earthcare simply as "West Beach".
The significance and fragility of this area cannot be underestimated:
Earthcare was involved in the original conceptual work, the funding applications and the actual
physical manual labor needed for this project.
We believe the following changes will protect and enhance this foreshore environment:
·Extension of West Beach Reserve so that it joins to the Fraser street Dunes
·Extension of West Beach Reserve so that it joins and become contiguous with Catani Gardens
·Identification of any impact of increased traffic across the "nature links reserve, and plan to development so that the traffic does not damage the reserve. Another board walk may reduce the impact of pedestrian traffic.
·Retention of West Beach Reserve’s relative inaccessibility. At present West Beach’s relative inaccessibility is serving to preserve it as a "wild space". Australian kestrels hunt over it,
cormorants and white faced heron fish in the estuary. Visitors and residents enjoy its
tranquility. As long as it remains a little "off the beaten track" this amenity can be preserved.
·Retention of the plants that have self seeded back towards the kiosk. The area of indigenous vegetation (through recent planting and self seeding) now extends right back to the kiosk-this needs to be recognised in any future plans.
·Increase in maintenance funding. There has been a recent substantial reduction in resources allocated to the maintenance of Port Phillips revegetation sites, West Beach Reserve among them. The biodiversity and amenity of West Beach is currently threatened by weeds. Current resources appear to be insufficient to deal with this problem.
The West Beach Estuary
The estuary is an important part of the West Beach reserve. Although the poor water quality reduces the amenity of estuary it remains an important habitat for a number of fish species. If the water quality issues are properly addressed it has the potential to
significantly contribute to the amenity of the area.
We therefore propose that the CoPP conduct an audit on the water quality of the West Beach estuary with a view to identifying the causes of the problems with this estuary as well as the best ways of
addressing them.
Earthcare has been conducting its own water quality testing.
Results obtained over the last 9 months show a dismal quality of water. The stream is generally 4 times as bad as a degraded stream, often with a putrid smell, high nutrient levels and littered with drink containers, plastic bags and fast food wrappers
High phosphate levels have been consistently found. These levels of phosphates encourage weed growth, killing sea grass meadows that are vital breeding grounds for fish that feed the penguins. Car washing on pavements is thought to be a major source of these high phosphate levels. Other possibilities could include dog excreta or broken sewers.
Despite the poor water quality there is life in the estuary. Volunteers have sighted birds such as a White-Face Herons, Pied Cormorants and Pacific Ducks feeding in the estuary. Schools of fish (Galaxias and yellow mullet) are also seen in the estuary.
The water quality of West Beach Estuary will be improved by identifying the sources of pollution and addressing them, educating the community,
improving or replacing the existing litter traps, and extending and restoring the natural wetlands at West Beach which act as a natural filtering system to the water. A fresh water wetland further upstream around the Fraser street station is another possible solution. (Wetland plants such as the rushes and sedges eliminate pollutants by absorbing them into their plant tissue).
The Closure of Pier Road and extension of Catani gardens to the foreshore.
Earthcare uses Pier Road in order to access St Kilda Pier and West Beach for Penguin and Rakali
research, seagrass research, plantings, weeding and general maintenance. We therefore require ongoing limited vehicle access to these areas.
The closure of Pier Road and extension of the Catani gardens to the foreshore presents an opportunity for the extension of indigenous flora as outlined above. In particular the edge of the Catani gardens includes old coastal banksias and She-oaks. These may form the Border of future indigenous landscapes.
If a coastal indigenous landscape went ahead, then a smaller replication of the West Beach estuary is possible at the site of the storm water outlet, mid way along Pier Road.
West Beach Bathing pavilion
Earthcare has no in principle objection to the
redevelopment the West Beach Bathing Pavilion for commercial/community activity. However because of the uniqueness and fragility of the "reserve"
surrounding the pavilion, careful thought needs to go into any redevelopment.
A number of issues need to be considered:
·The development needs to complement and enhance the reserve rather than overshadow or detract from it.
·The scale needs to be suitable-preferably one/maximum of two stories.
·This is an ideal site for an environmental
/educational display. This may be an extension of the Port Phillip EcoCentre.
·Construction work must not damage the reserve.
·A proportion of the profits from commercial activities may be used to maintain the reserve and fund other environmental conservation measures.
IT’S BEEN REPORTED THAT MORE MONEY HAS BEEN FOUND BURIED AROUND THE BALACLAVA STATION!
Come and help Earthcare and FoSRR dig some holes
Then put some plants in them!
Saturday 1st July 10am – 2pm
Meeting at Nightingale Street Bridge, behind Balaclava Station.
Please slip, slop, slap and we will see you there
Contact Rob Scott 9537 2599 or Jo Anne 9533 8707 for more information
Interested in Air Quality?
A Community Access to Air Monitoring (CAAM) group is being established for the Victorian Environment Protection Authority (EPA) Brighton air monitoring station. The Brighton CAAM team is one of 3 new groups being established by the EPA following the successful introduction of CAAM teams at EPA air monitoring stations at Dandenong and Alphington
The project involves:
- the CAAM team conducting weekly checks of the EPA's air monitoring equipment to see that there were no obvious operating problems (EPA technicians will visit monthly to deal with equipment malfunctions, and regular maintenance);
* develop community education strategies for spreading information about local air monitoring; and how people can be involved in improving air quality.
These activities provide an opportunity to promote awareness of air quality issues, and to work with the EPA and your local community, to bring about improvements.
To support the CAAM team the EPA has allocated staff and ongoing resources. All CAAM members undergo technical and community education training at no cost to themselves. This is your opportunity to get in on the ground level of a world-first environmental partnership between local community groups and government.
In order to make best use of community resources, local environment groups are being asked to put forward representatives to take a leading role in this project. The Port Phillip EcoCentre will act as the focus for the Brighton team, to facilitate the community representatives in organising the two elements of the CAAM activities.
Emma Hess. Coordinator, Port Phillip Ecocentre (P) 9209 6491 (M) 0401 138565
Seirei (Dragonfly)
Seirei no Kai. Bulletin no. 20000320
General Meeting: March
¬ "Let’s talk on a Global Scale" was a huge success. Participating in this forum
was definitely a worthwhile activity for Seirei no Kai. In particular, the connections
that we made with people from Nihon Fukushi Daigaku (Japan Welfare University)
will be important in the future.
Making of the bamboo charcoal will start from 7am on the 12th of March. We would
appreciate your cooperation.
® We hope to decide this year’s activities by consensus. In particular, I would like to
draw attention to the following:
(1) Increasing the number of activities which have a recreational feel
(2) Ideas for the "Odorikomi" Competition
(3) Means for increasing the connections between administration and Seirei no Kai.
¯ We are making pamphlets about Seirei no Kai and would appreciate any opinions
you have regarding the contents.
° At the end of this year (in October or November) we hope to hold a lecture. It is
undecided whether this will be held in cooperation with other groups or not.
±We hope to create ties with other local volunteer groups.
²Altering Seirei no Kai's constitution. Proposals will be accepted at the Annual
General Meeting.
Activities in March
Making of the bamboo charcoal: For some reason the bamboo burnt very quickly which is of some worry to us. However, there should not be any problems with moisture absorption and purification properties. The reasons that the bamboo burnt quickly are likely to be that the kiln was very dry and that the opening to the fire was a little too large. We hope to improve the process.
Deciding a location for the water wheel: By raising the water level we investigated whether the water wheel could be placed in the proposed location. Inspection proved that this was a suitable location. As some of the fundamentals are difficult for amateurs, discussions are now underway with the Agricultural Division of the Obu City Hall and the Hanai Group. Regardless of the outcome of these discussions, activities related to the water wheel will begin from April. We would greatly appreciate your assistance in completing this project.