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FRIENDS OF BUSHY PARK
WETLANDS ANNUAL REPORT TO JUNE
2004
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Members:
Our small committee has had a busy year
with various activities concerning Bushy
Park Wetlands. Apart from attending
bi-monthly committee meetings, our
members, with help from other Friends of
Dandenong Valley Park, have attended half
a dozen working bees during the year.
Peter Campbell, Margaret Junor and
myself have continued as committee
members. However during the year we were
sorry to loose the full time services of
Rosemary Cowen, Kim Cunningham and
Karina-Anne Pierotti due to their other
commitments. I would like to thank all of the above for their contribution to the Friends
of Bushy Park Wetlands while they were
with us.
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Working
Bees: During the middle
of 2003 we had working bees to construct
duck nesting boxes at Shepherd Road Depot. In March 2004 we erected on poles our
allocation of five duck nesting boxes, in
water in front of the BPW Bird Hide.
Over the recent summer we
inspected the bat nesting boxes that we
installed last year, but as expected found
no evidence of bat occupation yet. We also
had a few working bees to weed and plant
at our native gardens at Highbury Road and
at the Bird Hide. The Bird Hide was also
oiled inside and out to help preserve the
timber. In addition some of our
members helped at working bees organised
by the FDVP at other location in Dandenong
Valley Parklands.
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Activities:
Our only other activity was a “Water
Watch” conducted by Rosemary Cowen on
Saturday 8th November 2003. Because of
insurance issues, no “Frog Watch” or
“Possum Prowl” was conducted last year at
Bushy Park Wetlands.
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Community Grants
03-04:
Unfortunately we were
too late in applying for a grant in 2003
and only one grant was available for the
whole of DVP this year, so we missed out again.
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Feature
Articles: Every 2 months I have
written an article for the Friends of DVP
Newsletter, the Information Shelter and
our Website. Topics covered include:
Dusky Moorhen, Australian Raven, Little
Pied Cormorant, Laughing Kookaburra,
Erecting Duck Nesting Boxes and Purple
Swamphen. Rosemary Cowen also wrote
an informative article on the “Water
Watch” conducted in November 2003.
Most of these articles are still on our
Website at -
http://home.vicnet.net.au/~fbpw/
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FBPW?:
Due to declining
numbers, other commitments and a
general lack of interest, the Friends of
Bushy Park Wetlands are taking a break
from active duty after over 10 years of
service since early 1993. For their
contributions, I would like to thank Margaret Boyd & Doug Kater
for establishing the group, Garth
Junor - President till October 1996, Peter
Campbell - our long serving Secretary,
Gary Bryar, John Calamatta, Paul Nicholls,
Margaret Junor, Veronica Langberg -
history of BPW, Mimi Pohl, Sonia McDonald,
Kim Cunningham, Rosemary Cowen - including many
Water Watches, Bryan
Loft, Karina-Anne Pierotti and any
others who have helped at our working
bees. I would also like to thank all the
Parks Victoria staff who have assisted us over the years,
especially Jack Dinkgreve, Mick van der Vreede, Carol Buckingham
and Jaci Lees (nee Oxer) who attended many of our committee
meetings.
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The
Future: As
members of the wider FDVP we may still
involve ourselves in activities from time
to time. I hope to record sightings
from the bird hide of visiting water birds each month, also
write quarterly articles for the FDVP newsletter, and regularly
update the FBPW website.
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