"Local plants for local places"
Information Papers
. Aboriginal Uses of Local Plants
. Site preparation and weed
control guidelines
. Chaim Court, Donvale
Gardiner's Creek Reserve
. Overview
. Bird list
. History
. Historical pictures
History of Greenlink at Chaim Court.
The following article, written by Minette Russell-Young, summarises the work undertaken at Chaim Court bushland to date. Hopefully this is part of the continuing history of Greenlink
Greenlink has been involved, since the latter half of the 1990's, with the Eastern Freeway Tunnel Group's fight to save the Mullum Mullum bushland from a surface freeway. It was a long hard process to arouse the community and persuade people there was a way other than trying to stop development altogether. Stopping development in the current political climate did not look like a possible option to those realistic enough to face it . A tunnel. under the bush, expensive as it looked and eventually turned out to be, had a better chance of satisfying the motor vehicle lobby, allowing the Government to save face and the bush as well.
However during the process of assessing the environmental values of the bush remnants and their precious and rare plants, it also was made clear by Simon Cropper's reports, that more than just keeping the freeway development out was desperately needed. His assessment was that if the weeds that were fast taking over were not controlled immediately, the area would be hardly worth saving in five years' time or less. One only needed a cursory look at some of the edges to see how quickly they were being degraded, to agree he was right.
Already Sweet Pittosporum Pittosporum undulatum had shaded out very large areas and was rapidly seeding into others. Also Pinus Radiata was doing the same thing if not quite so quick1y.
Maintenance crews from the South Eastern Section of Vic Roads. whose responsibility it was to maintain these areas, just had no way without a great deal more support (finance and resources) of coping with the necessary work load. Neither Councils nor the Government were sufficiently motivated to help out in any way. Only one community group, assisted by grants and Greening Austra1ia support. was active at the Hillcrest end. This group very obviously was unable to deal with the whole valley. No one had even thought about the still very beautiful and valuable Chaim Court area although it had been highlighted by Cropper's report to be as good as (or better than) Hillcrest
Greenlink, although its home base is away in the lower Koonung, just felt this problem had to be addressed. A visit in the spring of 1998 was convincing, so we planned a working day in the late Summer of 1999. By then most of the Bulbs and Forbs had gone into Summer dormancy and we wouldn't do any damage to them by trampling them, as we went about the task of clearing out the most obvious invader ie. the Pittosporum. This had to be our first concern. However, in the meantime we managed to persuade the Eastern Freeway Project people, who were by this time getting a bit nervous of us, to employ Darcy Duggan to prepare a detailed map of the present status of the area and give us advice on how to go about this first. To do this we traded on our reputation gained during the revegetation works in the Koonung section of the Eastern Freeway extension. They had at least learned that we meant what we said, and did know what we were taking about - especially when they made very bad blunders after being given advice they ignored at the outset.
We are still trying to undo some of this damage to this day and will be for years yet. They are now careful to listen and do not any longer just brush us off like so many unwanted bush flies or meddling ignorant old ladies. So they did as we requested. Darcy produced a detailed map of the areas, colour coded to show good, fair, degrading and poor regions, and the locations of rare and other indigenous species, dense weed infestations and so on. It was of great assistance. It provided a convenient bench mark for us to work from as well as to gauge our successes and failures, and the efficiency and costs of our work for the future. Darcy also gave us, for free, good advice on methods and possible pitfalls from his vast experience.
Our first working day was a great success, far better than we had expected. Many willing hands turned up to assist. Some of the locals, who were at that stage wanting to back us up didn't realise what hard work we planned, arrived complete with tools and gloves. There were also, surprisingly perhaps, some Eastern Freeway Extension staff equally unaware of what we planned to do. When partnered off, each with a Greenlinker who did know and had come prepared, they found themselves involved before they knew what they were in for. Vic Roads had provided the tools, saws and secateurs and lots of Roundup weed killer, which we had requested as their contribution to the exercise. They also promised trucks to take away the unwanted trees afterwards. The locals had even offered to provide us with a very welcome BBQ to finish off the day. In spite of intermittent showers, by this time we had huge piles of Pittosporum stacked up on the paths and the whole place looked quite different. We had transformed Darcy's low grade sections into the fair to good category. It was no longer a dense thicket quite impenetrable to light but an open forest where indigenous understory plants could one day hopefully recolonise. Tired, wet and grubby but well satisfied with our day's work we trooped off to our promised BBQ and a warm fire to dry off by. The BBQ really was delicious, all the better for us all feeling good, even if we were wet and ached in places we hadn ' t felt before.
After a second day, not so many helpers this time and no BBQ, but mainly Greenlink stalwarts and a couple of locals: the rest had decided it was all too hard for them. However the additional aid of a chainsaw and qualified operator made up for the fewer hands and another big pile of' Pittosporum was soon ready for the trucks to remove. It was necessary to take all the wood and leaves not just the fruits off site. Otherwise this trash, as it rotted would poison the ground and restrict future growth of the indigenous plants. It is just one of the nasty tricks Pittosporum has to help it take over, as well as using the all too cooperative fruit-eating birds to spread the seed far and wide.
The South Eastern Region operators, cheered on by a community group, many of whom although not exactly young were prepared to do so much, took heart from our example. They followed up with an attack on the Pinus radiata, ring-barking the biggest trees and pulled out seedlings. They then eventually took up clearing the Pittosporum from where we had reached to up to the portal of the proposed tunnel. Beyond here all the bush would eventually be removed anyway. These contractors also removed the Pines and Pittosporum from the Western section of the valley just beyond Chaim court. Here, thankfully, the trees had not as yet spread densely enough to cut out the light from the understory, which was still largely intact and quite healthy.
However there was still plenty for Greenlink to do. Freed from the large Pittosporum there was a load of seed still in the ground which proceeded to germinate. Along with this, Blackberry, Ivy and Cotoneaster seedlings were showing up too. Then one saw the grassy weeds Briza and Anthoxanthum being prominent and now becoming obvious as the next round of invaders to repel. We spent another day in the spring attacking these problems but the numbers of peop1e, even Greenlinkers prepared to travel that far and neglect their own patches, were dwindling - not enough to do the job of controlling the grassy weeds that would confront contractors in the future.
However we had obtained a NHT grant and wanted to spend it profitably. Unfortunately this would only pay for revegetation, not assistance with removing weedy grasses, something politicians probably thought was frivolous. They just wanted to see more plants in the ground, but at least they didn't any longer demand that the plants were all trees. We decided to carry out some trials of different ways of going about this, and incidentally controlling the invasion of pasture grasses from the area along the riparian strip.
This section had long been mown by Manningham council as a fire control measure or just to "tidy it up" for the locals to feel good and in control of that "rampant bush" outside their boundaries. This approach not only lost the rare and endangered plants but also actually made the area more fire prone. Pasture grasses are far more likely to provide fuel for fire than the local species. This was apparently quite beyond the understanding of the loca1s. The ultimate resu1t of such treatment could only be loss of a significant part of the whole ecosystem, ie the riparian strip. This section provided quite vital habitats for many creatures, including birds dependant on it for food and shelter, and in turn so necessary to keep insects in control and maintain the health of the plants and of course the remnant stands of Koala habitat, Eucalyptus viminalis or Manna Gum. These latter gums were no longer regenerating or, those seedling that were germinating in spite of competing pasture grasses got mown down yearly, ensuring they could not ever grow to maturity. Thus the the long term future of the Koalas, along with that of the small birds and other fauna and their habitat was all threatened.
In other words the whole ecosystem was under stress and would eventually, without help, disintegrate into a weedscape. Whether we got a tunnel or an open cut freeway, in the end the result would be much the same. If the area were to maintain its locally important plants and animals, something would have to be done, and done soon. Otherwise what was the point of all our efforts to get a tunnel instead of an opencut freeway. Already large areas of the eastern section were so badly degraded it would be almost impossible, and at the least, very costly, now to restore them into sustainable local ecosystem. Less than ten years ago some of this latter section still had good potential to be restored. It still contained much good habitat for the endangered Powerful Owl among other fauna and flora of value but most was now degrading very rapidly, being taken over by Pittosporum along with many other woody, lower story and grassy weeds - mostly garden escapes from local houses or result of horse agistment. For those who had seen it all degrade over the years it showed a sad and very clear message about the future of the whole valley, if something was not done very soon.
The question it all posed was how best to go about the restoration process. We now know a lot more about revegetation and restoration of bushland than twenty years ago. However what is known to work best is still very costly. To be realistic one has to admit it is now beyond the resources of Vic Roads, Councils and community groups all working together. Parks Victoria, the other contender for the job, already has far more land than it can realistically manage and is not interested in taking over any more areas. A cheaper way has to be found. Greenlink has decided to trial some alternatives:
1) Just weeding out the woody weeds in the highest-grade areas and keeping control of their seedlings as they appear. plus encouraging others eg Vic Roads or South Eastern Region contractors to tackle the grassy weeds eg Shivery grass Briza minor and Sweet vernal Anthoxanthum odoratum
2) Hand weeding out pasture grasses and blackberry etc from a small section of the riparian strip near the path where a patch of remnant Eucalypts were still growing. Species like Correa reflexa, Wallaby Grasses Austrodanthonia sp, Chocolate lilies Arthropodium strictum, Heath, Epacris impressa and Acacia mearnsii from nursery grown stock were then planted. All the seeds and cutting materials were sourced from the Mullum Mullum valley. This was paid for by the first NHT Grant and carried out in 1999 and 2000.
3) Spraying out and mulching an area where all the trees had been removed between the area planted out as above and to just above the creek. ie part of the true riparian strip. The area was then planted with an appropriate mix of trees, shrubs and ground covers. The plants were all grown from seed and cutting materials sourced from the Chaim Court bushland section itself, and planted in appropriate places depending on aspect drainage capacity of the soil etc. This has so far proved very successful in terms of plant growth and surviva1, but was a costly exercise. It has required intensive post-planting hand weeding which was paid for by South Eastern Region as well as all the costs of pre-planting preparation.
4) The fourth option which is currently being trialed is a less intensive preparation with spraying several times and ripping but no mulching. The intention is to plant trees very thickly so they will rapidly form a closed canopy. It is hoped that this will compete and shade out the grassy weeds. The long-term strategy will be to plant the ground and middle storeys in around ten years time when these grassy weeds are no longer so virulent. This area already has a number of remnant Manna gums Eucalyptus viminalis. These are now providing one of the last remaining habitats for koalas in the area, but as previously mentioned are unable to regenerate under the present management regime. It is hoped this trial will show a relatively inexpensive way to redress this problem.
5) The last treatment planned is to simply plant Manna gums and Silver Wattle Acacia dealbata into the grass. Stakes will be placed alongside them so the grasses can be slashed without damaging the trees.
The costs incurred by these various methods of coping with the problems and an account of the results will all be documented and provided for the managers of the area to assist in their decisions on future management.
Division of the work.
Greenlink and community volunteers did the initial woody weed removal. This work was completed by contractors paid by the South Eastern Region of Vic Roads. NHT Grants Round One ($2,540.00) paid for the plants used in trials 2 and 3 and Round Three ($1,415.00) for trials 4 and 5. These plants were propagated by Greenlink Box Hill in their Nursery at Box Hill North, from seed and cuttings which they collected at Chaim Court or the nearby Knees Road area of remnant bushland.
Greenlink personnel plus community volunteers did the planting and some of the preparation and early maintenance. South Eastern Section of Vic Roads carried out the preparation and follow up maintenance for trials 3,4, and 5.
Postscript
The following paragraph is taken from Brian Pell's tribute to Minette that he read at her funeral service
Minette spent four years fighting to save the Mullum Mullum Valley from a surface freeway, and when this was achieved she started on restoring the indigenous vegetation in the Chaim Court Bushland. She organised for a Buddhist group to help plant over 1000 Manna Gums on the 7th of July. Because she was ill, I had hoped she would not come, but that didn't stop her. I'm glad she came, as over 70 attended with a portable altar and 3 monks going around the site blessing it while all chanted. Minette was very touched and it was fitting that so successful a day was to be her last Environmental Makeover