Friends of Alison Baird Reserve | Community
Friends of Alison Baird Reserve
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25.01.2022 The more we exterminate native fauna from the Brixton Wetlands the closer we get to degradation and collapse of ecosystems and vice versa. We need a mass public response to the forthcoming EPA Public Environmental Review of the Gosnells' Town Planning Scheme Amendments 166 and 169 (in which COG currently plan to allow Precincts 3B and 2 industrial areas of the MKSEA, respectively, to go full steam ahead with no mitigation of impacts). These Scheme Amendments are about areas ...directly adjacent to the Alison Baird Flora Reserve. At present it looks like City of Gosnells still wants to channel industrial run-off water from Precinct 2 of the MKSEA industrial area through the Alison Baird Flora Reserve along what was the Crystal Brook before 'primitive' drainage works did their best to trash it. Only a mass public outcry will stop this. This is all happening in the swinging Federal seat of Hasluck, currently held by Wyatt, a Liberal, so lets make it an election issue. State Labor under McGowan is asleep at the wheel- they need a wake up call. See more
23.01.2022 Beautiful Redcoats Utricularia menziesii R.Brat at Alison Baird today.
23.01.2022 "In fact, the areas that West Australians nominate most often as the best for creating jobs and stimulating the economy are action on climate change (such as investment in renewable energy and batteries) and support for the care economy (aged care, health care, social housing, and caring for country). For so long we have been told that directing investment toward these areas of the economy must come at the expense of jobs and economic growth, but now that we realize we can ha...ve the ability to shape and rebuild the economy in a way that serves us, they have gone straight to the top of the list. By contrast, the economic stimulus measures that enjoy least support are cutting green and red tape for the mining industry and taxpayer subsidies for the gas industry. Perhaps that is not surprising given that investments in climate action and the care economy has the potential to generate around 10 jobs per million dollars of investment, while the gas industry is Western Australia’s smallest employer by sector, yielding less than 0.1 jobs per million dollars. COVID has delivered us from our collective blindness. It is now up to us to act on our newfound understanding, to build back better, and to ensure that never again do we give up our agency, our humanity, and our future for the sake an economy that is not serving our collective interest."
21.01.2022 Our nation's history did not begin 250 years ago, we have been here for over 65,000 years. #AlwaysWasAlwaysWillBe
21.01.2022 New drone eye view of Alison Baird Flora Reserve looking east.Coping beautifully with the hot weather of the first summer (Birak) transition to Bunuru (second summer) of the Noongar calendar.Many plant leaves turned purple - brown in response to the heat and drought but will revive after thew autumn rains start.
19.01.2022 SERCUL (South East Regional Centre for Urban Landcare) is putting in a wonderful effort this week in supplying workers (thanks to Perth NRM SALP funding) to han...d-weed the Watsonia in UWA's Alison Baird Reserve for three days. The conditions to weed the Watsonia have been ideal. The ground is soft and moist and all the leaves of this dreadful weed are dead. So less effort to dig out the corms and small new emerging shoots and haul the reduced biomass out of the reserve. Then on Thursday 25/6 (9:30 am - 12:30pm) the Friends of the Alison Baird Reserve and Save the Great Brixton Wetlands will be planting 2000 trees and shrubs with SERCUL at another site in the reserve. Please come and enjoy the lovely weather on Thursday and HELP. It's quite a large task so all hands needed. Everything will be provided by SERCUL. We can adjourn after to the cafe at Mills Park (nearby) for a well-earnt cuppa: just like the good ol' days! See more
18.01.2022 Spent a lovely morning hand-weeding in the glorious Alison Baird Reserve (getting rid of the Sparaxis and Watsonia (aggressive weeds from South Africa). The ...colours of the Djilba (late winter) wild flowers in the Great Brixton Wetlands are white, red and with a touch of yellow. The red is Grevillea thelemanniana and this feeds the honeyeaters. Also the tiny Redcoats (Utricularia menziesii) - a carnivorous plant pollinated by small birds. The white is the shrub Hypocalymma balbakiae Tauss and Rye ms (a new species of white myrtle) that is blooming everywhere in these wetlands at the moment and the bees are loving the fragrant flowers! The white, woolly flannel flowers (Tribonanthes)- mainly the multi-flowered, large white T. variabilis and the tiny T. uniflora (single-flowered and the flowers age to pale mauve) are already out and more Tribonanthes species will bloom soon in the claypans .The yellow is Acacia lasiocarpa. But the big surprise was a tiny snail orchid Pterostylis platypetala ( not recorded from the Brixton Wetlands before!) What a nice reward for my hard work weeding this morning- this place just keeps on giving.... This new (Pterostylis platypetala) discovery today takes the total number of native plants known in the Alison Baird Reserve to a whopping 437 and for the entire Greater Brixton St Wetlands Bush Forever Site 387 to 612 native plants!! If you add the native species found in the footprint of the MKSEA industrial thus brings the total to 653! Staggering biodiversity.
12.01.2022 June 11 planting day cancelled. Planting will now take place on June 25 instead.
10.01.2022 How about someone making some of these to help control Pink Gladiolus at Alison Baird Flora Reserve? http://www.hamilton-field-naturalists-club-victoria.org.au/
09.01.2022 We are considering a formal incorporation of the not-for- profit, community group, to be called an appropriate name such as: Friends of the Alison Baird Reserve and Adjacent Wetlands Inc. The need to move towards incorporation has been heightened by the recent actions in the reserve by the UWA managers who (quite suddenly, and in apparent ignorance of Threatened Flora and Threatened Ecological Community legislation) recently (unlawfully) cleared a significant amount of n...ative vegetation and Threatened Species within the reserve. They did this without consulting the Friends of the Alison Baird Reserve community, who have been actively caring for this reserve for nearly four years now, or other stakeholders who could have offered them valuable help and advice. Incorporation will offer the Friends group a number of advantages and will also place some obligations on us. Please read the following from WA Dept of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety: ttps://www.commerce.wa.gov.au/books/inc-guide-incorporated-associations-western-australia/steps-becoming-incorporated-association However most community conservation groups in Perth find that, on balance, incorporation helps them to move more effectively towards their objectives and that the incorporation rules provide a good structure without being excessively onerous. Initially, we will need to have a small meeting to brainstorm the basics needed to fill in the application form, circulate to all interested and (after absorbing feedback) lodge the application. Then we can organize an initial general meeting to elect office bearers etc. If you can help with the above (to kick-off the incorporation) or have any suggestions or opinions on the matter, please message any feedback for this proposition to Cate Tauss
08.01.2022 Please note the date of this event has changed to Sunday October 14 as Hans Lambers who hosts this event each year and leads the guided tour will be away in China on the original date I chose! Sorry for mix up..
07.01.2022 This is the stark, cynical reality of Linc Property's "Conservation Strategy" for the Black Cockatoos when the EPA, Federal Dept of Env., and DBCA are all missi...ng in action. Next in line for ecocide are the Marri trees on Lot 414 Grove Rd and the Threatened Ecological Community just north of Yule Brook. Lot 414 is being developed by Eastcourt: a company with a different name but obviously partners in crime with Linc Property. They have played a sly game together with Precinct 3A broken up into several stages (over two LGAs: Gosnells and Kalamunda) to fool the muddle-headed wombats in the public service who are in charge of approvals.
05.01.2022 see https://www.cleanupaustraliaday.org.au//save-the-great-bri
04.01.2022 Friends of Alison Baird Reserve made a good start on this Cleanup Australia Day at the Great Brixton Wetlands. Nine energetic people collected 28 large bags of ...rubbish and a whole HEAP of larger items that did not fit into bags- including car tyres, furniture, car parts and building refuse. About 8 large bags of rubbish (mainly glass bottles from one old dumpsite near corner of Boundary and Bickley Rds) were collected from the Alison Baird Reserve. That more or less cleaned up the ABR .The rest was collected from road verges and from the Flora and Fauna Crown Reserve on Boundary Rd (pictured in photos below) where the worst dumps occur. Plenty more to remove from there including old mattresses and building refuse. We estimate over 450 kg of trash was removed today. But sadly this was only about 10-20% of what was there. Thank you, everyone, particularly Dan Friesen Of SERCUL, and Regina and Trevor Drummond of Friends of Brixton Street Wetlands who helped with "logistics". Also City of Gosnells who has promised they will cart away the bags and larger items of rubbish that we hauled onto the verge. Anyone for morning tea ? 5 bags of household rubbish, 2 bags of mixed recycling, assorted other rubbish included 4 chairs and an ottoman. Somebody forgot to put out their bins and decided the bush would make the best receptacle for their refuse. This junk is rubbish collected around just one Melaleuca acutifolia bush in the Flora and Fauna Crown Reserve along Boundary Rd in Kenwick. So much more we had to leave for another day.
04.01.2022 Thank you, Cat Williams,of SERCUL for this photo, taken in the Melaleuca rhaphiophylla thicket where we had our planting day at ABR this week. Also @Shirl Sutherland for identifying this mushroom. Its Panus fasciatus (Hairy Trumpet Mushroom).From Herbarium records this species has not been recorded in the Great Brixton Wetlands before even though it is widespread over Australia. The defining features are the "hairy" top of cap and lower stem and the decurrent gills (ie the gills reach down onto the stem). Also, the cavity ( like a trumpet aperture) that forms in the centre of the cap ( can't see that on this photo - maybe because this mushie is quite young). Notably (LOL) we now have both a Trumpet Fungus and a Tuba Drosera (Drosera tubaestylis, that has Tuba-like tiny styles) 'in concert' in the ABR.
04.01.2022 Wow! These little possums are now rare in the Perth Metro Region.
03.01.2022 Muchea Limestone clearly exposed next to Yule Brook by developers digging pits in the Public Transport Authority area where detention basins are to store poll...uted run off from MKSEA Precinct 3A. These earthworks are very close to the location of the "Yule Brook Farm" indigenous site. In fact the earthworks could have destroyed the site. Total disrespect and illegal - but business as usual for the PTA, Govt Depts, City of Gosnells and developers in the MKSEA. The Muchea Limestone just below the surface over most of Lot 414 Grove Rd causes rainwater to be perched by this hard layer and supplies the Threatened Ecological Community next to Lot 414 ( for several crucial months of the year) with water of the specific chemistry needed to support the rare vegetation there. But what will happen to the TEC when the entire surface of Lot 414 is sealed in a sarcophagus of industrial bitumen and concrete? The TEC will instead be flooded with polluted water from as far away as Welshpool Rd all year round. Stockpile of pipes left over from Linc Property's environmentally damaging and totally unnecessary, "pit and pipe" drainage works in Precinct 3A. These are destined for the next stages of Precinct 3A in the PTA freight terminal and Lot 414 Grove Rd. Had Linc implemented stormwater infiltration "at source" in Precinct 3A, as they claimed, there would have been no need for such pipes, no need for detention basins and no need to destroy the Kaarak roost. Yet Linc and City of Gosnells both brazenly swore, at council meetings and many other occasions, that their drainage plan was not a "pit and pipe" scheme. The truth will out. SHAME on LINC and COG!
03.01.2022 Thank you for all the lovely people who contributed to planting 2,000 trees and shrubs in the Alison Baird Reserve (in the Great Brixton Wetlands) yesterday. H...uge thanks to Perth NRM SALP grant, SERCUL (Beckenham) and the APACE nursery (North Fremantle) who grew the plants from seeds collected in this important and beautiful reserve. As a bonus we were lucky enough to see a Scarlet Robin in the grove of Melaleuca rhaphiophylla trees that we are restoring/extending to its former extent with this planting. The Scarlet Robin or Kooba (caw’bar), is a rare sight these days in the Perth Metro Region due to the loss of the dense vegetation that this insectivore species relies on. (Photo from BirdLife Australia) See more
02.01.2022 A huge thank you and enormous congratulations (!!!!) to Forrest Scholar Kit Prendergast of Curtin University for persevering with her research against all odds and for generously giving her time to do so much community education. You deserve this prize grant so much Kit. Your work will ramp up our understanding of native bees immeasurably in our SW WA botanical hotspot!
01.01.2022 I assume this is a hybrid of Mangles and Green Kangaroo Paw, which was observed in intermediate habitat. Only one plant found.
