WHAT - IWEGs bushcare work

WHERE - our bushcare sites

WHEN - diary and events list

HOW - you can get involved!

WHAT we do

IWEG's Bushcare Work

Current Bushcare and Environmental Projects

What we have achieved so far

IWEG's Bushcare Principles

IWEG's Bushcare Work

Our work to date has been mainly related to re-establishing local provenance species which are usually found in Turpentine-Ironbark open forests areas on shale. IWEG also encourages neighbours to the corridor and other locals to plant local provenance species. Due to the high level of urbanisation of the Hawthorne Canal catchment area, there are virtually no remnant areas, only small pockets of some endemic species that have held on at that site, or have recolonised from other remnant areas. Thus IWEG's six current bushcare sites are not remnant vegetation, but "bush" rebuilt from degraded areas, railway corridor land or open space areas where some land is allocated for bushcare sites.

Over the years we have established a number of work methods and practices which we have found to be useful in the context of our sites, and mainly relate to bush establishment, rather than rehabilitation of remnant sites.

Tasks for the bushcare volunteers include:

• planning for site management and gaining access to the sites (particularly for the sites in the railway corridor)

• site fencing (where required) and review of site management and safety issues

• site clearing and ground preparation including brushcutting and mulching

• obtaining, training in the use of, and maintaining, equipment and tools

• planting of tube stock, and spreading of native seed for the grasses

• weed maintenance, erosion control and drainage, habitat placement (such as logs and debris etc.)

• documentation with through regular site reports, photos and site plans.

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Current IWEG Bushcare and Biodiversity Projects

Creating a Green Link Community Revegetation Project Stage 2: IWEG has been funded under Round 9 of the Federal Government Envirofund Project to implement Stage 2 of the Creating a Green (Bush) Link project first commenced in 2001 with $37,000 funding under NSW Environmental Trust. This project is now being called "Creating a Bush Link" project. The project total value is $59,185 with $28,164 being provided by Envirofund, $26,520 provided as in-kind contribution from IWEG (mainly through volunteer bushcare hours), and $4,500 from Councils and State Agencies as in-kind contribution. Work will involve consolidation of existing revegetation work at the six sites, completion of revegetation activity on these sites, and establishment of a new site at Old Canterbury Rd. The funds will enable the preparation of management plans, engagement of contractors to undertake bushcare works and supervision of volunteers, community engagement, and purchase of plants and materials. The project will run for 18 months from January 2008 to June 2009.

• view map of Envirofund project area
• see more details on each of these sites
• Envirofund web site - list of grants awarded in Sydney Metro area

The Lords Rd site which could be greatly expanded under the Envirofund project. Click to enlarge.

Cooks River to Iron Cove GreenWay - Making Sustainability Happen: The Cooks River to Iron Cove GreenWay has been awarded a $1.83M NSW Environmental Trust grant through the NSW Environmental Trust Urban Sustainability (Major Projects Program) for the Cooks River to Iron Cove GreenWay "Making Sustainability Work" Project. The objective of the project is for the GreenWay to be a best practice model for sustainability. The grant was one of only 10 awarded from 65 applications from across NSW. The Project will include the development of long-term management guidelines for flora and fauna in the corridor to improve and enhance biodiversity, with an emphasis on providing a habitat for the recently discovered colony of Long Nosed Bandicoot.

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What we have achieved so far

Highlights in IWEG's achievements to date include:

Re-establishment of a bush corridor: IWEG has made a significant contribution towards the longer-term re-establishment of a Turpentine-Ironbark vegetation community which would have existed in the Hawthorne Canal and Cooks River catchments on shale prior to European settlement. Over the 10 years since its formation, IWEG volunteers a have planted over 6,000 tube stock local provenance plants six sites established and maintained, and gained approval to proceed with a further 8 sites in Rozelle goods rail corridor as part of Creating a Bush Link project. As well as the plantings, natural seed spread and germination has meant that at some sites (such as Waratah Mills) the number of plants (particularly grasses and small shrubs) has increased almost tenfold and provide a sward of grass cover. As well as the plantings, IWEG has more recently been involved in the creation of a diverse range of habitat for small animals as well as small birds. There has been a dramatic increase in the number of insects, small lizards and invertebrates at most of the bushcare sites, but particularly the rail corridor sites which are largely undisturbed by the public (and their dogs off-leash).

A blue tongue lizard at one of IWEG's bushcare sites (Waratah Mills). Five years previously this site was bare soil. Click to enlarge.

Working within an Active Rail Corridor: under the "Creating a Green Link" project (now called "Creating a Bush Link"), IWEG negotiated with RailCorp protocol and procedures and provided the on-ground facilities to allow for community volunteers to establish and maintain bushcare sites in an active railway corridor. Three sites have been established in the Rozelle goods line corridor in the vicinity of Davis Street to Constitution Rd Dulwich Hill (Davis St, Pigott St, Waratah Mills). These sites were established between 2003 and 2006 with the Waratah Mills site being established at the same time as the redevelopment of the Waratah Mills for apartments. See more detail on these sites and other IWEG sites at the bushcare sites page. Protracted negotiations with the rail authority were undertaken over a period of three years, involving some 2,000 hours of volunteer effort to resolve all of the issues raised and to ensure the work proceeded. This work was a precedent in NSW as it allows for community volunteers access sites in the corridor that have been licenced to the local Council, and have in place barricading to separate the volunteers from the active railway. Much of the work has been document in a report on the Creating a GreenLinik Project prepared for the NSW Environmental Trust. Download a copy of the report (1.4MB)

Bushcare revegetation alongside the Rozelle goods line at Waratah Mills, Dulwich Hill. Click to enlarge.

Local community involvement & participation: . since IWEG's establishment in 1998, some 5,000 volunteer bushcare hours and 50 hours of contactor bushcare work has been undertaken in the Hawthorne Canal catchment/GreenWay corridor. Over 300 different people in the local community have participated in the bushcare work, with about 40 of these being regularly involved and the remainder coming along to the occasional working bee or public event. IWEG has also participated in a number of community events over the previous ten years, such as local street fairs and stalls, where we have raised the awareness of what is happening in the corridor and and sought to attract new community participants. IWEG has also hosted some field visits that were organised by the Sydney Metro CMA.

LEFT - IWEG Bushcare volunteers take a morning tea break - Waratah Mills August 2003; MIDDLE - Ashfield SES volunteer helping with rail cutting on a disused siding, Waratah Mills; RIGHT - volunteers working during a heavy rain shower, March 2004. Click to enlarge.

Training and capacity building: 12 IWEG volunteers have over the last 5 years undergone the RailCorp safety induction training, with 6 volunteers recently completing the RISI certification to enable volunteers to work on the protected bushcare sites in the corridor without the need to apply for exemption. Three IWEG volunteers have gained the SMARTtrain AQF2 Chemical users course which enables the use of chemical spraying of herbicide for weed control. One volunteer has also completed the Construction Induction Certification (previously known as the "Green Card"). For new volunteers, IWEG provide safety induction and training in bushcare activities, and through regular field days, have gradually improved the experience and capability of the volunteers in bushcare work. IWEG takes a professional and responsible approach to work safety, and with over 5,000 volunteer hours of bushcare work completed, there has not been a lost time accident or injury.

IWEG Bushcare volunteers receive a safety induction before commencing work in the rail corridor - Waratah Mills July 2003. Click to enlarge.

Funding: as IWEG does not receive any regular government funding, it has been necessary for IWEG to raise funds for necessary bushcare work through grant funding available at a Federal, State and local Government level. Since 1998 IWEG has been successfull in being awarded the following grants:

• 2002 Federal Government Small Equipment Grant $1500; 2001-2004 Environmental Trust "Creating a Green Link Project (now called "Creating a Bush Link") funding
• 2007-2009 Envirofund Round 9 - Creating a Green Link Stage 2" funding $27,000;
• Amounts of between $250 and $500 per year from Ashfield Council under their community grants program.
• 2008-2011 the NSW Environmental Trust award the four GreenWay Councils (Ashfield, Canterbury, Leichhardt and Marrickville) $1.83M for a sustainability model under the Urban Sustainability Project (USP). IWEG is a partner in the project - with bushcare and biodiversity as one of the key project components.
• Marrickville Council has recently funded IWEG $4,000 from their resources budget for bushcare work on licensed rail corridor GreenWay sites within Marrickville LGA.

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IWEG's Bushcare Principles

IWEG's overall bushcare objective is to re-establish native bush and build on natural biodiversity of the local area. What to plant and where is guided in part by work undertaken by Doug Benson, Danie Ondinea, and Virginea Bear and published in Missing Jigsaw Pieces - the bushplants of the Cooks River Valley (available for sale at Marrickville Council) . This describes the pre-European vegetation patterns in the Cooks River Valley. This shows that most of IWEG's bushcare sites are located in areas that prior to European settlement and clearing would have consisted of Turpentine-Ironbark forest community. Along the watercourses there would have also been some Floodplain Forest and Mangrove and Saltmarsh communities adjacent to the rivers and estuaries. On the ridges in South Marrickville and in Leichhardt would have occurred Sandstone Vegetation (Forest, Woodland,& Heath) associations. Thus, IWEG's aim is to re-establish bush with species and structure similar to clearing and urbanisation following European settlement.

IWEG has established a number of principles which guide our work, such as:

• local provenance species selection - where possible, seed sources for plants to be raised for use should be sourced from remnant areas within 5km of Hawthorne Canal. For many species this may not be possible, and thus the nearest source that reflects the planting site conditions, and is from roughly within the same catchments. Download our local provenance species list. Plants are sourced from the local community nurseries: Marrickville Community Nursery; Gladesville Community Nursery/Cornucopia Nursery; and Rozelle Bay Community Nursery.

• work following an overall strategy - site selection and overall bushcare strategy is guided by the need to put in place a connected corridor of bush, which can act as wildlife corridor. This follows principles put forward in such strategies as the Sydney Greenweb corridors project, Sydney Metropolitan CMA and protocol for working within RailCorp corridors. Where possible, continuous bush corridors are created rather than working on separate patches. Sites are located mainly along the Hawthorne Canal, the Rozelle to Dulwich Hill goods railway and the GreenWay corridor. See a map of IWEG's bushcare sites

• habitat enhancement - although originally IWEGs has been pursuing habitat enhancement primarily for small birds, recent evidence of Long-nosed Bandicoots (Perameles nasuta) being in the corridor, and possibly a swamp wallaby (Wallabia bicolor), have highlighted the need to consider small mammal habitat needs as well. Actions are to retain existing weedy thickets partly in place until such time as re-established bush provides new habitat. Species selection includes the planting dense copses of small prickly shrubs (such as Bursaria spinosa and Acacia ulicifolia) to provide refuge for small birds. IWEG will also leave some debris piles, branches, and some litter such as tin, iron etc., leaving logs and large dead tree limbs, and building rubble mounds, rather than taking this material off-site or creating a "clean" site. A major issue recently has been the establishment of large colony of native Noisy Miner (Manorina melanocephala), not to be confused with the introduced Indian Mynah (Acridotheres tristus), which exclude other small birds. Recent research indicates that providing non-eucalypt small trees and a dense shrub cover with an even canopy height will be less favourable for the noisy miners, compared with eucalypts in a parkland setting which they prefer and easily dominate.

• recognition of "weedy" areas as high habitat value - ensure that areas that currently provide high habitat value for a range of animals are not cleared prior to assessing their value, and before additional native habitat can be fully established alongside or in a manner that provides an alternative for the fauna which utilise the "weedy" habitat. This is particularly so for the Lantana, Blackberry and Green Cestrum thickets in the rail corridor that have proven to be high value habitat for reptiles, small birds and possibly for the Long-nose Bandicoot

• progressive work - it is important to control, and consolidate a site or portion of a site and then move along to establish new areas or to further expand the site. This is particularly important when there are often only limited volunteers resources to provide regular weeding maintenance. It can easily take up to five years to fully establish a site, and regular maintenance is required otherwise a site can readily revert to weed covered in a short period of time if the conditions are conducive.

• regular maintenance - it is essential that there be a visit to the site at least every two weeks, and so preventing invasive weeds from reproducing or seeding. This may be less in droughts, but may require even more frequent attention when there is warm and humid weather and good rainfall.

• involve adjoining properties and private landholders - to provide a sense of "ownership", IWEG has found it useful to engage with neighbours to the sites and encourage them to involve themselves both with site establishment and in ongoing site maintenance and additional planting etc. This also helps expand the are of bush habitat if they are willing to plant in their own backyards.

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