Download - Banksia Bulletin spring 2008
banksiaissue number 032 - spring 2008
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Friends of Bayside 2008 contact list
Friends of Balcombe Park Coordinator: Joan Couzoff26 Balcombe Park Lane, Beaumaris 3193Phone: (03) 9589 1060
Friends of Bay Road ReserveCoordinator: Michael Norris 5 Deakin Street, Hampton 3188Phone: (03) 9521 0804
BRASCACoordinator: Janet Ablitt4A Fairleigh Avenue, Beaumaris 3193Phone: (03) 9589 6646
Friends of Brighton DunesCoordinators: Elizabeth McQuire34 Normanby Street, Brighton 3186Phone: (03) 9592 6474andJenny Talbot71 Champion Street, Brighton 3186Phone: (03) 9592 2109
Friends of Cheltenham ParkCoordinator: Valerie Tyers65 The Corso, Parkdale 3194Phone: (03) 9588 0107
Cheltenham Primary School SanctuaryPO Box 289, Cheltenham 3192Phone: (03) 9583 1614
Friends of Donald MacDonald ReserveCoordinators: Alison and Bill Johnston4 Wellington Avenue, Beaumaris 3193Phone: (03) 9589 5459
Friends of George Street ReserveCoordinators: Val Tarrant47 Bayview Crescent, Black Rock 3193Phone: (03) 9598 0554andPauline Reynolds9 Reno Road, Sandringham 3191Phone: (03) 9598 6368
Friends of Gramatan Avenue Heathland SanctuaryCoordinator: Ken Rendell
Friends of Long Hollow Heathland/Friends of Table RockCoordinator: Ken Rendell33 Clonmore Street, Beaumaris 3193Phone: (03) 9589 4452
Friends of Merindah Park and the Urban ForestCoordinator: David Cockburn72 Spring Street, Sandringham 3191Phone: (03) 9598 6148
Friends of Native WildlifeCoordinator: Michael Norris 5 Deakin Street, Hampton 3188Phone: (03) 9521 0804
Friends of Ricketts Point LandsideCoordinator: Sue Raverty5 Rosemary Road, Beaumaris 3193Phone: (03) 9589 2103
Friends of Watkins BayCoordinator: Moira Longden73 Dalgetty Road, Beaumaris 3193Phone: (03) 9589 2725
Marine Care Inc. Ricketts PointConvenor Phil StuartPO Box 7356, Beaumaris 3193Mobile: 0419 366 513
St. Leonards College Conservation Group163 South Road, Brighton East 3187Phone: (03) 9592 2266
AcknowledgementsThank you to all the people who have contributed to this issue of Banksia Bulletin. The editors encourage people to submit articles, however Bayside City Council reserves the right to edit or omit articles. Artwork, illustrations and photographs can also be submitted to feature in the publication.
DisclaimerThe views expressed in the Banksia Bulletin are not necessarily those of Bayside City Council or its representatives.
EditorsAmy Hough, Andrea Davies and Terry O’Brien
Copy deadlines 2008Copy deadlines are set for the first Friday of the month of release:Summer 2008 Monday 1 Dec 2008 for release mid DecAutumn 2008 Friday 6 March for release end March
Banksia Bulletin is published quarterly by Bayside City Council to service people interested in enjoying and protecting the local environment.
If you would like to be added to the Banksia Bulletin mailing list, please contact Bayside City Council on 9599 4444 or email: [email protected]. Please indicate whether you would prefer to receive your Banksia Bulletin by post or via email. Corporate CentrePO Box 27 Royal AvenueSANDRINGHAM VIC 3191Telephone: 9599 [email protected] of business 8.30am – 5pmMonday – Friday (except public holidays)
Cover photograph: Acacia paradoxaby Pauline Reynolds Printed on 100% recycled paper.
banksia bulletin - spring 20082
In this ISSUEFriends of Brighton Dunes 4 Jenny Talbot
Friends of the George Street Reserve 5 Valerie Tarrant and Pauline Reynolds
Planting for Bronzewings 6 Michael Norris
From the Bushland Crew 7 Mitchell Benders
A butterfly haven at Bayside 8 - 9 Val La May
Can including shrubs make your revegetation more noisy miner free? 10 Land for Wildlife News
The Bayside Friends Forum 11 Barbara Jakob
The dreaded Indian myna - the cane toad with wings 12 Derek Hanley
Bayside Pigeons 13 Michael Norris
A snake on Sandringham breakwater 14 John Nacamuli
Sandringham Heathland 15 National Trust
Draft Bayside Open Space Strategy (2007-2017) 16 - 18 Amy Hough
Working Bee Dates 19
5
12
8
The dreaded Indian myna - the cane toad with wings
banksia bulletin - spring 2008 3
Friends of Brighton Dunes In his well researched and fascinating book, Feral Future, Tim Low makes the point that Australia has countless invasive plants, insects, fishes and animals, and that sometimes it is just beating one’s head against a brick wall trying to be too much of a purist about pest control.
The rabbits, descended from a few pairs introduced to Australia in 1830, still dominate our countryside in their millions, only kept under control by the development of a new type of the disease myxomatosis every few years.
Cats kill millions of birds and small mammals every year.
The early settlers wanted to ‘civilise’ the bush, and scattered cabbages, chickens, lemons, rye, coffee, pigs, wheat, cherries, and everything else they could think of wherever they went.
The famous Baron von Mueller went for walks scattering blackberry seeds to ‘improve’ the bush. We owe many of our choked waterways to him, as well as the beautiful Botanical Gardens.
All of Melbourne’s bush reserves are weed-infested according to Tim Low. Indeed he says that the most weed-infested city reserves are right here in Melbourne.
One of the important aspects of our work is to prioritise weeds, and not sweat the small stuff, like the charming little grass from Canada known as ‘hare’s tail’.
Too purist an attitude, through over-use of machinery and poisons, will often result in throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Spraying several times a year is not a good idea. Whatever happened to pulling weeds out by hand?
Touch poisons should rarely be used, spray poisons even less. And poisons should only be used by people trained to use them. They are often used indiscriminately and inexpertly. A large tea tree at Green Point was killed several years ago because it was prostrate and the person spraying accidentally sprayed the leaves as well as the weed underneath.
The soil is the basis of life. The problem with poisons is that they interfere with the microfauna in the soil. The mesofauna are the animals large enough to burrow through the soil. The microfauna move through the spaces, gaps, and cracks that already exist in the soil – beetles, cockroaches, ants, witchetty grubs, cicada nymphs, slugs, worms. Both mesofauna and microfauna live off the plant material digested and excreted by the microfauna. To poison the soil is to poison the microfauna.
Although it is an invasive weed from Africa, the boxthorn (Lycium ferocissimum) serves a number of purposes and should never be removed wholesale but only in small patches. Much of the ground cover has gone, so the berries provide food.
The thorns protect the birds from the assaults of cats, which kill thousands of birds a year in Bayside. Bayside should consider a curfew for 12 hours a night such as they have in Surf Coast Shire. The roots of the boxthorn, with so much vegetation gone, form an essential holding system for the sand dunes, against the ravages
of human feet, and the wind.
Jenny TalbotCo-Convenor –
Friends of the Brighton Dunes
(Dr Jim Willis Reserve).
banksia bulletin - spring 20084
Friends of the George Street Reserve‘Nothing is so beautiful as spring’‘Nothing is so beautiful as spring’,
the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins
declared in the opening lines
of his poem, ‘Spring’. He could
have been writing of the George
Street Reserve heathlands as they
burst into their new 2008 flowering
– perhaps the best we have seen
in recent years.
Hopkins continues with a line
about weeds which ‘shoot long
and lovely and lush’. Surprising
to us is the idea that weeds
are lovely, since Citywide and
we volunteers spend many
hours uprooting the weeds
which threaten to take over our
indigenous flora. As Jo Hurse
pointed out in the recent Bayside
Environmental Friends Forum, we
do the work because of the value
of conserving precious remaining
tracts of the heaths, woodlands
and foreshore vegetation that are
unusual in an area so close to a
large city.
The rewards are particularly
noticeable in springtime when
the abundance of the heathland
flowering in the George Street
Reserve is a delight. The
pure white of beard heath
(Leucopogon virgatus) stands out
against the ‘eggs and bacon’
(Bossiaea cinerea) clumps of
bronze and gold, and creamy
wedding bush (Ricinocarpos
pinifolius) buds begin to open.
The vegetation in the burn sites is
flourishing and it looks set to survive
very well, although another hot dry
summer would be a testing time.
Recent visitors from northern
suburbs have enjoyed walks
through the whole reserve,
commenting on their amazement
at finding such tracts of bushland
in the midst of houses and
factories. Friends would like
residents to introduce people
from different parts of Melbourne
to our reserve. One good place
to start is at the slip-rail in Tulip
Street where the excellent new
signboard tells the history of the
area and shows photographs of
wildflowers. A second is on the
George Street boundary where
the signage contains maps of the
reserves and useful information
about the vegetation.
As Bill Molyneux wrote in the Flora
of Melbourne, (Hyland House,
Melbourne, 1993):
…‘we need to recognise just how
fortunate we are in having such
a rich flora at our back door ….
we can all do something towards
reversing some of the
vast damage done to this
vital heritage’.
Valerie Tarrant and Pauline Reynolds
Joint Coordinators
Photograph of Bossiaea cinerea
by Pauline Reynolds
banksia bulletin - spring 2008 5
Planting for Bronzewings On 19 July, 29 volunteers, mostly
Friends, helped put in over
350 indigenous plants at the
Sandringham golf driving range
in George Street. Most of the
plants were acacias, grasses,
flax-lilies and bossiaeas, chosen
because their seeds are food for
a locally threatened indigenous
bird, the common bronzewing
(Phaps chalcoptera).
Our leaflet (on page 13) shows
the other pigeons that reside in
Bayside.
We have recorded up to seven
bronzewings regularly at the golf
range and its surrounds since
1995, with signs – but not proof –
of breeding. Their favourite site
had understorey and also water
– vital for a species that eats only
seeds – but was largely cleared
in 2005. Presumably they still
drink at the nearby Pobblebonk
Park pond, where incidentally
tree frogs have arrived since it
dried out and was cleaned and
replanted by the Council in 2004.
Cheltenham Park used to be
the bronzewing stronghold.
In the 1992 Cheltenham Park
Management Plan, Damien
Cook noted a nest and up to
ten birds, a large number for a
species that is uncommon in the
Melbourne suburbs, and included
a photo of a bronzewing feeding
on introduced grasses. We never
counted more than six birds but
found three nests in 2000 alone.
Then the population crashed in
2001 with no more than one bird
being seen until early this year.
We cannot know why the crash
happened but many threats
were evident. A favourite
site had been tidied up,
dying acacias had not been
replaced, flowering gums were
encouraging the noisy miners –
aggressive native honeyeaters
that have invaded much of
Bayside in the last 30 years – foxes
were present, drought or climate
change had brought in crested
pigeons – rivals for grass seeds
never seen in Bayside until 1994,
and Pindone oats had been
used to control the local rabbits
around the time of the crash.
Elsewhere in Bayside up to four
bronzewings still turn up from
time to time, with a possibility
they still breed on the Royal
Melbourne Golf Course. Large
numbers occasionally come
to the George Street area for
large seeds. Ten or more were
recorded at Bay Road Heathland
Sanctuary in 2001, probably
feeding on black wattle seeds,
and at Brixton Road in 2005,
eating seeds of the introduced
tree lucerne at a site recently
sold for development.
It is a mystery how they know the
food is there, or where the extra
birds come from. But the crested
pigeons behave in the same
way. Like magic over 100 of
them recently arrived at a newly
seeded oval where the average
count was 14. No wonder they
can out-compete bronzewings in
the search for grass seeds.
While we were working a
noisy miner drove off a nearby
bronzewing. We hope the
planting will provide a haven for
these beautiful birds and help
them to survive.
Many thanks to all who helped:
the lessees and staff of The
Range, Sandringham, Citywide
Parkcare, including Carmen
Skrobonja who designed the
plant layout, our photographers
and poster designers, the Bayside
Leader, Bayside City Council
and Melbourne Water for great
support, and of course the
volunteers. We especially valued
the enthusiasm of the six who are
not yet Friends, and hope they
enjoyed the experience and will
join in again.
Michael NorrisFriends of Native Wildlife
Common Bronzewing photograph by Kim Croker taken at Donald MacDonald Reserve
banksia bulletin - spring 20086
From the Bushland CrewMy name is Mitchell, and I’m the
newest member of the bushland
crew here in Bayside. All my
life I’ve had a keen interest in
native animals. After I finished
Year 12, I studied zoology at the
University of Melbourne where I
became interested in ecology
and botany. My interest in
botany stemmed from wanting
to help preserve native species.
I feel that the only true way to
preserve native species is through
the rehabilitation of their natural
habitats. In this way, pest species
can also be controlled and the
ecological equilibrium between
different native species can
be preserved.
My interests have grown
substantially, stemming from
planting a couple of nectar
producing shrubs in my backyard
to maintaining large areas of
bushland. I joined the Citywide
Bushland team with a view to
help maintain and regenerate
bushland habitat for the many
native species found in Bayside
and hope that I will be part of a
team that achieves that.
I have just recently taken over
the role of managing both
Cheltenham Park and Gramatan
Avenue Heathland, and I greatly
look forward to the challenges
that each will pose. It will provide
me with important knowledge
and experience of looking after
inland reserves and broaden my
plant identification skills.
In Cheltenham Park I’m hoping
to maintain the aesthetics of the
park, and hopefully next year
continue the revegetation works
that have taken place.
In Gramatan Avenue Heathland
Sanctuary, I want to help
preserve this remnant patch to
be as weed free as possible as it
offers such a unique habitat to
some local native species that
utilise this relatively uncommon
habitat type.
I look forward to working with
the all the volunteers and friends
groups to help manage the
parks, and hope that together
we can maintain these areas for
many years to come.
Mitchell BendersCitywide Parkcare
banksia bulletin - spring 2008 7
The garden is located on Bluff
Road, just in from the corner of
Royal Avenue in Sandringham.
This article will concentrate on
a few of my favourite species,
including two that had not been
previously recorded for the
Bayside area.
The yellow admiral, shown in the
photo opposite, can be seen
year-round in the garden. (During
the cold months, most butterflies
are in their egg, larval, or pupal
stage.). This is an attractive insect,
of about 50mm in wingspan. Also
known as the Australian admiral,
the butterfly flies rapidly and
erratically, frequently alighting
on vegetation.
These admirals often land upside
down on a tree trunk and drink
from sap flowing out of the tree.
I observed this behaviour in the
Indigenous Resource Garden
last February; the admiral was
feeding from the sap of a
large spotted gum (Eucalyptus
maculata) in the eastern part of
the garden. The butterfly is most
likely gaining nourishment from
the carbohydrates in the tree sap.
‘My’ admiral is rather ragged,
having possibly escaped
a bird-attack.
Michael Norris, who has been
monitoring butterflies in Bayside
for at least ten years, observed a
yellow admiral feeding from coast
wattle sap last year in the garden.
He even tasted the sap and
found it rather sweet.
Adult butterflies can only
consume liquid food, because
their mouthparts are modified
into a tube-like proboscis, which
is coiled at the front of their head.
Butterfly larvae feed on solids such
as leaves, wood, etc. Thus the
two different life-cycle stages do
not compete with each other for
food. In fact, some butterfly and
moth adults do not feed at all—
they lead a brief (but happy?) life
dedicated to reproduction.
A much smaller butterfly, the
saltbush blue was first recorded
in the garden in late 2007. The
saltbush blue has a wingspan of
only 18mm. It is also known as
the chequered blue, because of
its bold underwing pattern. This
butterfly zooms around low to the
ground, but it does frequently
alight on plants, such as the coast
saltbush (Atriplex cinerarea) and
the seaberry saltbush (Rhagodia
candolleana), which are
abundant in the garden.
Slightly smaller than the saltbush
blue is the greenish grass dart. It
is one of the ‘Skipper’ family of
butterflies, which is expanding its
range, due to introduced grasses
being widely planted. (Another
‘Skipper’, the orange palm-dart
Cephrenes augiades appeared
in southern Australia several years
ago, probably brought in with
tropical palms.)
A butterfly haven at BaysideThe replanted Bayside Indigenous Resource Garden is a great place for butterfly watching.
banksia bulletin - spring 20088
Yellow admiral
Yellow admiral dorsel
Greenish grass dart
This little grass dart (also called the yellow-
banded dart) frequently settles in the sun to
bask, or lands on the side of a grass stem. But you
have to be quick to photograph it, as it takes
off like a rocket. It is another new butterfly to our
area. Like most of the ‘Skippers’, the butterfly has
a distinctive way of holding its wings at a right
angle to its body when at rest.
Who knows what other species of butterflies
await discovery in our local gardens and
reserves? Now that the warmer weather is
here, frequent butterfly searching will no doubt
be productive. Just don’t forget to take your
camera along!
Val La MayFriends of Native Wildlife
References
Braby, M.F., The complete field guide to
butterflies of Australia. CSIRO Publishing 2004.
(Available on Google Books)
Coupar, P. & M. Coupar, Flying colours, common
caterpillars, butterflies and moths of South-
eastern Australia. NSW Press, 1992.
[Photos: All by Val La May (taken in the Bayside
Indigenous Resource Garden) except the extra
of the yellow admiral by Martin Purvis and the
side view of the greenish grass-dart, which is © P.
& M. Coupar.
Saltbush blue dorsal
banksia bulletin - spring 2008 9
A similar domination can also occur
in planted wildlife corridors.
A research project carried out
in the Southern Highlands of
New South Wales aimed to
determine which corridor plantings
encouraged the presence of small
native birds in regions where noisy
miners dominate.
Six vegetation mixes were
investigated in the main study:
eucalypts with and without shrubby
understorey; acacia with and
without shrubby understorey; exotic
conifer, and exotic deciduous
trees. A supplementary study then
examined sites with a mixture
of eucalypt and acacias with a
shrubby understorey.
The findings showed that noisy
miners dominated corridors of
eucalypts, virtually excluding
small birds, whereas native
acacias, exotic conifer and exotic
deciduous corridors had small
birds and no resident noisy miners.
The non-native sites appear to
be supplementary habitat, rarely
being used by small birds for
feeding and mainly being used
as a convenient resting place.
The greatest abundance and
richness of small birds occurred
in plantings combining eucalypts
with at least 15 per cent acacias,
in this case bipinnate species and
a shrubby understorey. Given
these results, it is recommended
that eucalypt plantings should be
supplemented with both larger
acacias (preferably bipinnate) and
a shrubby understorey.
Bipinnate acacias are not an
important feeding resource for
noisy miners, but do provide small
birds, such as thornbills, with a
desirable food resource and also a
vegetation structure in which it may
be easier to evade noisy miners. It
is possible that noisy miners avoid
sites with a proportion of trees and
shrubs with dense foliage and low
food benefit because to dominate
them would provide insufficient
return for the energy output.
Active management to encourage
regeneration from residual
species, the soil and seed bank,
and naturally dispersed seeds
us usually the preferred method
for regeneration of remnants.
Where this is not possible, and the
aim of the project is to provide
habitat for small native birds, then
plantings that contain at least 15
per cent non-eucalypt canopy
species (particularly bipinnate
acacia species) with a shrubby
understorey could be beneficial. In
all cases, appropriate revegetation
practises should be used, such as
using locally indigenous species,
matching species to the landform,
and establishing natural spacing
and layers in the vegetation.
Note: if your vegetation type
doesn’t have taller bipinnate
wattles (e.g. black wattles and
silver wattles) then use other local
species of a similar type – e.g.
sheoaks, mint bushes, banksias and
tea trees.
Reference: Hastings, R.A. and
Beattie, A J (2006) Stop the bullying
in the corridors: Can including
shrubs make your vegetation
more Noisy Miner free? Ecological
Management & Restoration.
Volume 7 Number 2
Taken from Land for Wildlife News
– Research Page 7
DSE Vol. 6. No. 3 April 2008
Can including shrubs make your revegetation more noisy miner free?Noisy miners are aggressive Australian honeyeaters that dominate many areas of remnant vegetation and forest edges from which they can competitively exclude small birds.
banksia bulletin - spring 200810
Her introduction emphasised the
environmental issues for the world
and the people here in Bayside
that do their share to make this
earth a livable place.
Jo Hurse, Bushland Team
Leader from Citywide Parkcare
introduced us to the daily work
her crew is doing. Year 9 students
from Sandringham College gave
a presentation showing their care
for Ricketts Point and the Marine
Sanctuary and the practical
action they have undertaken,
helped by the ruMAD program
(that means ‘Are you making
a difference?’)
Kerrie Spinks spoke about
volunteers. She really got
us thinking about different
generations and what each
generation has to offer to others.
Brendan Condon told us that
climate change is a real threat
- and there are real ways of
countering it, with vegetation
playing an important part.
We can help by preserving
biodiversity and making corridors
for plants and wildlife to move.
All together a most enjoyable in
inspiring event.
Barbara JakobBayside Environmental
Friends Network
The Bayside Friends ForumThe Bayside Friends Forum was held on Saturday 13 September 2008. Barbara Jakob opened the day and welcomed all guests and speakers.
Upcoming meetings of the Bayside Environment Friends Network in 2008
22 October and 19 November4.30 – 6.30pm at Hampton Community Centre14 Willis Street, Hampton
Please RSVP to Barbara Jakob on 0408 03 2963 or via [email protected]
banksia bulletin - spring 2008 11
The common Indian myna – a chocolate brown bird with a black head and neck, and yellow legs and beak. They have white wing patches, which you can see when they fly. They are very numerous around greater Melbourne. (However, they are not to be confused with our native noisy miners - a grey bird of similar size, which inhabits semi bushland areas.)
These feral birds are an environmental menace. Common Indian mynas nest in tree hollows, or places like them, such as cavities in roofs. They reduce biodiversity through predation and competition with our wildlife, particularly hollow-nesting birds such as rosella’s and small mammals. They are aggressive competitors for nesting space and they will kill chicks and destroy the eggs of native birds.
Originally, Indian mynas were brought to Melbourne in the 1860s to control insect pests in market gardens. They have been spreading since, always following human activity. They establish themselves in new areas by following roads into towns etc, rather than penetrating through bushland directly.
Apart from a direct threat to our wildlife, they are also a hazard to humans; for instance they congregate in shopping areas with outdoor cafes, and are opportunistic feeders when plates of food are left unattended.
They sleep overnight in communal roosts. Usually in large exotic trees with dense foliage. Several hundred at a time inhabit each roost, and there are usually several roosts in each suburb. They are very noisy prior to dusk and you can hear the roosts from a kilometre or more away.
Basically, their range is on the eastern Australian seaboard centered on Melbourne, Sydney and Cairns. They have spread out from there. There is a population in Canberra and regional areas as well.
There are a number of informative websites, such as The Australian National
University website – Common Indian Myna:
http://sres-associated.anu.edu.au/myna/index.html
Anyway, it’s all very well to talk about Indian mynas, but what is being done about them, and more to the point; what are we
going to do about them here in Melbourne and Bayside in particular?
I’m not saying that we can eliminate them, but they need to be controlled, because if we don’t, then a few years down the track, all we will see around will be Indian mynas.
You can look at Canberra and what has been happening up there. In 2006, some people decided to do something about the myna problem, and formed an organised group, which has spread to about 500 people actively involved. They have trapped 17,000 plus of these feral birds across the Canberra suburban area in this two year time-span. Have a look at the Canberra Indian Myna Action Group website:
www.indianmynaaction.org.au
Because the bird is a communal rooster at night, strategies to capture large groups all in one go are being researched, but in practice this is difficult, as some roost trees and structures are huge.
Part of a strategy to control them is individual trapping. This must be carried out in an ethical and humane way.
We’ve all seen them strutting around the streets in pairs, or in small groups of a half dozen or so.
banksia bulletin - spring 200812
Trapping on an individual scale is a drop in the ocean, but as in the Canberra experience, a network across an area starts to impact on numbers significantly. Traps have been developed and various commercial varieties are available for purchase. These traps exclude other birds by means of selective valves, and are designed specifically to trap Indian mynas. For example, see Myna Magnet Australia Pty Ltd website: http://www.mynamagnet.com.au
Various groups have formed to actively control myna numbers, particularly across regional New South Wales and up through the coast, so the mynas are not going to get it all their own way.
Which leads me back to us here. Is there anybody else interested in this issue out there in Bayside (and beyond)? If there is, I’d like to hear from you.
My email is [email protected]
If you haven’t got a computer,
my mobile is 0422 953 684.
Derek HanleyBayside resident
BaysidePigeons
Common Bronzewing. Scarce in SE Melbourne, feed on seeds
of grasses but likes larger seeds from
wattles, wheat, tree lucerne.
Needs water.
Males have a yellow forehead.
Crested Pigeon. Dry country bird first seen in Bayside
in 1994. Now in all open spaces. A
symptom of climate change?
Only one with that spiky hair-do!
Spotted Turtle-dove. Common in gardens and bush.
Introduced from SE Asia in the
nineteenth century.
Has a spangled collar.
Rock Dove. European, introduced almost
worldwide. Huge range of breeds
including racing and white fantailed
pigeons. Few live away from humans.
Has a bump above bill (the “cere”).
Barbary Dove. Domesticated for centuries in North
Africa. A few released or escaped
cage-birds have nested in Bayside.
Black collar band. Some are white.
Three other pigeons seen in Bayside in the last 10 years are far less
common: the Brush Bronzewing and two probably from aviaries,
Diamond and Peaceful Doves. All are Australian.
By Michael Norris, Friends of Native Wildlife
banksia bulletin - spring 2008 13
Then around 5pm, as I was walking to my favourite fishing spot, I found what appeared to be a snake, which had been run over by a vehicle. As my camera goes with me at all times, I took some shots of the snake and contemplated whether the skin could be preserved but due to the hot sunshine and the condition of the snake, this was not possible.
I have been fishing on the Sandringham breakwater since 1963 and never seen a snake, but I have seen snakes in other parts of the foreshore. And due to the large population of rats and mice along the foreshore of the whole of Port Phillip Bay, the possibility of snakes is very real. Snakes are not a real threat to humans and as they are usually very shy, a snake will scatter rather than ‘stand and fight’; only if cornered will a snake attack and bite.
Snakes usually feed on what is available in their habitat and surrounding, in this case, I believe the abundance of rats and mice which are unfortunately kept well fed by the visitors to our foreshore bringing all kinds of food and rubbish and dropping this refuse in the garbage bins along the beach and vegetated areas.
I am sure I am not the only person who has seen a snake and I’m sure there will be more snakes sighted for many years to come.
John NacamuliBayside resident
A snake on Sandringham breakwaterDuring last summer, work (by Parks Victoria – Editor) on the Sandringham breakwater and their use of vehicles prevented me doing any fishing until their work ceased in the late afternoon.
Photograph by John Nacamuli
Editors Note: We have sent John’s photographs to the Museum Victoria and also Healesville Sanctuary for confirmation and identification. We will let our readers know what species this snake was in our next edition.
banksia bulletin - spring 200814
Editors Note: This article was passed to me recently and I thought it may be of interest to our readers. It is taken from page four of the Trust News by the National Trust, March 1981.
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The Bayside Open Space Strategy (2007-2017) aims to provide a well connected open space system that is flexible enough to meet the changing needs of our community.
The focus of this strategy is Council-managed open space. This includes parks, community areas, and foreshore reserves. This does not include other areas managed by Council (roads and lanes, roundabouts, shopping strips). Nor does it include areas managed by other authorities (railways, roads) or private owners (private golf courses, shopping centres).
Population projections for Bayside over the life of the strategy indicate a slight rate of growth over all age cohorts until 2021. Compared to other metropolitan municipalities, Bayside’s population can be described as stable.
An analysis of open space provision has been done for the municipality. This is compared to a number of other metropolitan municipalities.
Open space is stratified and development standards established based on that stratification.
A detailed analysis of provision by hierarchy is done for each of the nine suburbs that comprise the municipality. That analysis indicates some gaps in open space provision at a 500m-catchment level. At the broader level that is shown on the map overleaf.
Opportunities for implementationIt is anticipated that this Strategy will be implemented over a ten-year period (2007 to 2017), subject to the availability of funds at the time.
Draft Bayside Open Space Strategy (2007-2017) Now available for public comment
1. Preparation of appropriate plans for all parks1.1. Prepare masterplans for Regional Parks,
Neighbourhood 3 Parks, Bushlands and Conservation areas over the life of this Strategy.
1.2. Prepare profile plans for all other open space.
1.3. Ensure all open space is developed to the agreed standards for hierarchy and function.
1.4. Review maintenance levels and service levels based on established standards for hierarchy and function.
1.5. Ensure asset management and renewal priorities maintain open space to agreed levels.
2. Integration of open space with existing linkages and networks2.1. Integrate linkages between open
space and Nepean Highway, railway reserves, Beach Road, the road and footpath network.
3. Seeking partnerships with other agencies3.1. Enter into partnerships to achieve
linkages and create local open space in areas that are currently inaccessible to the public. Other agencies might include with VicRoads, VicTrack, Department of Education, private landowners, private schools, and public schools. This might be achieved through management agreements involving privately owned lands.
4. Provision of the basis for an open space contribution scheme, and guiding the use of these contributions.4.1. Seek open space contribution:• Whereopenspacesupplyis
considered deficient• Whereopenspaceservicelevelsare
considered deficient• Toprovidelinkagestoothernetworks.4.2. Consider swapping land that provides
more valuable land for open space than some land that Council currently owns.
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The following table summarises the key results of each of the suburbs when open space provision is assessed
according to the criteria.
Suburb Provision of Open Space Distribution Size Infrastructure and
OpportunitiesCommunity Needs Linkages
Enhanced provision of open space required in the following areas
Beaumaris •Distribution•Linkages
Black Rock •Amount•Distribution•Linkages
Brighton •Distribution•LocalNeeds•Linkages
Brighton East •Distribution•Linkages
Cheltenham •Linkages
Hampton •Linkages
Hampton East
•Distribution•Size•Linkages
Highett •Amount•Distribution•Size•Linkages
Sandringham •Linkages
There are some areas with deficiencies in open space that arise because of either insufficient quantity of open space (Black Rock and Highett) or inadequate distribution of open space (Beaumaris, Black Rock, Brighton, Brighton East, Hampton East and Highett).
All areas of the City of Bayside have been identified for improved linkages and connections to other open space destinations, the regional open space network or key community services and facilities. This improvement in infrastructure will be required to meet the increasing demands that rising participation in walking and cycling place on providers of open space.
To achieve the opportunities for implementation requires resources. To complement the existing source of resources through Council’s rate base, it is considered that a contribution scheme is warranted.
This Open Space Strategy 2007-2017 builds a business case for the need for a developer contribution scheme.
To realise such a scheme may require further analysis of open space distribution at the path network level, and profile plans across the municipality to determine the gaps in service delivery based on the now-established standards.
Public consultationSubmissions and feedback on the draft Open Space Strategy are encouraged and will be received by Council until Friday 5 December 2008. Comments may either be emailed to:
or posted to:Bayside City CouncilParks DepartmentPO Box 27Sandringham VIC 3191
Copies of the draft Open Space Strategy 2007-2017 are available on Council’s website www.bayside.vic.gov.au under the ‘Have your Say’ section.
Hard copies of the draft Open Space Strategy 2007-2017 are also available at the Bayside City Council Corporate Centre and at all Council libraries.
Alternatively, copies of the draft Open Space Strategy 2007-2017 are available on CD by request, please contact Parks Administration Officer, Marian Nicholls on 9599 4668.
Should you have any further queries regarding the draft Open Space Strategy 2007-2017, please contact Council’s Environment Research Officer, Amy Hough on 9599 4444.
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Time/Day OCT NOV
Balcombe Park Last Sunday 10am - noon
26th 30th
Bay Rd 2nd Saturday 10am - noon
11th 8th
BRASCA Contact Janet Ablitt ph 9589 6646
Brighton Dunes Tuesdays 8am - 10am 7th, 14th, 21st,
28th4th, 11th, 18th,
25th
Cheltenham Park 1st Sunday 10am - noon 5th 2nd
Cheltenham Primary Contact school 9583 1614
Donald MacDonald 1st Sunday 10am - noon 5th 2nd
Elsternwick Park Lake Contact Port Philip Ecocentre 9534 0413
George St 3rd Sunday 10am - noon
19th 16th
Gramatan 1st Sunday 1 - 3pm 5th 2nd
Long Hollow Last Sunday 1pm - 3pm 26th 30th
Friends of Native Wildlife Contact M. Norris on (03) 9521 0804 1st Saturday 9.30am
Ricketts Point Landside 3rd Tuesday 1pm - 3pm 21st 18th
Table Rock Last Tuesday 12.30pm - 2.30pm
28th 25th
Watkins Bay Last Wednesday 1pm - 3pm
29th 26th
Gardenvale Primary SchoolContact Brigitta Suendermann ph. 9530 0328
Sandringham East Primary School Contact Katrine Lee ph. 9555 5250
Friends of BaysideWorking Bee times for October to November 2008
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www.bayside.vic.gov.au