National Tree Day      

A most successfull morning with fifteen Landcarers attending even though the morning was cold and occasionally wet. We cooked the tradional sausage in bread for passing island visitors, handed out lots of literature on bird life, plant life and how to keep them.  lots of  We gave away lots of trees and understory plants too.   Pam donated a box of limes to hand out to one and all.  Coffee was very welcome on a cold morning. The highlight of the morning was a young femal koala climbing down from a nearby tree and walking accross the park, with a very young joey clinging on, to the delight of a couple of Indian families and a French couple. The Sun even came out.

NATIONAL TREE DAY

Once again it is the time of year when we celebrate our wonderful trees in all their diversity of form and foliage, flower and bark.  As you walk among them look closely at the way they “twist” out of the ground, or lean into the wind; at the many different ways they cloth themselves with bark.  See how many insects and birds move among them, feeding and sheltering.

Our region has many lovely drives enhanced by beautiful trees to shade us, look at Forge Creek Road, what a joy it is to drive down, sunlight dappling the road as we go. 

 

The large gums in the township area are the remnants of the original old forest.

How poor would our island be without them

 

 

CATHY DOES IT AGAIN FOR RAYMOND ISLAND LANDCARE
Saturday night was the celebration dinner for East Gippsland Landcare Network to mark twenty one years of Landcare.  What a great night it was with attendance from Landcare Groups all over the district.  There was a lovely meal, there was great music, provided by the Briagalong Bush Band, and the climax of the evening was the presentation by the four finalists in the Ditty Challenge. 
The Ditty Challenge was issued to all groups to write new words reflecting their Landcare Group, to the Wild Colonial Boy tune.  The four finalists were two entries byTambo Bluff, Pest Plant and Animal Sub Committee, and Raymond Island, penned by Cath Woods.  After much hilarity as all the entries were sung and judged by applause - our entry won. 
Congratulations Cath you did it again.

 

Flora Report June 2018

We have worked very hard planting out about 6000 new plants on the island in the last month, mostly at The View, Corner and The Track.

In this report, I went to see how The Wedge is looking as we have not had a working bee there for a long time. Apart from a need to spot spray the very small amount of bracken now coming through, there is no work needed as the Wedge is fully revegetated and doing very well. The plants are a combination of our planting and self sown or regenerated understorey. There is a huge proportion of burgan and aotus pea filling up the area. Also a lot of platysace, broom spurge, dampiera, heath and trigger plants. Many of the self seeded mannas are reaching good heights as well as the wattle trees, and a lot of those we planted are quite healthy. I noticed that there is a lot of moss covering the ground especially at the wider tip site end where the ground is fairly damp although there is moss at the narrower end but the ground there is drier. Probably a problem that should be addressed at some stage is that the grass from the tip site continues to encroach on the top end of The Wedge and we don’t want it to spread through the site.   

Claire

GREAT DAY AT ROBS RUN

a busy day planting out the last of our seedlings for this year.  Eleven islanders,and five Guunaikurnai Rangers worked togeher to ensure a great future for the Islands wild life and, human residents.
It was very exciting to see the patch of Beauty Bush Rob has protected.  This notoriously difficult to propogate plant has come up spontaniousely from seed dormant in the the soil waiting for the braken to be removed.

Fauna:

Four Rakali (native water rat) have been seen along the boardwalk.  There have been big pods of dolphin around in both the lakes and the straits, the seal hasn’t been spotted for a few weeks, though the occasional Rakali carcase indicates it is still around. Rabbit numbers are reduced but there are still plenty around.

Birds: a flock of 30 Brown Headed Honeyeater have been seen, also a Royal Spoonbill on the boardwalk.  Also seen was the Australasian Darter (snake bird).  At the corner of ninth two Pacific Herons (White Necked Heron) flew over, but I was unable to photograph them. On this morning’s walk I saw a swamp Harrier try and fail to take a Coot.

Rob Wright

 

                   

WORKING BEE 14th June at The Corner
a near perfect sunny winter morning for twelve Landcarers to get out there and get dirty. Holes were dug, guards laid out , plants distributed then planted and guarded and , finally, watered in.  Now pray for gently rain to give them a good start.

 

WORKING BEE.

"SENSATIONAL!" thats how Rob felt about Tuesdays Working Bee.  Thirteen dedicated landcare members turned up to help tidy up the Plot and the Run.  Well done everyone.  No photos sorrry I was unable to be there this time.

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE OF EAST GIPPSLAND LANDCARE NETWORK I. To act as an umbrella organisation to provide a regional voice on Landcare issues in East Gippsland. II. To enhance the natural environment through the fostering of sustainable resource management. III. To raise awareness of and promote community involvement in Landcare issues and projects. IV. To be a recipient of funding for Landcare projects. V. To undertake community education activities which promote these purposes

Flora

Not a lot to report, the season continues very dry.  The correa have just started to flower but that is all. There have been quite a few losses due to the lack of rain.

Fauna:

Shorter days mean that the evening walk is in the dark. There are plenty of Kangaroos and rabbits still about.  A large Seal was seen among the moored boats, plenty of Nankeen Night Heron to be seen fishing.  The Wright garden has been visited by two Painted Button Quail.  King Parrots, Gang Gangs, and Currawongs have arrived early this year.  Keep an eye open for Robins arriving soon.  A Yellow Rump Thornbill was reported by Graham Bailey.  From January1 to the end of March 101 bird species had been seen on the Island (earlier than usual). Pelicans are still absent.

 

EASTER WEEKEND

 

Did you enjoy the long weekend?  Although not a Landcare "doo" I would like to mention: 

The combined Garage Sale and Koala Fundraiser was a great success. Thanks to all who participated, Helen and Jenifer who organised, and the folk who cooked sausages and the Garden Club who put on morning tea. Great to see the bike carts back in business too.  Lovely.

                                        

 





From the EGLN newsletter:
Rabbits! Next K5 Virus Release
While things are pretty quiet at the moment, waiting for the rabbit kittens to grow, we can prepare for the next RHDV K5 release. By early April things should be good. Low feed availability is in our favour but some flies and mosquitoes would be good to carry the virus. The Lake King release site from late last year seems to have worked well. The involved farmer has said that despite the lack of dead rabbits being found after release of the virus, he has not had to use Pindone as a follow up due to lack of rabbits (and lots of flies and smells from the warrens). As hoped, it would appear the virus travelled with the wind along the lakeside population and reached Tambo Bluff where some deaths due to K5 have been reported (but no samples obtained to confirm).
For the next release, Rob Irvine has enough FREE vials of the virus on hand to conduct a release program over several large sites. If any Landcare group or land-holder is interested Rob can help. Criteria: medium to high concentration of rabbits with likelihood of virus being able to spread to neighbouring areas, land-holder prepared to do spotlight counts over 1 week to gauge numbers, run free feed bait stations over at least a week to gauge uptake/amounts, collect any dead rabbits and take liver sample (or freeze animal for Rob to take sample), and then monitor numbers over the next few weeks. Rob is happy to visit Groups to discuss rabbit control in their patch. Contact Rob if interested by email lower-tambo-landcare@bigpond.com . There is hope.

WORKING AT THE PLOT
Five Landcares turned out to tidy up plantings at the Plot.  It started out cold but soon turned into a lovely morning. 

We had a new member join us, and he worked with the "Warrior". He is Martin Smith, son of Pat and Rowan. We worked on removing cages from those trees doing well but desperatly cramped.  We released them and tied them to supporting stakes to take them to the next stage.  In spite of damage from 'roos etc. they seemed to be doing well. 

The cages were then used to cover those plant formerly in little carbord sheilds.  There were some losses as expected after such a dry summer,but plenty are ready to grow on.

Tuesdays Working Bee at the Corner was attended by a small group  who removed paper guards from failed plantings , put wire guards around those which were growing well, and generally tidied up.

 

Morning tea was provided by Peter, who also snapped this picture of a Tawny Frogmouth nearby.

CLEAN UP AUSTRALIA DAY

 

 

 

Once again Raymond Island Landcare Group turned out to host the Clean Up Day on the Island.  The weather was perfect as Nineteen Members walked the various areas to pick up carelessly discarded bits and pieces.

 The view was superb this year as it coincided with the Heritage Boat Festival and the Sail past of wonderful sailing vessels of every size.

 

Happily, this year, the pickings were lean, and the trailer was NOT full to overflowing. The hard work was rewarded with coffee and a sausage sizzle to finish. Well done everyone.