End-of-year Working bee + free BBQ

This Sunday, come help us celebrate another year of our landcare good works with several activities followed by lunch. The weather forecast is perfect: a dry, mostly sunny day with a top temperature of 21°C.

We’ll be helping manage the Winters Flat part of Campbells Creek between Butterworth St and Elliot St in Castlemaine.   Located on the other side of the creek to the trail, few people visit this lovely area with long deep pools, big river red-gums, and decades-old wattles and other revegetation.   Being close to the creek, the ground is soft and moist in summer with plenty of green grass in summer.

We haven’t given this area much attention lately.  However, council hopes to obtain funding to improve this area and has done a great job reducing the previously severe infestation of Chilean Needle-grass.

We have a variety of options for you this Sunday, so the choice is yours!
You can:

• Help deal with woody weeds that continue to re-infest CCk.  These are mostly the garden escapee Desert Ash with the occasional crack willow and gorse.  We’ll be cutting and herbicide painting the larger ones and hoeing out small ones.  There’s also a few Purple-top Verbena, another garden ‘thug’.
• Salvage tree guards from plants that no longer need them
• Learn how to test water quality (WaterWatch)
• See what water ’bugs’ live here (aka River Detectives—YouTube video)
• Learn how to identify and map weeds.

Meet here near the west end of Elliot St for a 10:00 a.m. start.  There’s car parking space nearby or in the south end of Butterworth St.

Bring:

• Wear hat, gloves, sturdy footwear
• Bring your own water and camping chairs for a sit down at lunch time.
• If you can, bring along long handled loppers, secateurs, pruning or bow saws, and/or mattocks.
• If you are interested in weed identification and mapping infestations, bring your mobile phone (it must be GPS equipped, but most are) and contact our environment officer Ian Higgins for instructions on installing and setting up the app.

After the working bee we would love you to help us celebrate another year of caring for our beloved creek.

We will be offering lunch and a chance to gather together.

For catering purposes, please RSVP to info@focc.org.au by Friday 6^th December.

Hope to see you there!