Luise removing follicles from grass tree spike

“ The first time I set foot on Australian land I was truly impressed by the flora and fauna! Not only geckos, quokkas, kangaroos and cockatoos, also the bottle brush, the kangaroo paws and the grass trees were really cool!

After visiting “Bold Park” and riding my bike along the coast from Cottesloe to Fremantle, I was left wondering what I could contribute to protect and preserve the diversity of Australia for posterity. I am certainly aware, that there is a great deal to do – approximately 100 species of plants are already extinct since the European settlers arrived – and so many of them are still near-threatened because of other aggressive species brought in by the settlers.

So, I took advantage of the opportunity of doing “coast care”. On a Sunday morning you could see me, sitting in the dunes with a pair of gloves and a sack beside me. I was pulling weeds, supported by other members of “coast care” (they had to explain to me, which plants I had to pull out!). By midday I was very happy and kind of proud to see the dune without  the weeds! We were celebrating this with much coffee and cookies – what a useful activity for a Sunday, isn’t it?

In addition to that I was extracting the seed from a grass tree (as you can see in the picture below). The new plants grown from that seed will grow very slowly, probably I can only see a trunk in 50 years…but it is very interesting for me to see, how important the grass tree is: it provides lots of nectar and seeds for many bird species and provides food and shelter for insects! It is just a unique and characteristic plant for the environment. I really enjoyed doing something sustainable – while drinking a glass of red wine.”

Thanks Luise and Best wishes for your future.

Grass tree spike, ripe follicles with seed

Hand weeding at Dutch Inn groyne

Jade cutting grass tree spike for seed collection

Fishing line cutting into a pelican's leg Photo: R. Goonan

 It’s holiday time and (sustainable) fishing is part of holiday fun. But please remember a few important points when you are fishing. Our wildlife, in the water and in the air are killed, inadvertently, in large numbers each year, by people fishing.

PLEASE REMEMBER

TAKE any old line and tackle home with you

NEVER feed seabirds

AVOID using unattended lines.

If you ever hook a bird or see an injured or entangled bird call the WA Seabird Helpline on 0418952683 or Wildcare helpline on 94749055 – immediately. One of their dedicated volunteers will try to help the damaged bird.

South of Cottesloe main groyne

Dreadful damage to the legs of a white ibis Photo: R. Goonan

My friend Rowley Goonan is a Seabird Rescue volunteer in QLD. Read this article to find out more about Rowley’s astonishing dedication and the amazing work that he and others do.

Pelican by Cottesloe main groyne

Kate Sputore our Coastcare Officer is pictured, standing in the big blow-out that was getting bigger by the month! The brush material and sand in the hole will, we hope, stop the sand loss and eventually we will plant Spinifex in this section and stabilise the dune. Geoff and Tim from Apace Nursery are building and repairing two unsafe and damaged ramps, on the north and south of the site. (click on photos to enlarge)

Watch this space for further progress!

It’s been a good year. Our plants are growing well after a little more rain this year. After big efforts by our team we have some very good weed control too, at various sites. The rabbit numbers are down after a control program but this is an on-going effort, unfortunately.

The highs of the year have been the excellent team efforts of CCA members, the successful funding for our new project, continued good relationships with Town of Cottesloe and wonderful support from Kate Sputore, the North Metropolitan Coastcare officer. Lows of the year have been vandalism and destruction of vegetation by rabbits and people. However, we look forward to another team-work year of Coastcaring in 2012.

(bottom photo of Peta, Owen and our littlest Coastcarer, Thomas)

Happy Christmas to everyone from the CCA committee.

WA Coastal Awards for Excellence 10 November 2011

Robyn was delighted to accept an Individual Contribution award  at the Dept of Planning’s smart new building in William Street. The award was given for the successful weedy seadragon campaign and 15 years of Coastcaring.   It was a lovely evening with finger food and drinks. Robyn enjoyed meeting many of the other winners who come from all parts of  W.A.  In Robyn’s acceptance comments she acknowledged that she was just one member of the Cottesloe Coastcare team and one cog in the the great Coastcare wheel. She thanked Kate Sputore and Craig Wilson who were both present, (the two Metropolitan Coastcare officers), for all their support for the work of volunteers in the Perth area.

The Minister for Planning John Day released the press release below:

“The WA Coastal Awards for Excellence celebrate and recognise the outstanding achievements that individuals, community groups, schools, businesses and governments do to protect and manage WA’s unique coastal and marine environments.

A Judging Panel, chaired by the State Coastwest Coordinator and consisting of representatives from Perth Region NRM, Western Australian Local Government Association, Coastal Planning and Coordination Council and Department of Planning, convened in July 2011 to select winners.

Minister for Planning John Day, presented the Western Australian Coastal Awards for Excellence 2011 at a ceremony that was held on 10 November in Perth. Minister Day said the awards demonstrate how much work is undertaken by individuals and groups to manage and enhance our coastline; and it is important that those efforts are recognised. “I congratulate all the winners for their conservation efforts and for actively working towards its preservation and rehabilitation of the WA coast.The Great Southern region figured prominently in the 2011 Awards for Excellence — winning four awards of the six categories.”

The categories and respective winners were:

Individual Contribution (2 award winners)

Brad Kneebone from the Lowlands Coastcare Group and South Coast Management Group (based at Youngs Siding, west of Albany)

Robyn Benken from the Cottesloe Coastcare Association

Community Group Effort (2 award winners)

Geographe Catchment Council for the Bay OK project (Busselton)

Parry Beach Voluntary Management Group (west-southwest of Denmark)

Coastal Partnership

City of Albany; Elleker Progress & Sporting Association; Southern Aboriginal Corporation; South Coast NRM Noongar Works Team; South Coast Management Group for the Environmental Restoration Work Around Torbay Inlet

Indigenous Coastal Achievement

Bardi Jawi Rangers for the Bardi Jawi Cultural Experience project (Broome)

Coastal/Marine Research or Education

Albany Senior High School for their Marine Science program

Coastal Development/Design

Blackwell & Associates Pty Ltd for the Leighton Foreshore project

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The WA Coastal Awards for Excellence are conducted every two years. Nominations will be open again in 2013.

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Photo:

Back row from left to right: Phillip McCarthy, Barry Oates, Peter Clarke, Adrienne Beattie, Minister John Day, Alexandra Tucker, Paul Beattie, Tony Blackwell, Brad Kneebone, Sheryn Prior.

Front row from left to right: Kevin George, Chris Sampi, Jean Brenton, Robyn Benken, Tracy Brothers.

(Photo kindly provided by Climate Change and Coastal Policy at the Department of Planning)

After Robyn’s post on native pellitory and butterflies Martin asked if it was possible to get native pellitory seed. That proved harder than expected but then I had a call from Richard from Geographe Community Landcare Nursery and he sent us some seeds to grow. So hopefully our local population of Yellow Admirals can  look forward to a few more “fast food” outlets next year. Here are some more of  Robyn’s photos of the adult Yellow Admiral and larvae feeding on pellitory.

Geographe Community Landcare Nursery is based in Busselton and is a community nursery doing a great job providing local plant species from the area between Capel to Augusta for local revegetation projects and now for home gardens. They have just celebrated their 10th birthday and now grow over 200 local species. Their website contains a wealth of information about local plants and their 2012 nursery  list is now online.

Many thanks to Richard and if any CCA members are down south you can visit the nursery at 366 Queen Elizabeth Avenue, 2 kilometeres south of the Bussleton Bypass. They are open Monday and Tuesday from 8am to 4pm.

As part of CCA’s Sustainability September, the WA Grocery Team volunteered their Tuesday morning to assist Cottesloe Coastcare complete one of the very important, though less glamorous aspect of their role; weeding!

Cottesloe Coastcare is a group of local volunteers who joined together in 1995 to achieve a more robust and diverse ecosystem for the Cottesloe foreshore.

It is important to protect the few remaining natural areas so that everyone can experience and appreciate the local species of animals, plants and birds now and in the future. This is achieved by collecting and propagating local seed, replanting degraded areas, removing invasive weeds and providing walkways through fragile areas.

With prizes up for grabs such as ‘The Biggest Pile of Weeds”, “The Longest Weed Root”, “Cheer Up, It’s Only Weeding” and “Best Attitude in the Team” the Grocery Team divided into four to tackle the invasive weeds.  In an hour and half, thirteen big bags of weeds were removed from the Cottesloe ecosystem with other non-seeding varieties left on the site as mulch.

A big thank you to BDE Renee Tickle for organizing such an important event.

Thanks to Renee for this blog post too. It was a fantastic working bee – two great teams together!

Yellow Admiral on Native Pellitory

2011 has been a great year for Yellow Admiral butterflies in Cottesloe.

In May 2009, with help from Robert Powell, I sewed seed of a local annual – Native Pellitory (Parietaria debilis) at Cottesloe Native Garden, under the dappled shade of local tea trees, beside the sand path. A small number of plants have grown each year but this year we have a large patch of healthy plants, many are 40cm tall.

Larva in shelter

The flowers are tiny and the plant is not showy but it is the native plant food for the Yellow Admiral Butterfly (Vanessa itea) – it is the plant on which Admiral butterflies lay their eggs. The Yellow Admiral finds the plants by the chemical smell emitted from the plants. Admirals are strong fliers and they will travel long distances to find their preferred breeding plants.

Pellitory Cott Native Garde

The Yellow Admiral is a medium sized butterfly with dark colouring which ranges from orange brown to reddish brown – with a large pale yellow oval shaped patch on the forewings. When females are laying their eggs on the Pellitory they often flutter quite slowly from plant to plant. Now I can see the evidence that butterflies have visited these plants, as many leaves are folded over to make tiny shelters for the growing caterpillars. The tiny larvae make these leaf shelters to protect themselves from birds.The larvae (caterpillars) take about 4 weeks to grow to full size – about 3cm long. They then find somewhere to pupate. The pupation stage lasts about 10 to 18 days. The day before the butterfly emerges the pupae will change colour and you can see the dark wings tightly furled up inside the pupae. The butterfly usually emerges from its chrysalis on a sunny morning and sometimes you can see them stretching and drying their wings in the sun before they fly off  for the first time – then the cycle of life and metamorphosis begins again.

Pupae case

Just incase you can’t read his writing, he says:

“What splendid news! I am delighted to know that – thanks to you and your fellow enthusiasts – the weedy seadragon is now properly protected. Many congratulations. It was very kind of you to have written to tell me so”.

Best wishes,
David  Attenborough

The new project site is at the north end of Cottesloe main beach. The foredune is badly degraded and faces significant human pressures causing erosion, loss of local vegetation and weed invasion.$34,565 will be received by Town of Cottesloe for the project. 60% of the funds will pay for ramp upgrades. the remaining 40% will be spent on fencing, weed control and purchase of 4000 local provenance plants. Cottesloe Coastcare volunteers have committed $15,000 of volunteer labour to the 18 month project.

The present 3-wire fencing at the westernmost side of the dune will be upgraded, which we hope will discourage further human access to this fragile area and allow the dune to naturally rebuild.

Currently two of the access pathways to the main beach are not formal in structure, and as such are unstable and erosive.

The area of dune between the two pathways is almost entirely covered by invasive species with very little native vegetation present. In addition to this, the previous existence of a stormwater drainage pipe in the area has resulted in significant erosion and a minor sand blow out. The Town of Cottesloe has removed this pipe and eliminated any stormwater run-off to the area by installing a soakpit, however the surrounding area is in need of rehabilitation to prevent further erosion and discourage pedestrian access. The installation of formal timber staircases, fencing upgrade, weed eradication and the reintroduction of native coastal vegetation will significantly improve the recreational, environmental and aesthetic values of the area.CCA volunteers will be on the look out for some extra help with the project!