AUTUMN 2011 NEWSLETTER
Hi everyone and welcome to the autumn 2011 newsletter. With the hectic summer behind us, we can now take some time to start thinking about our group’s direction for the year ahead. I’d like to take this chance to say thanks to all of our active members and those who have renewed their memberships this year. The contributions of all our members, whether through financial support or direct participation, are essential to the ongoing strength of our group, and are greatly appreciated. So a great big THANK YOU to you all!
On a different note, WCLG is about to embark on a new project in conjunction with Deakin Uni, WCC, DSE and local community health agencies, to help socially isolated people reconnect with their community and environment (see below). We are looking for at least one Coastcare representative to work with Matt Ebden to help improve the lives of disadvantaged people in our area, while also contributing to a healthier environment. If you’d like to be that person, please contact myself or Matt.
A message from your friendly local Social Inclusion Officer – Matt Ebden
The Warrnambool Coastcare Landcare Group (WCLG) is highly regarded for its inclusive approach to welcoming and involving members from a variety of backgrounds. I have been working with various community agencies in south west Victoria to find ways we may support people experiencing social isolation, due to health, economic, cultural or other reasons, become included in environmental volunteering.
I have also been exploring the benefits of environmental volunteering. For volunteers these benefits include increased life expectancy, better quality of life and social connectedness, enhanced physical and mental health, and skill development. For these reasons, people experiencing social isolation may find environmental volunteering life changing. Some people may even find a path to employment through their involvement
In addition, environmental agencies gain from being able to achieve more while also benefitting from having a diverse membership and greater community involvement. Environmental agencies also have increased exposure to funding sources. The spin off benefits for the community include having residents who are happier and healthier as they grow and develop, contributing in a valuable way to improve local ecosystems for all to enjoy.
“Elixir”, as it has become known, is the program that supports people to become included in environmental volunteering. At the WCLG meeting on 1 March 2011, the Group unanimously supported a motion to become involved in Elixir. It is anticipated that other agencies, such as the Warrnambool Community Garden (WCG) will endorse the program as well, which proposes to offer a range of activities while welcoming involvement from new and existing members. In the establishment phase of Elixir, various health and community agencies will invite service users to participate in weekly environmental activities, coordinated by Clare Vaughan in association with environmental agencies. Clare is the Regional Alliance for Mental Health Promotion Officer for south west Victoria and will work closely with both health and community services as well as environmental agencies such as WCLG, WCG and Warrnambool City Council.
Elixir participants will work alongside existing members of the environmental agencies (WCLG, WCG, etc.) on Thursdays between 1:00 and 3:00pm at various sites to engage in planting, weeding and maintenance activities. It is anticipated that as Elixir participants become more involved, they will join other planned activities that the agencies offer. As Elixir evolves, it will likely expand into other regions. Stay tuned for Elixir commencement dates. For further information on Elixir, please contact Clare Vaughan (0457 883672 or email cvaughan@aspire.org.au) or myself (556 33022 or matthew.ebden@deakin.edu.au).
Clean Up Australia Day – Ann Park
Sunday the 4th of March dawned clear and bright – a perfect day for our annual Clean Up Australia Day! Harris on Merri was one of twenty clean-up sites around Warrnambool, where we had 25 people sign-on to help collect rubbish in the Merrri River using kayaks. Our haul was 600 litres of rubbish, the most interesting item being a coral crusted wheelie bin. Others were involved in weeding (or ‘maintenance’ as Don would say) and helping out with the cooking.
It was great to learn that nearby residents from the woollen mill are starting to help out with the weeding at Harris on Merri. Food, plastic drink bottles and cigarette butts (kick it in the butt) made up the majority of the 12,000 litres of rubbish collected across the entire town. A well-earned barbeque was then enjoyed after the hard work and we were joined by the Council’s CUAD Organiser Murray Murfett. Well done Team!
WCLG Gets All Technological
Many people today communicate with the world through online forums such as ‘blogs’ and social networking sites. Recognising this, WCLG has now joined the world of Facebook. It is hoped that this will give us another way to share our events and achievements with our members and also reach a whole new group of potential members. You can find our page by searching for ‘Warrnambool Coastcare Landcare Group’. Jump on and show your support by doing the ‘Like’ thing, check out news and upcoming events, and perhaps ‘share’ our page with your friends to help us spread the word about WCLG!
The Victorian Coastal Council Awards
Well guess what everyone – thanks to Lisette Mill’s efforts in preparing a submission to the Victorian Coastal Council Awards for Excellence, our much loved and missed Don McTaggart has been announced as a finalist for the VCA Individual Achievement Award. Don of course is the most worthy of nominees for this award, and we will await the results with bated breath. The group has also been nominated for two other awards, so let’s all keep our fingers crossed!
Warrnambool City Council Environment Team Update – Kate McInnes
The new Environment Team are continuing to focus on vegetation management along the foreshore. The team have also undertaken works repairing and maintaining beach accesses and fencing along the foreshore. The team have responded to vandalism in the area including fencing repair and reinstatement of aquatic signage. Other duties have included revegetation,
weed control and fox control, including supervision of volunteer fox shoots. The team have conducted environmental interpretive tours and talks to kindergarten children, primary, secondary and university students.
The fox control work by the team has been outstanding with over 21 foxes destroyed in and around Viaduct Road, Lake Pertobe and Flagstaff Hill. The team conducted tours of Middle Island as part of DSE’s ‘Summer by the Sea’ program where locals and tourists were able to meet the Maremmas and go over to Middle Island (weather permitting). By all accounts the tours were a hit, despite the fact they were held during that week in January of incessant rain!
Middle Island Maremma Project – Kate McInnes
The Maremmas have had a successful season keeping predators at bay. They generally stay on the Island during the week and come off for some respite on weekends, unless weekend conditions appear particularly favourable to foxes (for example, very low tides at night). The Environment Team attend to their daily needs and training and have worked all summer to improve the boardwalk for the dogs including building shade areas and a gate off the boardwalk, and exits for shearwaters if they land on the boardwalk. The team have also spent a lot of time working on getting the amount of power/electronics etc. correct to ensure that the Virtual Fence is working as expected. This work will also lend itself to eventually getting the cameras up and running on a reliable basis.
Our penguin colony has continued to generate media interest throughout summer. The Standard, The Extra, internal DSE press release, freelance writers for ‘Bark’ magazine and Janedogs (her article can be viewed at http://janedogs.com/big-dogs-save-little-penguins), and an article in The Herald Sun, all featured our penguin colony and the Middle Island Maremma Project.
The Middle Island Maremma Project was also the subject of a presentation at the Penguin Symposium in St Kilda on March 6th. The presenter was our very own WCLG member, Amanda Peucker. Chris Drummond also attended the event and was also a great ambassador for our group, ensuring strong links are maintained with Phillip Island Nature Park and the staff there who trained our penguin monitoring team last year.
Middle Island Penguin Monitoring – Kristie King
It looks like we can finally have a well-deserved break from penguin-watching, with our last arrival count recording only 10 penguins returning to the Middle Island. Breeding monitoring has also indicated that the colony has finished raising chicks and that the birds remaining on the island are going through their annual 'moulting' period. So our record-breaking penguin breeding season has now wrapped up, with monitoring to recommence in September.
Coastal Volunteers Forum Report – Brendan McDonald
On Saturday the 26th a group of us attended the Coast Action/Coastcare Coastal Volunteers Forum held in Port Fairy. The event, organised by Marty Gent and hosted by Geoff Brown, was an interactive forum to help us learn from, and of, other likeminded environmental groups. Along with our own WCLG representatives, there were group members from the Friends of Griffith’s Island (FOGI), Nelson Coastcare Group, and a representative from Conservation Volunteers Australia.
No-one knew what to expect from the day, but everyone gained various ideas and bonds were formed between all the groups. Geoff used new ‘mingling’ techniques rather than the traditional introductions, getting us to move in a spatial map to show were we’re from. He asked us “What does the coast need us to be?” and had us imagining the perfect future; we then worked backwards to find out how to get there, rather than just moving from where we are now. We were given a scenario where our group was given funding and we suggested how to best spend the money. An activity where each option was compared and rated with each other one at a time brought the ideas everyone preferred to the surface.
After a well-catered lunch we were asked to choose from an assortment of random pictures of what we thought represented our ideal future. We then formed a story from a time when the environment was in danger and threatened through change to a better future. Through the stories, we shared what we thought made an ideal future and what change can take us there. Our final activity asked us to write one way to reinforce our group. After discussions with other groups of people we made a list of techniques to strengthen our Coastcare groups. Many of these skills we learned on the day we can’t wait to take back to our respective groups to help strengthen our bonds within and between volunteer groups. Thanks again to Marty and Geoff.
HUB Opening
The Warrnambool Community Garden has been working hard to secure a building for the garden site in which local community groups can come together to learn, share ideas, and celebrate achievements. The ‘Healthy Urban Building’ or HUB, will be retrofitted according to best-practice sustainable building principles and will be available to the community for workshops and demonstrations on sustainable living. It is the first building of its kind in south-west Victoria and will include innovations like a composting toilet and alternative energy solutions. The HUB has now been relocated to its new home at the corner of Grafton and Coulstock Streets and will be officially opened on Thursday 14th April by Denis Napthine and the Victorian Minister for Environment and Climate Change, Ryan Smith. Contact Marty (marty.gent@dse.vic.gov) for more info on this excellent project.