Next working bee
We hold a working bee and planting morning on the third Sunday of the month at one of our sites where volunteers pull out weeds, spread mulch and plant tube stock. We usually start about 9am in the hotter months and 10am in the cooler months.
Here are the dates and venues for the rest of 2013.
May 19 – Davis St
June 16 – Johnson Park
July 21 – Pigott St
August 18 – Davis St
September 15 – Johnson Park
October 20 – Pigott St
November 17 – Davis St
December 15 – Johnson Park
If you register with us, we will send out an email to let you know of any changes or cancellations due to rain. Call secretary Deb Auchinachie on 0410 762 599 or James Tremain on 0419 272 254.
Working bee, Pigott Street, April, 2013
We had a mild autumn morning for our April working bee at Pigott St. It was pleasing to see 13 volunteers, including welcome newcomers Karen and Vicki.
Lots of weeding was done of seeding annual weeds throughout site, and amongst the young plantings from last October. The edges of this site (the canal and rail line boundaries), have lots of annual weeds that need spraying with herbicide before the seeds drop and more weeds encroach. We will try to get this done before our next working bee at Pigott St.
Unfortunately quite a few of the tubes that we planted on the slope have died, probably due to the couple of very hot days in January, low rainfall since and those new plants being on the steep hill with its very difficult soil. Those of us involved in the big day setting up our new rainforest will no doubt remember how hard it was to dig even small holes to plant the tubestock in the “fill” that passes for “soil” here. We need to do some replanting there and we may need to prepare the soil more before the tubes go in.
Having a tap on site would help with watering. We hope that Marrickville Council will manage to provide us with an onsite tap before too long so won’t have to beg water from the neighbours in Pigott St.
We enjoyed seeing lots of sun skinks in the site, especially around the habitat piles of branches, and we observed a butcherbird hunting them.
Working bee, Waratah Mills, February, 2013
Thirteen volunteers, including three new people, turned out for the working bee at the Waratah Mills site north of Terry Rd next to the apartments.
We did masses of weeding and pruning and pulled back couch grass from around native shrubs. Even though contractors blitzed the couch last spring it had bounced back with the summer heat and rain. We will follow up with some spraying soon.
We also pruned dead branches from melaleucas and made a habitat pile from branches for lizards and bandicoots to hide in.
During her regular talk, site supervisor Sue Stevens’ explained how to tell the difference between the leaves of the native lilly pilly and the large-leafed privet, which is a weed.
Working bee, Pigott St, January 20, 2013
This was our first follow-up weeding since our major planting day last October. Our heavy mulching paid dividends, and the weed growth was not too bad for a newly planted area. It would be good to follow up with some more weeding before our next working bee here, which is not scheduled until April.
Unfortunately a few of the little plants on the steep slope seem to have been killed by the record 45 degree heat a couple of days ago. Some of us watered all the new plants two weeks ago before the other really hot day when it was 42 degrees.
We weeded and weeded, pulling out 31 different types of weeds. There are always new weeds appearing, and couple even baffled our very knowledgeable bushcare supervisor Sue Stevens.
Working bee, Johnson Park, December 16, 2012
There were 14 volunteers on this hot day. A thrill for the morning was seeing a large blue-tongue lizard near the Davis St end of the site.
Annual General Meeting
Our 2012 AGM was held at Johnson Park after the working bee. The committee was re-elected:
Geoff Pollard and Chris King Vice Presidents
Deb Auchinachie Secretary
Jo Blackman Project Officer
James Tremain Communications Officer
Building the Light Rail Meetings with John Holland and Transport for NSW
We have been having monthly meetings with reps from John Holland Group (JHG) and Transport for NSW (TfNSW) to discuss issues about our bushcare sites along the light rail corridor.
We’ve had discussions and a few on-site meetings with JHG staff about the impact of building the path to the Waratah Mills station that’s now being built through IWEG’s Davis St site.
At our meeting on December 6, 2012, one of the TfNSW environment managers gave a presentation about potential new bushcare sites to compensate for some of our plantings and trees in the corridor being cut down for paths and stations.
We discussed how to prioritise new sites given their environmental value, safe access and other considerations. Some of our committee members looked at the sites and then met Marrickville Council biodiversity team leader Damon Bassett to set priorities. We then looked at some of the sites with him and submitted a joint proposal to TfNSW.
Rainforest planting day
More than 40 volunteers of all ages turned out for the rainforest planting day at Pigott St on October 21, moving a mountain of mulch and planting more than 200 native species. What a great day!
Read more.
More photos.
Welcome to IWEG
The Inner West Environment Group (IWEG) is a volunteer bushcare group that establishes and maintains sites along a corridor that links the Cooks River and Iron Cove through the inner western Sydney suburbs of Hurlstone Park, Dulwich Hill, Lewisham, Summer Hill, Haberfield and Leichhardt.
The group has established four sites along the rail corridor at Dulwich Hill – at the ends of Davis, Pigott and Little streets and beside the Waratah Mills apartment block – and helps maintain three others: at Cadigal Reserve, Summer Hill; Lords Rd, Leichhardt; and Richard Murden Reserve, Haberfield. We also have other sites on the drawing board along the light rail corridor.
Anybody who wants to connect with nature, their local community and other people is welcome to join us. It is fun and there are many ways you can get involved.
Bandicoot Bushcarers
Inner West Environment Group is quite a mouthful, and because one of our aims is to protect the local colony of Long-nosed Bandicoots, we also call ourselves Bandicoot Bushcarers.
