Griffith Bushcare Team partnership

(l-r) Mirandha, David, Joseph

By: Michael Fox

Mirandha Escott-Burton is the driving force behind our partnership with the Griffith Bushcare Team which aims to engage our local university students in our restoration work.

We are currently planning a series of Saturday morning events and projects at our six Bushcare sites.

Saturday was at Gertrude Petty Place Bushcare where Mirandha and Joseph worked with local resident David, Team Leader Sue Jones and other volunteers who meet on site the last Saturday of each month between 8am and 10am.

 

Recycle your shopping bags as Replas station markers for mountain walks

Support our Mountain restoration projects
Recycle your biscuit and lolly bags at Coles

By: Michael Fox

Replas Bollards are to used as station markers for the self-guided walks through Mt Gravatt Conservation Reserve. So it is inspiring to learn that our plastic shopping bags as well as biscuit and lolly packets can now be recycled at our local Coles store.

Planet ARK blog post An Australian first – Free soft plastic recycling at Coles tells the story and lists the soft plastics we can now recycle rather than throw it in your Red Lid rubbish bin. Red Lid bins are gradually replacing the Green Lid general waste bins in line with the Australian Standard for waste bins.

Soft plastic you can recycle in the new Coles bins includes:

• Bread bags
• Biscuit packets
• Frozen food bags
• Rice and pasta Bags
• Confectionery packets
• Newspaper wrap (plastic)
• Plastic shopping bags
• Old green bags

Soft plastics like these cannot be recycled in the Yellow Lid household bins.

 

 

Mt Gravatt Conservation Reserve Track Map

By: Michael Fox

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The first stage of the Self-guided Walks Project is now complete thanks to Jon and Karla Henry who have made GPS maps of the existing walking tracks.

We are now researching the information about the tracks – trees, birds, geology, local history – European and Indigenous, stories about the mountain.

What would you like to know about the Reserve or what would you like to share to others?

Do you have a story to share about a walk with your children or perhaps a memory of a visit with a grandparent?

Do you have some pictures to share?

Email your ideas, stories and links to pictures to megoutlook@gmail.com

 

Exotic orchids in Mt Gravatt

By: Michael Fox

Brisbane Orchid Society has honoured us with a stand at their Charity Orchid Show at Mt Gravatt State School this weekend.

An amazing range of flowers were already on display when I set our our display, and more blooms were walking in the door all the time.

Take the second gate off Logan Road just past the sign.

Brisbane Orchid Society meet regularly at the refurbished Progress Hall, Upper Mt Gravatt – 4th Monday month at 7:45Pm.

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Updates to Flora & Fauna of Mt Gravatt Conservation Reserve

By: Michael Fox

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We have updated Flora & Fauna of Mt Gravatt Conservation Reserve with three new native plants – Isotropis filicaulis a rare/threatened shrub of the Fabaceae family, Swamp/Slender Bindweed Polymeria calycina a delicate vine with tiny pale pink flowers and Plantago debilis a native herb. This brings the count of indigenous plants species found in the Reserve to two hundred and sixty-eight.

A new native snail – Fraser’s Land Snail Sphaerospira fraseri has been added thanks to a young naturalist neighbour,  Ethan Morris.

New photos and video of the Pacific Baza Aviceda subcristata has been added. In March we had a family of three Bazas in Fox Gully over a period of two weeks. I watched as one Baza hunted a large Stick Insect in a young Tallowwood planted in our 2008 Fox Gully Bushcare Community Planting and now supporting food for birds.

Flora species list and other research.

 

New plants and amazing Bearded Dragon photo

Isotropis filicaulis

By: Michael Fox

The rain is frustrating when we have to cancel Bushcare events, however, it is also bringing the forest alive with three new plant species added in one week.

Susan Jones has found that removal of weeds and restoration at the Gertrude Petty Place Bushcare site has allowed natural regeneration of a number of plant species including this rare/threatened Fabaceae species Isotropis filicaulis.

Polymeria calycina

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Swamp Bindweed Polymeria calycina a delicate creeper with pink flowers.

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Plantago debilis

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Plantago debilis a small native herb that provides seeds for native birds. Addition of these three new species means we now have 268 native plant species in Mt Gravatt Conservation Reserve.

Thanks to Ann Moran, Jaeger-Moran Environmental, for help with identification.

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On the other side of the mountain Alan Moore got this amazing close-up of an Eastern Bearded Dragon with its beard on display in Fox Gully Bushcare.

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Bearded Dragon Pogona barbata - Photo: Alan Moore

 

Coppa the Lucky Koala back in the trees

Garrett with Coppa in Wildlife Ambulance

By: Michael Fox

Last month I joined Wildlife Ambulance officers, Garrett Smits and Vicki Pender, to return Coppa the Lucky Koala back to bushland adjoining Bulimba Creek at Mansfield. This is the third time Coppa has been taken to the Moggill Koala Hospital after being hit by a car on Creek Road.

Injured Koalas taken to the Moggill Koala Hospital are all given a name and micro-chipped before being released to bushland as close as possible to where they are found.

Southern Star – 10 April 2013

Coppa is a 5.5 year old male in good health … and very lucky.

• 18/12/2011 – hit by car on Creek Road – course of antibiotics and observation for 10 days released north of Creek Road
• 16/8/2012 – hit by car on Creek Road – bruising – obs for 3 days – released north of Creek Road
• 19/3/2013 – hit by car on Creek Road – released yesterday bushland at end of Dividend Street Mansfield (south of Creek Road)

Vicki and Garrett are obviously proud of their Wildlife Ambulance work and particularly fond of this lucky Koala they have now rescued three times.

It was a pleasure to see a Koala return from hospital back to the wild. Koalas are breeding successful again in Mt Gravatt Conservation Reserve and bushland along Bulimba Creek. However, city drivers are not used to having to slow down for a Koala crossing the road. Breeding season from September to March is the time when Koalas are most likely to be crossing roads.

Coppa was hit in the same area each time … just within the 70km zone as you come down the hill from Carindale towards the Bunnings corner. Please be careful and report injured Koalas to 1300 WILDLIFE.