Rocky creek below the cliff line

Regrowth at road level

Transition habitat going up the hillside

Rotting fallen timber

Rymill on his way up the hillside

Creek at the top of the site

Ridge vegetation at the top of the site

Sandpaper Fig - Ficus coronata

Little Blue Gum Creek - Bushcare Site 011

The 8th January 1994 was the day when much of northern Sydney bushland was severely burnt by bushfires, and Lane Cove National Park was badly affected.

There was already a Friends of Lane Cove National Park group consisting mainly of persons interested in volunteering to assist in the bush regeneration of specific areas of the Park. There was also a strong feeling of wanting to assist by some organisations, and this resulted in funds being available to begin a program of assistance by volunteers to cope with the expected surge of weeds in the burnt areas. When funds became available, a meeting was held in Jenkins Hall and the number of folk interested in being involved overwhelmed the organisers who had not provided sufficient seats for the would be volunteers.

Margaret Reidy and I, as well as many others, opted for Little Blue Gum Creek as an area to work, and in the distribution of responsibility, Margaret was given the southern end and I, the northern section. My Group’s first meeting was on the 2nd Sunday in July when we were given an introduction talk by Lynn Rees who had been appointed to co-ordinate the whole program. On that day there were 8 volunteers, and we worked for a total of 19 hours. Since then, weather permitting, the scheduled meetings have been at 9AM on the 2nd Sunday of the month, and we work until noon.

Our starting point was a soil heap which was badly infested by weeds such as Anredera, Plantain, Balloon Vine, Araujia, Acetosa, Inkweed and Paddy’s Lucerne. From that point, we worked our way east until meeting the floodplain of Little Blue Gum Creek, and then northwards toward a gully from the west which drained across the floodplain into LBGC. Later, we found that we had begun on Naamaroo land, and it took almost 2 years of effort before we reached what we now know is LCNP.

As we cleared areas, it was heartening to see the foliage emerge on the trees badly burnt but not killed by the fire, the rapid growth of Acacias which germinated in the ash layer, the prolific growth of native grasses among the weeds, and the dense growth of Polyscias shrubs which dominated previously bare areas. With a month between visits, each workday was a revelation as to what had happened since the last visit. Particularly dramatic were the seasonal natives and weeds such as Persicaria and Paddy’s Lucerne; from almost none, they completely dominated an area between visits. An early precious find was Pelargonium inodorum which is rare in the area and needing more expertise than we possessed to identify. A weed grass which baffled the herbarium until we were able to supply a flowering plant was identified as Phalaris arundonacea (Reed Canary Grass) and is still to be found on the creek bank and sometimes in the floodplain.

Among the volunteers there were many with expertise and many who had come to it to assist the restoration. Some of them came long distances to be part of it, and even though the work was often going over the same area as before, they were enthused by the changes which were obvious each month. There were folk from Whale Beach , Enmore, Annandale, as well as the suburbs closer to LCNP. The number of participants each work day in the first two year period varied from 11 to 3, but a usual number was about 6 or7.

The floodplain had been created by the creek depositing sandy soil at times of overflow, and it was bare of any trees except for a couple of large eucalypts, but with a dense layer of low weeds, mostlyTtradescantia. Trevor Prowse, a co-ordinator with Lynn Rees, thought that the planting of Casuarina glauca would help stabilise the area and prevailed upon me to clear some areas for planting. The trees were planted and protected by plastic tree guards secured by bamboo pegs. That was fine until a downpour upstream caused flooding which took away the tree guards, laid the casuarinas horizontal, took away a heap of pulled Paddys Lucerne, and deposited a heavy log too large to be moved on the floodplain. Many of the guards were recovered, the casuarinas firmed in an upright position and the Paddys was no longer our problem. Now the Casuarinas seem as though they have been there almost forever, the mass of Trad been replaced by Sarcopetalum, Microlaena and tall Bracken Fern, but each time there is a downpour north of the site, fresh deposits of Trad and other weeds occupy the volunteers for much of their time in the following sessions.

Our operations were getting closer to the western gully and I was puzzled by the amount of moisture in the ground, even after periods with very little rain. It was imperative to know the source, but that was rugged unknown territory and quite steep. I recruited a good friend, Rob Pallin , to join me in the search for the source, and we did find a sewer pop top which was delivering a constant flow over a large area down the northern slope into the western gully and then to Little Blue Gum Creek. I notified the Water Board and then had to direct the repair crew to the discharge. It was their opinion that it must have been happening for some months. There have since then been a number of discharges, and I was often called to direct the team to the leak, but there has been a relining of the pipes with no further leaks since then.

By October 1996, we had weeded all of the slope areas up to the southern bank of the western gully.The plan was that the gully was to be our boundary and we were proud to show Lynn Rees our progress. Looking up the gully, Lynn queried the type of tree located on the south bank just above the gully floor, which was flowering profusely. A closer examination proved it to be a copse of Schizomeria ovata, the many trunks of which had been badly seared on the western side by the January 1994 fire. This was a highlight for the team, as these trees are found in or near rainforest gullies, but are not common.

Work on the site continued and it was decided to progress further north while continuing to maintain the whole of the original areas. This led us to what had been a Ku-ring-gai Council rubbish tip which was probably used as a dump in the late 1960’s.We have found bottles dated 1969 but nothing later than that. The Council has told me that they do not have any available records of the area being used as a tip, but the top has been levelled and covered with soil and does have a large Blue Gum growing in one area. The primary work dealt mainly with Honeysuckle and Blackberry, but they have departed leaving tall Bracken Fern as the dominant species.

In November 1997, a new group known as The Afternoon Tea Group of which I was a member, decided to add LBGC to the sites scheduled for regular visits. Since the early 1980’s this group worked in various sites, and the co-ordinator for the site of that day provides afternoon tea for the group. They are a dedicated group of volunteers and the membership has evolved with time. It is this team which tackles some of the more challenging regeneration tasks on this site, and they have done much of the Primary work on more difficult parts of the site.

The support given to myself and the teams with whom I work by the Co-ordinators, Rangers and Field Staff has been heartening and always helpful. Lynn and Trevor were a great team who started it up and then assured that it went well, Andrew gave me lots of assistance dealing with a large stand of Blackberries, Melissa was a superb person to work with and was ever helpful, while Matt, who was a volunteer at that original meeting, has led and helped the volunteers by arranging courses etc for their benefit. Other Park staff have also helped a lot, and it is great when one of them shows up at the site on a work day. Thank you all for what you have done for your volunteers and for the Park which we all love. And thank you for all of those volunteers who have contributed their time and effort to make our site what it has become. Some of you have made a tremendous effort over many years and I do appreciate what you have achieved.

Site 011 is very much a rainforest gully site. Much of the valley floors are fringed with Morinda and the south facing slopes have Drachophyllum and clumps of Acianthus orchids. The Schizomeria copse dominates and there are Coachwoods, Cissus and Sandpaper Figs distributed throughout the site. In winter, much of the site is sheltered from the southerly or souwestery winds and plants retain water droplets throughout the day.

With time, the numbers of volunteers have diminished, the area which is under maintenance is much larger, we are all ageing, and the past year has been a difficult time with massive amounts of growth of natives and weeds, but particularly the Trad which is extraordinarily lush and vigorous. Every time that there is heavy rain in the catchment, with more hard surfaces shedding water, there will be a deposition of weed propagules on to the floodplain and bushland edges. I think that we have achieved too much to allow it to not continue. I hope to be able to be a contributor for some time yet, but am hopeful that someone will be prepared to take over from me.

Rymill Abell LBGC Site Co-ordinator January 2012