Blue Wren Subcommittee Annual Report 2018-2019

by Andrew Wood, Convenor, Blue Wren Subcommittee, from Bulletin 7/2019 (September)

The objectives of the Blue Wren Subcommittee include increasing the diversity, abundance and distribution of indigenous fauna and flora in our suburb and also to involve the local community in habitat creation and enhancement activities. We work with the five bushcare/landcare groups in Glebe and on an annual basis hundreds of local residents spend time caring for our local parks. Members are always welcome to join the Subcommittee and to help on planting days and in our annual bird survey as well as attending our annual biodiversity talk and other events. Please feel free to contact us at bluewrens@glebesociety.org.au if you would like to attend an activity.

The Subcommittee has 12 members and during the past year met on six occasions. National Tree Day (Sunday, 29 July 2018) was celebrated with a very successful planting day in Paddy Gray Reserve, Hereford St and 70 which adults and children attended. Other regular plantings of native flora by volunteers were held by the Friends of Orphan School Creek Bushcare Group, Glebe Palmerston and Surrounds Landcare Group, and the Ferry Rd Bushcare Group.

Jan Craney, a much-loved and respected former Convenor of the Subcommittee left us a bequest in her will, and the funds were used to establish the Craney Small Grants program, which supports biodiversity projects in Glebe’s preschools, primary schools and high schools. In 2018, a grant was given to Glebe Public School entitled ‘Glebe Public School gets a native bee buzz’ and this year a grant was awarded to Sydney Secondary College, Blackwattle Bay, for their project entitled ‘Blackwattle Bay’, which proposes the establishment by the school’s Environment Committee of a native tree garden, In each case the grant had a value of $1,000.

The Society’s sixth annual spring bird survey was led by Judy Christie and commenced at 7am on Sunday 28 October. It was conducted by 18 enthusiastic volunteers and jn total 30 different bird species were recorded, which equals the highest number of species recorded. The overall number of 459 birds seen was also a great achievement. The dominant species were the same as in previous years – Rainbow Lorikeets followed by Noisy Miners. Species seen for the first time included the Tawny Frogmouth, the red-rumped Parrot and Galahs, the latter two possibly an indication of birds more commonly seen inland coming to the coastal areas due to drought conditions. Once again, our target species, the Superb Fairy-Wren, was not sighted in Glebe or Forest Lodge.

The issue of accident insurance provided by the City for its bushcare volunteers remains of concern. The initial unsatisfactory insurance policy required an individual bushcare group to pay the first $500 of any accident claim. In March this year, the City instituted a new policy without such a requirement, however, the policy does not fully cover volunteers over 75 years of age.

There will have to be a future article in the Bulletin about the saga over the past three years of the Glebe Palmerston and Surrounds Landcare Group’s repeated requests for a tap in the lower part of the Palmerston Ave park for watering the new native flora. The City says the site for the tap is not on their land, which Sydney Water says is owned by Transdev, the operators of the light rail, but they will not give permission to access the land to install the tap, despite the Group working there regularly to plant native flora!

The year ended with the Society’s 50^th celebrations which included the Subcommittee’s annual biodiversity talk. It was entitled Fighting Back: Restoring Australia’s Unique Biodiversity and was given by Shauna Chadloe, Chief Development Officer, from the Australian Wildlife Conservancy. The Conservancy is especially interested in saving Australia’s endangered wildlife – 31 mammals have become extinct in our country since European settlement. Using fencing (at times electrified) to keep out foxes and cats, removing the feral herbivores and having small controlled burnings to reduce the chance of a major bushfire all lead to a protected habitat where the native fauna and flora can thrive. Further, threatened species can be translocated into these protected environments where they are able to breed and significantly increase in numbers. The Subcommittee also prepared a poster (about 2×3 m) for the 50^th celebrations to demonstrate photographically the thriving native flora in our parks that has been planted and cared for by the volunteers. Of special interest were the photos dating from the 1920s that demonstrated dramatic ‘before and after’ comparisons – for example, in a 1950s photo of Ernest Pederson Park in Ferry Rd looking south across Glebe there is not a single tree in sight.

In concluding, we would like to acknowledge the assistance the bushcare groups and the Subcommittee have received during the past year from the City of Sydney. We have worked closely with Daniel Harris and the late Rae Broadfoot (Community Garden and Volunteer Coordinators) and Sophie Golding (Urban Ecology Coordinator), as well as Joel Johnson, Manager, City Greening and Leisure.