Welcome to SummerIt has been a busy time over the spring period! Our biennial Sustainability Awards, held with Darebin Council, allowed us to recognise some of Banyule's residents, businesses and schools tackling local environmental issues with a range of innovative projects. We are well aware that the nominees are only a few of the many people and organisations across Banyule that are taking action to maintain and protect our environment. We hope you enjoy learning about some of their great work through this newsletter. As always, if you have any comments or questions regarding
any of the programs, please contact Sian Gleeson.
Banyule's Sustainability Awards
Celebrating Environmental Excellence
We were delighted to recognise the outstanding environmental work of people and organisations in Banyule, with our biennial Sustainability Awards held on 24 November. Hosted by Gardening Australia's Costa Georgiadis, the night celebrated the many outstanding individuals who are taking action in Darebin and Banyule to protect our natural environment. The six winners across each of the key categories were: - MURUNDAKA (House and garden)
- SALT FOUNDATION
(Community group)
- ROBIN GALE-BAKER and GRETA GILLIES (Local Hero)
- BANYULE PRIMARY SCHOOL (Educational Organisation)
- ROOFTOP HONEY (Business)
- MONTMORENCY SUGAR GLIDER PROJECT (Community Environmental Project)
Congratulations to these deserving winners and to everyone nominated!
Spring Outdoors
Breakfast with the Birds
The 16th annual Breakfast with the Birds event was held on Sunday 23rd October as part of Banyule’s Spring Outdoors program. Over 70 enthusiastic bird watchers braved the Antarctic conditions to go on one of six walks offered around Banyule Flats and Warringal Parklands. The walks were followed by a breakfast at the Old Shire Offices and a bird count conducted by Janet Hand of Birdlife Australia.
Image Credit: Tom Crawshaw
Home Harvest 'FEASTival'
Registrations Due! Home Harvest is running again in 2017 and local resident Chris Pittock is looking forward to contributing some of his harvest towards the community ‘Feast’. Whilst Chris was brought up with parents who were conscientious gardeners, he has learnt a lot since starting his own front yard plot. "It’s important to set yourself a target and then work from there", explains Chris. “Everyone has a bad year in something. Having a few goes at crops is good – they come good in the end!" The annual Home Harvest FEASTival brings together people to celebrate home grown food. All registered growers are invited to share in the
day, with trained chefs creating a delicious community meal using donated products.
Image Credit: Chris Pittock
Council and the environment - Have your sayCouncil is currently planning for the next four years and is asking people a range of questions including what needs to be done to best protect and care for the environment. Join the conversation at
Shaping Banyule – Banyule 2021. Have your say and see what others in the community have contributed. Go direct to the conversation about Environmental Sustainability.
Community Leaders in Sustainability CourseTime is running out to register for your place in the free Community Leaders in Sustainability course in 2017. Learn more about the course and make sure to register before 5pm 12 December!
Speaking of Sustainability…
A new public speaking club which has started in Heidelberg is helping Banyule residents 'talk the talk'. Founder, Andrew Campbell-Fraser, said he was motivated to start 'Speaking of Sustainability' to help people who care about the environment become more effective communicators and advocates. “Animals and ecosystems can’t speak for themselves, they need us to speak for them. We need to be good communicators to speak up effectively for the environment, and public speaking can be a big part of that.” Mr Campbell-Fraser said. Andrew set up the club after completing Banyule Council’s nine week Community Leaders in Sustainability course in 2015, which involves participants
implementing an environmental project in their community.
Creating a Frog and Fish Friendly Haven
On Saturday 12 November Sustainable Homes and Communities ran its third Gardening for Habitat and Biodiversity workshop at the La Trobe Wildlife Sanctuary, one of our greatest local natural assets. Focusing on frogs and fish, participants learnt about simple and cost effective measures they could adopt to attract new friends to their homes. For more information visit here, or why not visit the Sanctuary!
Taking the stress out of installing solar with a Council supported programPositive Charge, a free service for Banyule residents, is running a solar campaign designed to match residents with a tried and tested solar supplier and installer. Positive Charge runs a rigorous procurement process that ensures you are quoted for the best sized system to suit your needs and maximise savings. Greg Potter installed solar through the
Positive Charge supplier last year. “It’s ridiculous to me that you would pay someone to dig coal out of the ground to make electricity when you can get it for free and more safely from the sun. It’s a happy side effect that it is going to save me money. But that wasn’t the main motivation,” Greg said.
Image Credit: Positive Charge
Water Sensitive Urban Design Tours of Banyule
There have been a number of tours of Banyule’s Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) and stormwater harvesting sites over the winter and spring months. WSUD is important as it allows stormwater to be cleaned before it enters our natural waterways. It also enables stormwater to be harvested for use in our parks and gardens, replacing potable water use. Council runs educational tours on our various WSUD assets throughout the year. Through these tours we are able to share how we are improving water quality in the municipality, drought proofing playing fields and reducing water costs when irrigating open space. This is particularly important for other councils and tertiary students, who can learn from these projects. Tours were provided for Holmesglen TAFE and Federation University Churchill students in August and October. A group of residents and teachers from Banyule and Nillumbik’s Teachers Environment Network toured Kalparrin Gardens stormwater harvesting project in October.
Council signs Climate Pledge
On 14 November 2016, Council passed a resolution to sign the TAKE2 Pledge. TAKE2 is a Victorian Government initiative, designed to help Victoria reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Its aim is to enable all Victorian businesses, local
councils, community, educational organisations and individuals to be part of Victoria’s action on climate change, and contribute to the first Victorian state-wide interim emissions reduction target for 2020. The TAKE2 Pledge is in line with Council’s City Plan key direction to: 'deliver appropriate action on climate change'. Signing the TAKE2 pledge reinforces the leadership role that Council has already demonstrated in adopting its Energy Plan target to achieve carbon neutrality by 2020.
The Six Seasons of My BackyardWe are delighted to announce the arrival of a beautiful photography book illustrating the varying seasons of Banyule Flats. Produced by Leanne Cole with funding received through Council's Environmental Grants Program, The Six Seasons of My Backyard
beautifully captures the changing Wurundjeri seasons across Banyule – from the Flats to Heidelberg Park. Leanne noted - “I first started taking photos down [in Banyule Flats] a few years ago in the hope that if people could see what a beautiful area it was, they would feel a connection and want to help protect it… It has been an enlightening experience and one that has been very rewarding.”
Image Credit: Leanne Cole
Diaries from Our Bushland Management CrewsOur Bushland Management Crew’s are always busy doing great work throughout the municipality’s parks and gardens. The Crews are responsible for a range of activities, from environmental education and management, flora and fauna recording and restoration, to the maintenance of bushland reserves, noxious weed control and development of wild life corridors. Each edition we include insight into the crews' activities to help you understand what is happening in your own backyard.
New DiscoveriesSamantha Forbes and Tom Crawshaw
Whilst the rain has brought discoveries of some amazing new flowers, it has also brought an abundance of weeds. We have been controlling them using several techniques including spraying, hand weeding, brush cutting and mowing. We have also been conducting controlled burns to manage annual weeds in remnant areas of bushland. Just a reminder for everyone to be vigilant for snakes and keep
yourdogs on a leash along the Darebin Creek as snakes are very active at this time of year.
Flower DelightsKylie D’Amico, Megan Lowe and Eliza Johnson
We have been amazed and quite excited by the species and numbers of flowers being found throughout our reserves during spring. Some orchids that flowered this year have not been seen for a number of years. The picture above is Caladenia parva – a small spider orchid that flowered this year for the first time in at least six years! We’re hoping next year will be another great year for wildflowers and that we get good rainfalls again.
Planting SuccessPaul Davis and Lauren Dwyer
With the arrival of summer, we see the hard work of our volunteer plantings pay off. Most of our sites up north in Montmorency are looking a picture, with the start of the wallaby grasses starting to flower. Pecks Dam has filled a little more and the pobblebonks and baby ducks are loving it! The Friends of Monty have continued to plant and weed and will look to collect seed through reserves in the
next few weeks. Our Friends of Salt Creek group has also been planting and helping to remove any remaining annual weeds. From this point on, we will continue with annual weed removal, spring burns and fire break preparation in readiness for the hot summer ahead.
Chilean Needle GrassEmma Mann
As well as beautiful wildflowers, spring brings out a few really nasty weeds - like Chilean needle grass (Nassella neesiana), a Weed of National Significance. The grass is well-known and hated by pastoralists for its ability to take over grazing pasture. In bushland settings Chilean needle grass spreads rapidly and is very persistent, quickly dominating over native grasses. Control is made harder by its long-lived seed and close resemblance to native spear grasses (Stipa
species). Some look so similar that the only way to tell the difference is to inspect individual seeds. Chilean Needle Grass flowers and seeds over late spring and early summer, so now is the time to keep an eye out for it in your own garden. Small infestations can be dug out, whilst larger infestations can be sprayed with Round-up. Due to its long seed-life achieving control will however require many years of diligence.
One on One with… Tom Crawshaw
Tom Crawshaw has been a member of the Banyule Bush Crew for the last twelve months. Whilst this keeps him very busy during the day, it also affords him the opportunity to capture some amazing pictures of our local wildlife that many of us would miss! Here we find out more about Tom’s passion for photography… What do you enjoy about photography? I love being able to capture details that others may not see; particularly in the context of wildlife, where my 500mm lens allows me to get closer than I otherwise could. There is certainly a creative and artistic element to capturing my subjects and I love playing around with various exposure settings to form different
effects. It is particularly satisfying to capture an image of a rare species or one that I haven’t seen before. What is the best picture you have taken in Banyule? This is also a very difficult question to answer! I think my favourite would be the photo of a tawny frogmouth (pictured) in the rain. I love the detail of the beads of water resting on its feathers. The photo was actually taken in the Yando St Bushland depot!
Image Credit: Tom Crawshaw
Banyule Ride2Work Day
On Wednesday 12 October, approximately 30 commuter cyclists joined over 120 student cyclists from St Pius X Primary School and Charles La Trobe Primary School for a community breakfast hosted by Banyule Council at Malahang Reserve, Heidelberg West. Although it was a cool start to the day, thankfully there was no rain and there was an endless supply of coffee, plus a yummy breakfast provided by The Salt Foundation. The Bike Shed was open for the morning for any bicycle repairs needed, staffed by members of the Banyule Bicycle Users Group. The community breakfast was one of several held throughout Australia on the day, with over 100,000 cyclists nationally participating in the event.
Spare Harvest - Connecting Community
Reduce your waste and share what you have spare in your gardens. Spare Harvest connects you with your community so you can share your spare pots, tools, produce, seeds, plants, cuttings and even your time. Remember, your extras are another person's treasure! Head to Spare Harvest or download the app to join the growing online sharing community
|