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Friends of Waurn Ponds Creek is an environmental initiative,
to preserve the amenity of a largely suburban waterway and its flood plain.
Great start in our inaugural yearNearly 100 people have registered their interest in the group. We now have six co-ordinators along the creek but need more. If you are interested in being a co-ordinator please contact Jackie who will give you a better idea of what is involved. We require co-ordinators for
Murray Box, co-ordinator for area F along Grove Road has done amazing things ...He has already organized a regular monthly working bee to which 20 people show up and have cleared an enormous amount of rubbish from along side the creek. Well done and thankyou from all of us who use the walking track along the creek.Seeds to Trees for our Creek
Thankyou to Helen for collecting seeds this summer and thankyou
to Grahame and Sharon Abbott for organizing their propagation at Barwon
community nursery with Jillian's help. Seeds collected were from River
Red-gum Eucalyptus camaldulensis, Sticky Hop-bush Dodonea viscosa, Golden
Wattle Acacia pycnantha, Black Wattle A. mearnsii and Blackwood A. melanoxylon.
What is a Pea Crab?It is a tiny dark brown freshwater crab, the size of a five cent piece, with a body the size of a pea and it lives in Waurn Ponds Creek. It has compound eyes on short stalks, but it can't see very clearly, although it can detect changes in
brightness. The female keeps her pale pink eggs held close underneath
her body with special legs called pleopods. Dave King found a female
with eggs at our Open Day and another was found during a Waterwatch testing
demonstration near Grove Road in February. This little crab, like the
water snails that were found on that occasion, and like the Yarra Pygmy
Perch found during the fish survey and by Dave, is a living indicator of
the health of the creek. It is one of the things that makes Waurn Ponds
Creek so special and why we need to look after it.
A shower of Rain Rejuvenates the Flood Plain...Dave KingOver the last several months of hot and dry weather conditions the Waurn Ponds Creek flood-plain has shown little in the way of ground-dwelling creatures. Indeed the soil has become so dry as to cause intense soil shrinkage, to the extent that wide cracks have appeared, which no doubt secrete many field crickets. Now after a shower or two of rain producing a reasonable depth of moisture within the soil column, signs of activity can be seen and heard-mating calls of the crickets and nest-building by ants. Within areas relatively bare of grass and subject to a degree of run-off, as from the walking track, a series of excavations can be seen. These look like miniature volcanic cones, about 150 mm in diameter, composed of fine grains of moist soil, and all invariably appearing overnight. There is usually a series of some five to eight cones distributed within an area of about a quarter square metre. If these excavations are observed in the early morning, the actual excavators may be seen-ants each carrying a grain of soil up the vent, depositing it on the rim of the cone and then immediately returning down the vent. These busy little individuals are Sugar Ants, Camponotus consibrinus in most instances. There are 128 different species of this ant genus distributed throughout Australia.
Pest Plants and Animals
COGG and CCMA have allocated a lot of resources to the Waurn Ponds
Creek for this year. Already extensive weed spraying, weed removal,
and rabbit baiting has commenced and CVA are going to be putting many
hours into helping us with the more inaccessible parts of the creek.
We must not waste this golden opportunity to make a huge positive impact
along the creek this year.
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Education Group
A new group is to be formed to look at ways of educating the public and especially schoolchildren about Waurn Ponds Creek.
Mike Haigh, a local resident, has begun to compile
this website about Waurn Ponds Creek. He will start with the history of the 'Chain
of Ponds' as the creek was first called, and newsletter items will be
added. The site will be a wonderful way of letting the whole world know
about the Friends of Waurn Ponds Creek and what we are aiming to achieve.
Grants for Graphics
We have received the following grants:
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