Bushcare work undone

Monday morning pedallers and pedestrians at the Thirroul end of the cycleway will probably have noticed the shabby chic clad members of the Hewitts Creek Bushcare Group working on either side of the cycleway.

The group was spun out of the Sandon Point Bushcare Group in 2014 and, until lockdown, was one of many such groups of volunteers working under the direction of the Wollongong City Council Bushcare Program. We have 16 to 20 active members normally but Covid precautions have temporarily reduced our workforce.

As the June lockdown began, WCC’s insurers withdrew cover for its volunteers but we decided to keep working independently at the socially distanced points of most concern: ie, where the worst weeds were getting away from us. These include blackberry, formosa lily, asparagus fern, privet, crofton weed, cobblers peg, morning glory, and the ubiquitous lantana. Some have been here for decades, others are garden escapees, unwanted gifts of fruit-eating birds or Hewitts Creek floods. As with Covid, elimination is likely a distant dream, so containment is our objective.

With suitable plantings of local natives and a lot of weeding, we hope to crowd out or shade some weeds into oblivion.

Recently, our plantings and some long-established trees and shrubs have been threatened with obliteration – and it’s been HUMAN thoughtlessness that’s done the damage.

Lockdown brought an understandable surge in foot and bike traffic through the Bushcare site and, with it, a rapidly growing toll on the native vegetation we work to preserve. The 2 narrow dirt paths to the west of the cycleway widened and multiplied, destroying recently planted natives and branches of ” inconveniently located”, established native vegetation.

Last weekend three separate “shelters “were built using dead and live branches and the entire western side of a Coastal Saltbush, one of our great successes, was ripped away to clad the walls.

On September 20, we discovered a surfers’ lair, replete with wooden table, office and dining chairs and a foam mattress, installed at the expense of local, native shrubs we planted in 2020.

Many passers-by thank us for the small piece of natural environment that we maintain but there seems to be a logical disconnect beyond that appreciation. Unless all of us value our native vegetation and the native birds and animals who share it, thoughtless, self-indulgent acts can destroy natural areas in a few minutes.

Recovery takes many years and a lot of work.

Our plea is that in using this very attractive area, adults and children keep to the cycleway and the established tracks. Please refrain from casually damaging plants and keep dogs on leashes until you reach the off-leash area. That way, the bush can regenerate without disturbance. We are often told what a valued job we are doing, and we enjoy doing it. Please assist us to allow the site to regenerate and the whole living community will benefit.

About the author

Thirroul’s Ian McKinlay is an original member and Convenor of the Hewitts Creek Bushcare Group.
A retired history teacher, Ian joined Sandon Point Bushcare Group in 2011, Bellambi Dunes Bushcare Group in 2012 and did a TAFE Conservation and Land Management Course in 2013. Also an Illawarra Bird Observers Club member, he’s recorded 84 native bird species between McCauley’s Hill and Sandon Point since 1996.