Acronychia oblongifolia (White Aspen)
White Aspen can be found right along the Illawarra escarpment, on the edges or within rainforest. It occasionally can be found along the coastal plain. It has attractive edible white berries.
There is one stand of 11 mature White aspen of varying sizes on the edges of the Turpentine/Blackbutt forest halfway down and on both sides of the bush track, from Stanwell Avenue to the Kiosk.
Unfortunately, about 10 of these trees were ringbarked by the deer but are starting to reshoot from the roots. Some 50 suckers have also sprouted from the roots of the existing trees.
The suckers do not seem to be eaten by deer, but they will certainly be ringbarked when they get older. To protect some of these young trees, we have erected two more deer fences to create small copses of around 20 square metres.
We have planted another 10 White Aspen, throughout the reserve inside the large deer fence or protected by individual cages.
Banksia Bush Care meets again
We hope to start our regular early morning meetings of the group in the next few weeks. We have a lot of work to do.
The block of land at 33 Stanwell Avenue, which forms part of the Stanwell Avenue Reserve, has been cleared of Lantana, Senna, Cape Honeysuckle, Blackberry, Ochna and most of the Asparagus Fern. This land was cleared of these weeds about five years ago but not maintained and is a classic case of what happens with no maintenance.
It is now ready to be replanted and we are waiting on Wollongong Council to provide us with plants. Every tree will have to be protected with a deer-proof cage.
We have built 18 new compost nests out of the weed material and have created the Australian section of the MATE Exhibition (Modern Art Tributes on Eggs).
Included among tributes to Australian artists are two works of local artist, Michael Mucci, painted by his two eldest children, Kiara and Nathan. Michael sadly left us at the age of 57 in 2019 after being diagnosed with a brain tumour.
