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< PreviousHighett Grassy Woodland update By Pauline Reynolds and Amy Weir We were very pleased to welcome Zoe Daniel MP to the Highett Grassy Woodland recently, where we dodged the rain by walking under the trees. Despite the cold, wet day, Zoe saw the magic of the trees and why we had fought so hard to protect them. We will need all levels of government support once the Conservation Management Plan and Masterplan are developed. Michael Norris and Pauline Reynolds visited Gresswell Conservation Park at Latrobe University recently, along with Bayside Volunteer Support Officer Anna Malone, to learn how Parks Victoria cares for a woodland like Highett. Abzeco Consulting has been appointed to undertake the Conservation Management Plan and Masterplan for Highett Grassy Woodland and have been onsite for preliminary flora and fauna surveys and tree inspections. The community will have a chance to provide feedback on the draft plan before it is presented to Council for approval at its June 2024 meeting. In conjunction with the Conservation Management Plan development, Citywide has also been onsite undertaking much-needed vegetationworks in the interim like mowing, woody weed removal and treepruning. Bayside City Council invitedsubmissions regarding the rezoning of the Highett Grassy Woodland and Yalukit Willam to PCRZ Public Conservation and Resource Zone which requires an amendment to the Bayside Planning Scheme. Michael Norris and Pauline Reynolds lodged a submission on 9November. Council has consistently supported the rezoning for many years and now that it has the title to the land at last, the application has been able toproceed. Banksia Bulletin | Summer 2023-2410(L-R) Anglesea grevillea ( Grevillea infecunda ) and the Common Wedge Pea ( Gompholobium huegelii ) flower profusely at the Bayside Community Nursery. Now propagating Words and photos by Pauline Reynolds Common Wedge Pea (Gompholobium huegelii) is found in Bayside only at LongHollow Heathland and George Street Reserve as single plants. It has been located at Balcombe Park and Royal Melbourne Golf Club but is not visible ateither of those locations now. Julie Valentine has managed to propagate one healthy plant from a cutting from Long Hollow. Its lovely yellow pea flowers bloomed last year butdidn’t produce any seed so Julie has tried hand pollinating the flowers recently to see if it can be persuaded to reproduce. We hope this beautiful little plant can be relocated back into the reserves to boost the tiny population. Anglesea Grevillea (Grevillea infecunda) is considered an endangered plant under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 and vulnerable under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Act 1999. It is known to survive in a very small area in the hills behind Anglesea but was sighted in the mid-19th century in Brighton. It has since been extinct in Bayside and there are no other known Grevilleas endemic to Bayside. It is an unusual plant in that it is infertile and grows only from root stock in the wild and from cuttings in the nursery. Its name, infecunda, means unfruitful. It is nearly impossible to find any plants for limited sale, even at Anglesea, because it is so difficult to propagate and, of course, to access plant material. Rob Saunders and I luckily found a couple of plants in forestry tubes some years ago at Billie Nursery, or SKINC as it was then. We both found it difficult to grow but Julie Valentine at the nursery has encouraged one plant to grow large enough in its pot to try planting in the nursery garden. With a couple of wobbles, which Julie and Jim treated with some good deep watering, it is now doing well and flowered this spring for the first time. If they are successful with more cuttings over time, perhaps the Grevillea could be planted into some Bayside public gardens. References: Vic Flora by Val Stajsic and Flora of Melbourne by Marilyn Bull. The Bayside Community Nursery now closed for sales Thank you to everyone who attended our last Gala Day for 2023. We look forward to welcoming our community back to purchase plants on 6 April 2024. In the meantime, we are busy propagating over the summer to ensure a full stock and diversity of plants are ready to plant in winter. 11Wedding Bush a highlight at Wildflower wanders Words and photos by Pauline Reynolds During the Wildflower Wanders this year, held across Bayside reserves and the Royal Melbourne Golf Club, people showed the usual admiration of the beautiful Wedding Bush (Ricinocarpos pinifolius). It is a fascinating plant for many reasons, not least of which is the difficulty of its propagation. Itregenerates readily from soil stored seedafter a burn or if smothering plants are cleared to give it some light. In a nursery however, even if seedlings from cuttings or scarified seed survive, itis very rare for them to thrive under any conditions after planting. There is also a wasp which attacks and consumes some seed in the reserves. Its common name, Wedding Bush, comes from early colonisers using it for bridal bouquets. The plant is monoecious, meaning it produces both male and female flowers on the same plant. My observation is that the males bloom first in profusion and then the females and then some males again. Some of the literature states that the ratio is of one female to six males but, strangely, in Bayside it is more common to see either all males or all females in alternate flowerings. However, a quantity of seed is produced each year so there must be some simultaneous blooming! Each seed capsule or pod ripens and produces three to five brown seeds. Seeds capsule with colourful Metallic Shield Bugs Seed capsule First flush of male flowers Female flowers Seeds capsule with colourful Metallic Shield BugsMale flowers in profusion Banksia Bulletin | Summer 2023-2412Male flower More wildflower wanderings Dwarf She-oak or Green She-oak (Allocasuarina paradoxa) is a dioecious small shrub which is endemic to Victoria. Its flowers are either male or female on separate plants but very occasionally on the one plant. They propagate easily from seed but are usually around two years old and starting to produce flowers before it’s possible to tell whether they are male or female plants. Allocasuarina paradoxa grows in several Bayside inland reserves and is beautiful when blooming in spring. Fertilised female seed capsule forming Female flower Male flower Mature seed pods with developing seed pods after flowering Female plant in flower at Gramatan Avenue Reserve Banksia Bulletin | Summer 2023-2413Early Nancy (Wurmbea dioica) is another dioecious plant. It is a small lilyorperennial herb, which is dormant in summer and one of the first plants to bloom in late Autumn, hence the common name. In this case, the flowers are usually either male or female on separate plants but sometimes bisexual on the same plant. The origin of the species name is interesting. Dioica is derived from Greek origin and means ‘of two houses’, hence the word Dioecious indicates that the male and female flowers are found on separate plants. Wurmbea dioica grows at Royal Melbourne Golf Club where these photographs were taken and at Long Hollow where they appear after a burn. References: Flora of Melbourne by Marilyn Bull and Foothills to Foreshore by Kathie and Peter Strickland. Both of these publications provide excellent further reading. Female flower Male flower Banksia Bulletin | Summer 2023-2414Buff-banded rail (Gallirallus phillippensis) with a little chick in tow. Baillon's crake (Zapornia pusilla) YWNR Beauties Thank you to Danny Fog for sharing his latest sightings of two magnificent resident birds from Yalukit Willam Nature Reserve. Follow all the wonderful sightings from this reserve at: Yalukit Willam Nature Assocation Banksia Bulletin | Summer 2023-2415It begins … with beetles and a Blue Ant By Anna Rabinov Donald MacDonald Reserve Hello and thank you to the community for welcoming me to the Convenor role for Donald MacDonald Reserve, and what a beautiful reserve it is. The team and I have spent quite a bit of time thoroughly weeding Ehrharta longiflora/erecta, which never rests! In my early visits to the reserve, I was lucky to sight a beautiful insect or two. In my first session I found a deceased iridescent beetle, and on the third session, Belinda Raymond found and photographed a Blue Ant (Diamma bicolor), which is actually a species ofwasp. The females are a bright, iridescent blue-green with red legs, and grow up to 25mm in length. I’d say the one we saw was definitely that size. This is the first recorded sighting of a Blue Ant in the reserve, and only one of three ever in the entire area. The last sighting was in Beaumaris in 2022 by John Eichler, and the one before that was in 1948 in Black Rock by Byrne. Needless to say, we were all ecstatic at this shiny find. Furthermore, the Blue Ant’s presence indicates the existence of mole crickets in the reserve, as they are often used as egg incubators for the wasps’ progeny. As this is my first submission to Banksia Bulletin in my new role as Convenor, Donald MacDonald Reserve, Ithought I would tell you all a little about me. I have recently graduated with a Bachelor of Science from Monash University with a major in microbiology. I have always been fascinated by this Earth we call home, and it is a lifelong goal of mine to understand and explore as many facets of it as possible. Doing environmental work allows me to do this while helping the plants and animals I care about (which is all of them, really). Becoming Convenor of this beautiful reserve has allowed me to continue my environmental journey in this way. It is my goal to help continue the growth Banksia Bulletin | Summer 2023-2416and preservation of Donald MacDonald Reserve, as well as increase volunteer participation and community knowledge and understanding. My hope is that involving and educating more members of the community will reduce rubbish pollution in the reserve. It is so disappointing to see so many dog poop bags thrown over the priority areas. I am looking forward to generating excitement around whatafantastic resource this reserve isforlearning and increasing biodiversity. Alongside this role, I have recently been appointed Vice President of Yalukit Willam Nature Reserve (YWNR). It is an honour to return to this committee where I was an ordinary member in 2019-2021. During my time there I organised monthly litter cleanups in the reserve to help de-pollute it for our wonderful wildlife. The clean-ups were a big success, and we removed a couple hundred kilos of litter over those few years. Meanwhile, the Masterplan for YWNR has been underway and the first stage, the chain of ponds, is already completed. To have seen the transformation of these 14 hectares from polluted golf course to thriving reserve has been a privilege,andI lookforward tocontributing further toits development. I would like to thank Anna Malone andBelinda Raymond for accepting me in this role and providing ongoing guidance as I learn about the reserve and all it has to offer. Please join us on Sunday 4 February 2024 for our next working bee. Blue Ant (Diamma bicolour) Blue Ant (Diamma bicolour) Anna Rabinov. Photograph by Sue Forster. Banksia Bulletin | Summer 2023-2417Citywide Bushland Crew update Jo Hurse, Bushland & Nursery Ops Supervisor There has been a change in our Citywide team recently with the departure of Andy Ross and arrival of Cris Cochrane and Mungo Harris. Many locals who have frequented Bayside’s foreshore over the years would have met Citywide Bushland Coast Crew member Andy, who was part of the team for more than a decade. Andy recently left our team to return to his homeland of Scotland. I recall Andy taking photos of the foreshore and sending them home to his family and friends in Scotland – he was very happy with his new ‘office’. Any day with a temperature greater than 26 degrees Celsius and Andy would be melting from the heat. When I caught up with him just before he left Australia, he remarked that one of the things he was looking forward to was not enduring another Melbourne summer. I met Andy when he joined Citywide with the task to control the weeds in Emerald Lake Park in Emerald, early October 2011. I would regularly visit the team of three working at this park to see the progress. It was hardcore weed control, which included felling Pittosporum undulatums, removing large infestations of Blackberry, Holly and Cordylines. The nature of our work often means you learn the weeds before the indigenous plants, so it wasn’t surprising that Andy caught the plant identification bug. His enthusiasm and work ethic led him to the fulltime role on the Coast Crew in Bayside where he worked with, and assisted, many of Bayside’s Friends groups like Black Rock and Sandringham Conservation Association, St Leonard’s College, Table Rock and Ricketts Point (formerly Watkins Bay). Andy managed vast expanses of the foreshore including the stretch of promenade between the Brighton Baths and Brighton Life Saving Club, which is bordered by a slope where he worked with conservation volunteers planting hundreds of indigenous plants. Other areas he looked after were Hampton slopes, (the Hampton Life Saving Club south to the end of the promenade), Picnic Point where he prepared numerous National Tree Day sites, Sandringham foreshore, Red Bluff Cliffs, Half Moon Bay, Black Rock foreshore, RickettsPoint, Table Rock and Beaumaris foreshore south. The focus of Andy’s work was weed control and as his knowledge of control methods grew, he was always willing to share this with his colleagues. We all wish Andy every success in his future endeavours back home in Scotland. He will be sorely missed bymany. In saying farewell to Andy, we are pleased to welcome Cris and Mungo tothe team. Cris is a keen environmentalist with an infectious enthusiasm for conservation.He worked with Andy forseveral months to learn the ropes. Working alongside Cris is Mungo, whois also a keen conservationist whohas been part of Citywide’s inlandcrew and is now based on thecoast. Please make Cris and Mungo feel welcome when you see them on the foreshore. The inland crew are tirelessly trying to keep up with all the weed growth prior to seeding. It can be a lonely day on yourhands and knees weeding aroundthe remnant vegetation. If you’re passing by, please say g’day to theteam–Will, Tyler, Belinda, Vanessaand Matthew astheyworkthrough the season’s weedgrowth. Andy Ross (L-R) Cris Cochrane and Mungo Harris Banksia Bulletin | Summer 2023-2418’Tis the season for snakes There have been several snake sightings down on the foreshore this summer so please look where you’re walking and have your dogs on-leash to keep them safe. When left alone, snakes present little or no danger to people. Here, we’ll share some common myths and misconceptions about snakes published by Museums Victoria, provide some tips on what to do if you see a snake and how to administer first aid if you or someone you know is bitten. Mythbusting Blue-tongue Lizards and Shinglebacks will discourage snakes in your garden Snakes eat frogs, lizards and even other snakes. Newly-hatched snakes of various species may fall prey to Blue-tongue Lizards, but as the snakes grow the reverse is usually true. If a snake’s head is cut off it will stay alive until sundown This myth seems to be particularly popular in rural Australia and may be based on the fact that a snake’s body will continue to writhe for some time after decapitation, but this story is not even remotely true. Snakes always travel in pairs In general, the only time two snakes are in the same place is during courtship and mating. Otherwise the larger snake will usually kill and eat the smaller one. Treating a snake bite Do Apply a pressure immobilisation bandage Splint the bandaged limb Ensure the patient remains still Call triple zero (000) for medical assistance Don’t Wash or cut around the bitten area Use an arterial tourniquet Try to capture the snake Clearing up misconceptions Snakes are cold and slimy No, in fact, snake skin is dry and, depending on the surrounding temperature, can be quite warm and soft. All snakes are poisonous Technically snakes are venomous, not poisonous. Australia has the highest proportion of venomous native snakes in the world (100 out of the 140 species of land snakes), although only a handful can give a fatal bite to humans. Snakes are out to get you Humans are larger, generally faster and stronger than Australian snakes. When you encounter a snake it is usually caught off guard (as you are), but the vast majority of encounters are avoided by a snake vanishing as soon as it hears you coming. A surprised snake will pick the nearest escape route and aim to disappear as quickly as possible. Snake behaviour can also become more erratic in spring during the breeding season, and females become more defensive if eggs or young are nearby. However, the vast majority of bites to humans in Australia occur because someone decided not to leave a snake alone. What to do if you see a snake If you see a snake, keep calm and move yourself and anyone with you (including pets) away from the area. Don’t attempt to capture or harm snakes. All snakes are protected fauna under the Wildlife Act 1975. If you see a snake in Bayside, please call Council on 9599 4444 to install warning signs in the area to alert others. Council does not generally remove snakes unless they are persistently appearing around highly visited areas like foreshore playgrounds. How to keep snakes out of your yard • Keep your property rodent-free • Remove shelters such as sheets of tin on the ground and piles of rocks or firewood • Keep a clear area around your house, cut grass low, remove fallen branches, and prune overgrown bushes • Patch up holes in buildings Learn more from Museums Victoria. Learn more about administering first aid for a snake bite. Banksia Bulletin | Summer 2023-2419Next >