New Town Rivulet

The area for this project is outside the usual location for the Wildcare Friends of Wellington Park. We were invited by Andrew Wilkie to submit a project for funding under the Communities Environment Program which run over one year in 2019-20. The Australian Government announced the program in March 2019 prior to the 2019 Budget as a measure to support small scale, community-led environment projects that address local environmental priorities in each of the 151 federal electorates across Australia. Nothing of sufficient scale came easily to mind and with a short time frame to apply it seemed reasonable to select an area of bushland close to the mountain park that is in the electorate of Clark. An area beside New Town Rivulet rivulet was chosen.

Outline of project

The Wildcare Friends of Wellington Park (FOWP) propose with this grant opportunity, we obtain a contractor to treat a patch of blackberry and annual weed on the south side of the Rivulet. The site would then be rehabilitated and revegetated with 400 native plants (trees, shrubs and grasses).

Originally it was envisaged that with in-kind support from FOWP and other local groups, would replant and restore the last remnant. The City of Hobart was to assist in the work and help educate and recruit nearby residents, local schools, scout groups and others to community working bees to plant grasses, shrubs and trees and remove other weeds.

However with the Covid 19 restriction the plan had to be revised, as described below. It is expected that ongoing maintenance will still be done by the group and community for approximately 5 years to control woody weeds and maintain the site until the plantings are mature enough to shade out annuals.

The project will help to reduce rubbish dumped along the rivulet and environmental weeds removed from local backyards.

Project Plan and Other Details

Approval has been given by the City of Hobart (COH) to carry out rehabilitation work on the chosen site. It is council reserve land beside New Town Rivulet with public access with several entry points and is heavily visited.

The COH has also provided staff to help FOWP plan and manage the project. Initial tasks were to map out the areas for actions and schedule the tasks involved. This includes finalising an agreement with a contractor to remove the weeds currently invading the site, ordering plants and related materials and planning for volunteer involvement. Lenah Valley residents, local schools, scout groups and others will be invited to working bees. However, the virus has caused the closure of this option and contractors will be used to do the planting.

Plants were sourced from Plants of Tasmania and appropriate for the location to maximise survival and put in the ground in mid 2020.

Ongoing weeding and care of the plants will be jointly undertaken by volunteers and the COH.

Photo records of the site were made prior to work, during and after together with monitoring and recording progress.

The area was previously worked on by the Kangaroo Valley Bushcare group which successfully transformed what was a very weed infested wasteland along the New Town Rivulet to a fairly heathy woodland with established multi-layers of native riparian vegetation. Working bees have spanned a couple of decades and have been supported in-kind by City of Hobart in weed control, construction of a delightful 6km streamside walking track and installation of sculptural art features. Water quality and aquatic habitat has improved accordingly. The reserve is now called the New Town Rivulet Linear Park. However there remained this one small patch of weedy understorey, dominated by blackberry and annual weeds, quite close to and visible from the Rivulet’s popular walking track

The Kangaroo Valley Bushcare no longer help to care for this area and there are no current Bushcare activities occurring in this area, but we hope to encourage some of the former members of the group to participate.

The FOWP are also invested in this rivulet, being in the same catchment as their upstream sites, and as many individuals have a history with the Kangaroo Valley Bushcare group.

This will complete the environmental restoration of a large stretch of the Rivulet, help to stabilise a flood zone, remove an eyesore visible from the walking track and provide considerable opportunity for ongoing community engagement and involvement, in an area that otherwise has limited community opportunities for environmental restoration.

Friends of Wellington Park help to maintain and enhance the native flora and fauna of the major natural icon of Hobart, Wellington Park and to educate park users of the high biodiversity values and ways to protect them. The major focus is to reduce the spread of weed species and eradicate where possible.

The group provides opportunity for volunteers to repair environmental damage stemming from weeds and gain a sense of achievement and involvement in a project that has long term environmental and community benefit.

We aim to maintain and enhance the native flora and fauna of the mountain and to educate Park users of the high biodiversity values and ways to protect them.

Type of Vegetation

The area to be rehabilitated is a riparian vegetation community, although part is degraded and infested with weeds. Part is within a dry eucalypt forest and woodland comprising Eucalyptus globulus, which is marked as threatened, and the remainder comprises Eucalyptus obliqua. There are some Pomaderris, Bedfordia, Pittosorum (bicolor not the weed variety) and various Acacia including melanoxylon.

Once the weeds were removed the plants mentioned above were added plus other appropriate ones suitable for the area. Vegetation that has been lost to area, such as Prostanthera, Pultenaea Banksia and various others were included.

The project start date was Feb 2020 and finalised by the end of May 2020

The amount of funding is

Aus gov CEP grant Suppliers, consultants and contracted Work $12,000

Additional grant from Wildcare caused by need to pay contractor to do the planting $850

Volunteer contribution including cash and in-kind (equipment, materials or labour) $3,000

New Town Rivulet CEP site blackberry Photo from walking track 27 September 2019

New Town Rivulet CEP site blackberry from walking track 27/9/19

New Town Rivulet CEP site blackberry Photo from walking track 27 Sep 2019

Action Undertaken on Clearing and Revegetation

A quote was obtained and work on the first stage of spraying and hand removal of weeds commenced at the end of January 2020 and the blackberry which dominated the sprayed area was looking sick a week after.

The area on the north side of New Town Rivulet was checked for weeds and several found and a quote for that work obtained and the work done in mid March. from the visit are at below.

In addition the area was cleared somewhat to both improve the site and make access easier. This will make it easier for the planting to go ahead. Near the creek edges re-vegetation with various native plants, particularly Blackwood (Acacia melanoxylun), will help stabilize the banks.

The dead blackberry was slashed in early April and smaller weeds in the area hand pulled.

Setback for Revegetation Plans

The plan for revegetation was to done by FOWP and local community volunteers and include the children from the local primary school.

However with volunteer activity suspended due to virus this was and the solution pursued was to get the contractor to do the planting. Part of the site to be revegetated is across the creek on a flat area at the far southern end. It either requires getting up a bank to get to or approaching over a sloping surface. It wouldn’t be suitable to have kids in this area, and it is doubtful that COH would be all that enthusiastic for volunteers either. This area was scheduled to be done by the contractor, but now the whole area will be done by them.

There was not sufficient funds in the grant for this and a successful application for the shortfall was made to Wildcare.

From there things have moved quickly and arrangements have been made with Eco Works to put in all the plants. Over 400 plants were put in by a 5 person Eco Works team on 28 May 2020. It was very good weather and the soil moisture ideal for planting. Some spots were quite rocky whilst other were much easier, but the biggest advantage was using an auger to create holes for plants. The day also brought home the realisation that the rocky sections and the scattered blackberry debris would have made it very hard work if volunteers had been used.

The FOWP engaged Eco Works for weed removal, clearing old dead vegetation to allow easy access and planting the site for revegetation.

Photos of sprayed site and weeds on north bank

CEP Site Feb 202017 new photos added to shared album

Weed Spraying

The large area of blackberry and a sprawling vine were spayed in late January 2020 and very quickly succumbed. A small patch in a hard to access spot needed a follow up spray

Site After Spray Photos

Blackberry after spraying - Feb 2020

Site After Slashing

Slashed blackberry west end 6 April 2020

Eucalyptus and blackwood freed from weeds 6 April 2020

Slashed blackberry central section 6 April 2020

Slashed blackberry east end 6 April 2020

Slashing underway at far east end 6 April 2020

Slashed blackberry east end 6 April 2020

Chopped up limbs. The area covered came to the right side of the photo almost to the edge of the left.

Some of debris cut to smaller size for quicker creation of mulch. May 2020

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Other Weed Removal

On the northern side of the rivulet there are a number of other weed species, including Elderberry, Fuchsia and Oxe eye daisy .

Weed tree on north bank

Tree now gone, some small branches can be seen where it once was. 18 March 2020

Area Clean Up

The area will cleared of dangerous dead trunks and fallen scrub, much of it by mulching slashers and left to rot down on site. This will make access easier which will be beneficial during the revegetation work.