Adrian Blackman, FOWP Secretary

The Friends of Wellington Park (FOWP) completed ten working bees during 2018, evenly divided between weeding and track maintenance. As usual work was performed in sections administered by the Parks and Wildlife Service (PWS), City of Hobart and the Glenorchy City Council. These field activities equated to 556 volunteer-hours of field work. In addition, 14 hours were devoted to equipment maintenance and an estimated 59 hours were dedicated to administrative tasks including those mandated by occupation and safety requirements together with documentation and publicity. The monetary value of all these volunteer hours is estimated to be $18,600.

Two long running projects were finally completed this year. Clearing of encroaching vegetation from all of the Mount Connection Track (3.4 km) was started in March 2016 and has now been finished over 5 sessions (2 in 2018). PWS staff assisted and provided transportation. Inglewood Fire Trail is finally clear of gorse! The southern side is at last gorse-free. It has taken 16 working bees over a 6 year period; the last section of gorse was removed in June. (The northern side of Inglewood Fire Trail was cleared of gorse during 2007–2012, taking 12 sessions.)

For the first time, FOWP members worked with the City of Hobart Track Team. The project, first proposed in 2017 by FOWP President Peter Franklin finally received approval late this year. Work involved adding rocks to a very wet and muddy 20 m section of the South Wellington Track. Although not all of the remedial work was completed we were impressed by the skills and persistence of the Track Team (even in mist and rain). The 4 FOWP participants learned quite a bit more about track work. Another day will be scheduled to complete the task.

Several projects remain ongoing: perhaps chief amongst these being care of the Devils Throne Track. Previously sections of the track have been rerouted to avoid wet and degraded sections. This year encroaching vegetation has been trimmed from the track; the task now involves a one hour walk to get to the work site. Negotiations continue with the authorities to obtain approval for another planned track reroute to bypass a steep boulder field. We are now optimistic that this work will commence in 2019.

Other routine and ongoing tasks were also completed—these included maintenance, mainly weed removal, of parts of the old Glen Dhu Trail, Collins Cap Track, Thark Ridge Track and the Main Fire Trail (near Old Farm Road). Weeding (mostly Spanish Heath removal) was continued at Goat Hills and east of Mount Hull.

Recruitment of additional volunteers continues to be a problem. Over half of the volunteers came to just one event and for several it was the one and only time. We thank the Wellington Park Management Trust, Parks and Wildlife Service, City of Hobart Bushcare and the Glenorchy City Council for providing transportation and field assistance.

Greg getting rock Thark Ridge Jan 2018

Lunch at Thark Ridge John, Roz and Greg Jan 2018