2019 Report

Adrian Blackman, FOWP Secretary

The Friends of Wellington Park (FOWP) completed 17 working bees during 2019, about 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 (COH) and the Glenorchy City Council (GCC). These field activities equated to 665 volunteer-hours of field work. In addition, 11 hours were devoted to equipment maintenance and an estimated 98 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 $23,200 (at $30 per hour).

Last year FOWP members worked with the City of Hobart Track Team and the outcome was judged successful by both groups. This collaboration was continued during 2019 with joint work being done on the South Wellington, Lost World and Old Hobartian Tracks. Improving the track leading to Cathedral Rock was a new project commenced in collaboration with Parks and Wildlife Service and Wellington Park Trust personnel. Also with those groups, the short (0.5 km) track that provides a walkers-only short cut for the East West Trail near to Trestle Mountain was improved by installing new or improving old drains, putting rocks in muddy spots and removing encroaching vegetation.

Ongoing track maintenance (mainly trimming encroaching vegetation) solely by FOWP members included work on the Devils Throne Track (two sessions) and the Thark Ridge Track.

During the year eight sessions focussed on removal of introduced weeds. A new site at Fern Tree was visited and chiefly Spanish Heath and Pinus radiata trees controlled (with COH). Other sites revisited with COH included the Main Fire Trail (two sessions) and Lenah Valley. With assistance from GCC, Spanish Heath was again removed from a 4 hectare Goat Hills location. Many hundreds of small Broom plants were eliminated from beside the Mountain River Fire Trail on the southern slopes of Trestle Mountain.

There were 43 active volunteers who attended one or more working bees during 2019 but well over half came to just one event. On average about 7 volunteers attended each of the 17 sessions (maximum 16, minimum 2). 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.