As promised,  on the Landcare walk at the Golf Club.... the Chocolate Lilies were on full display and smelling like" freddo frogs" to the delight of the kids and one of Gunning District Landcare members' Vince Heffernan.

Big Events at Dalton21 Million Years Ago, 1896, 1988 and Today

The first bridge over the Oolong Creek at Dalton village a few years after its official opening in 1896.  [Photo courtesy Lisa Wiseman]

Three Dalton Dignitaries Declare New District Drawcard Officially Open

The Dalton district has seen some big events.  This includes three grand civic ceremonies in 1896, 1988 and November 2016.  And some 21 million years ago there was a huge cataclysmic volcanic event which we can still see the evidence of today.  The two earlier ceremonies and geological upheaval were all reflected in a very recent community event hosted by the Dalton Community Association and Gunning District Landcare.

Some 45 or more adults and unnumbered kids turned out on a delightful late Friday afternoon on Remembrance Day for the official opening of the two groups’ revegetation project on the banks of the Oolong Creek at the Dalton Fossil Park.  Maree Dowling and Bob Spiller were pleased to congratulate the efforts of locals in the two organisations for their efforts.  Oolong Creek flowed gently through deep and shallow pools, and rippled over shallows, the plantings had shot upwards.

Dalton Community Association members Lisa Wiseman and Kahli Weir with one of the interpretative signs unveiled at the official opening.  Lisa provided much of the historic background material for this sign which was authored in large part by Gunning District Landcare coordinator Helen Ward. 

 

Earlier in the year members of the two associations had worked hard to remove woody weeds from the site and replaced them with native trees, shrubs and grasses provided by Greening Australia.

 

For a great occasion like an official opening you would traditionally call on the Governor-General or Mayor to be the distinguished guest.  We went for three local dignitaries – Cassie Dowling and Kelsey Medway, who have earned their place in history as discoverers of the Oolong Creek Southern Pygmy Perch, were joined by local geologist John Boddington in officially unveiling two new interpretative signs that were created for the site. 

Dalton geologist John Boddington, author of this sign which explains the significance of the Dalton fossil rock.  John’s sign replaces an earlier one which modern scientific evidence has shown to be wrong.  This photo is taken after the official opening.  

The two young “citizen-scientists”, Cassie and Kelsey, spoke of searching the muddy, stagnant ponds before the makeover, looking for mosquito fish (gambusia, a destructive introduced species).  To their surprise and pleasure, the samples they captured were of an altogether different species –part of a population of a hitherto unknown highly endangered Southern Pygmy Perch.

Southern Pygmy Perch.  This nine centimetre long perch was once so common a 1970s fishing guide recommended it as live bait for trout.  Now it is found in only three places in NSW including right here in Oolong Creek.  Gunning District Landcare has engaged three experts from the CSIRO and academia to develop a local Recovery Action Plan for this endangered fish.

Rod Pietsch, from NSW Office of Environment and Heritage [OEH], commended the young discoverers for taking a keen interest in their local environment and suggested a great future awaited them should they pursue careers as naturalists working on endangered species.  People gifted in finding species thought to be extinct would be a great asset to OEH. 

As he is also a “Frog Expert,” Rod talked about the Yellow Spotted Bell Frog, once common in the local area and illustrated the lovely frog.  He was able to answer audience questions such as, Why do frogs call?  Answer:  males only call, to define territory and to invite females to visit!

Of course, that lead to requests for a demonstration of its call, which he claimed he could not do.  However, both Rod and a visitor played the calls from their phone apps, showing that the description of a “motor bike” frog might go some way to hinting at the sound.

Opening Ceremonies Yesterday and Today

The original bridge pictured at the beginning of this article was officially opened in August 1896.  The ceremony began with the Dalton School children singing the National Anthem.  This was followed by picnic amusements such as Jolly Miller and Pass the Parcel.

Dalton School children were again the featured act, reprising their ever popular National Anthem, at the opening ceremony for the grand new bridge in February 1988. The Mayor, together with Federal and State MPs and the cream of Dalton society turned out for this event which seems to have been an occasion of great delight judging by the photo below.

Photo courtesy Lisa Wiseman.  Note local landcare stalwart Mary Walsh combining style and sun sense with elegant hat.

Flags, local MPs and national anthems did not feature in the most recent opening ceremony.  Our official guest was Rod Pietsch from the Office of Environment and Heritage [OEH].  Rod highlighted the work being done to preserve two local treasures – the Yellow-spotted Bell Frog and Southern Pygmy Perch.

The Yellow-spotted Bell Frog

Once thought to be locally extinct, the Yellow-spotted Bell Frog was found alive and well in 2008 by Fisheries Manager Luke Pearce while searching for rare species of fish.  However, their numbers are thought to be perilously low.  This is why a captive breeding program has been running at Taronga Park and other actions being taken to protect this rare treasure.

A big emphasis on the work of GDL in our first year of operation has been on restoring our waterways and farmlands so that they are great for stock, great for wildlife and great for people too.  We know that when we have healthy natural waterways endangered species like these little perches and frogs have a much better chance.  And they are not the only beneficiaries - our sheep and cattle, our farms, our economy and our environment are also winners.

Rod reinforced this message.  Production and the environment are intertwined.  He also asked us to report any possible sightings or hearings of this endangered and frog.  The more we know about where it might be the better will be able to preserve it for the future.

”It makes a scary machine gun like call just like this and would fit into the palm of my right hand”  Rod Peitsch introduces us to the Yellow-spotted Bell Frog’s call

Rod is very keen to hear from anyone who thinks they may have seen the Yellow-spotted Bell Frog.  Not long after he departed for home and we were finishing cleaning up we heard a very credible account of the frog’s presence from a Royal Dalton Hotel patron who had not been at the event.  This has been reported to a delighted Rod who will be following up with our informant.

lThe Yellow-spotted Bell Frog can be recognised by the distinctive markings on its groin and thighs as well as its cal which has been likened to the sound of a machine gun

If you think you have seen or heard a Yellow-spotted Bell Frog please let us know.  You can contact Helen Ward at gunningdistrictlandcare@gmail.com or on 0488 027 653 –or phone Bob on 48458217.

Mystery Salt Craving Constipated Lignivore Lurks Somewhere in the Mundoonens

GDL members Rosemary Spiller [second left and Will Luck [right] were part of an international team of koala scat seekers in the Mundoonens.  

The Hunt for the Mundoonen Koala:  Survey Report

In 2005 a local landcare member made the first confirmed sighting of a koala in the Mundoonen Nature Reserve.  This was an occasion for great delight.  Are koalas still there now?  Some of us have been helping NPWS Rangers to undertake surveys to see if we can find evidence of their presence.

Recently five GDL members (Sonya Duus, John Hyams, Will Luck, Rosemary and Bob Spiller) joined two Yass locals and an international team of overseas students put together by Australian Conservation volunteers in another day of searching.  This scientific expedition was organised by Ranger Libby Lindsay and Debbie Hunt from the Office of Environment and Heritage.

"Searching” involves trecking through the bush to GPS marked sites and then rootling around the debris and litter under 30 trees in search of scats.  The trees’ vital statistics are recorded together with a noting of the scat species found.  We also, of course, look up in the trees in case a koala is there waving at us from above.

We divided into two groups, with John and Sonya setting off with Libby’s group while  young polymath Will Luck drew the old codgers and rank beginners team comprising the Spillers and the international visitors led by Debbie.

Debbie’s team was highly excited to find a "chew tree" which had been severely mauled by foragers.  Team leader Deb thought we had made a very significant find - a rare example of a newly discovered phenomenon in which koalas eat significant portions of tree stems probably because they are very high in sodium compared to neighbouring trees.  A photo sent to an expert from the site elicited the response that the salt craving lignivore causing this damage was more likely a possum than a koala – still very interesting nevertheless.

The Mundoonen "chew tree".  

Libby and Debbie follow strict scientific principles in managing these koala surveys – going to pre- indentified sites along a grid and searching around 30 trees meeting strict criteria.  But when they come upon a promising tree like this we can abandon scientific detachment and search feverishly beneath it.  This we did – finding not a single scat.  This suggests to me there is a constipated salt craving lignivore somewhere out there in the Mundoonens.  

Rosemary Spiller and Will Luck in full GDL field uniform searching fruitlessly for koala scats around the “chew tree”.  Interestingly, there were no scats of any sort found around this promising tree.  This inverse relationship between number of scats found and clear visual evidence of something having been up the tree demands urgent scientific investigation.

Neither group found certain evidence of koalas being about.  This does not mean they have gone forever. If present, they will be in very small numbers and difficult to find.  A koala recently put in an appearance near Port Kembla, the first time one had been recorded since the 1930s.   

Did we go home tearful? We did not. All of us had a great time and the locals enjoyed meeting young people from Japan, China, Saudi Arabia and Germany.  I am pretty sure they enjoyed meeting us too.  They have gone home with important scat ID skills and those in the Spiller group can now recite every word in English for faeces ranging from the scientific to common vernacular.  And a young Chinese economist may never again have a fit of hysterics when discovering a partially decomposed echidna beneath her feet.  

The Spiller group was delighted when Will found a small dense sward of around 30 Nodding Greenhood orchids. We had only ever seen them singly before. 


Sonya says ”It was a real treat to be driven in so far into the reserve - I certainly didn't expect it and am not sure I'll ever get another opportunity to see so much of the forest/country in there.  No sign of koalas, but I really enjoyed learning about scats (I wouldn't have known how to distinguish ring-tail from brush-tail in the past), and encountering all the secret life under the forest litter around the trees (centipedes, cockroaches, ants, beetles, grubs, fungi etc etc). I also very much enjoyed spending time with our little gang - meeting them all for the first time. Libby was very impressive in her role, two kind and interesting local landholders, and a young man from Saudi Arabia... a nice diverse mix!”.  Will be back there sometime with friends to wander around, and I will certainly be keeping an eye out for eucalyptus-smelling olive-pip-look-alike scats.”

John says that "despite lack of discovery  an excellent day: rare opportunity to explore so much of the Reserve and to discuss ecological/environmental matters with Ranger and other surveyors. Certainly I hope to be included in future events and would recommend them to other interested members.”

This was the last NPWS led Mundoonen survey for the immediate future.  Ranger Libby will be organising further surveys in the Bellmount Forest area next year and GDL will let you know when these are happening.    

Fishes, Frogs, Farms and People

Gunning District Landcare [GDL] is working to recover from the brink of extinction two beautiful little creatures that are found in our local area, the Southern Pygmy Perch [SPP] and the Yellow-spotted Bell Frog. 

Southern Pygmy Perch Photos courtesy Luke Pearce

Yellow-spotted Bell Frog

A lot of our activities this year have been part of a strategy aimed at restoring our waterways and farmlands so that they are great for stock, great for wildlife and great for people too.  We know that when we have healthy natural waterways endangered species like these little perches and frogs have a much better chance.  And they are not the only beneficiaries - our sheep and cattle, our farms, our economy and our environment are also winners.

Recovery Action Plan for Southern Pygmy Perch

We have just fired the starter’s gun on work to develop a local recovery action plan for SPP in our region.  This work is being led by our SPP team comprising committee members Scott Keyworth, John Edwards and Vince Heffernan with DPI Fisheries Manager Luke Pearce supported by our coordinator, Ms Helen Ward.

The SPP team is also advised by three CSIRO/academia fish scientists [aka "The Three Wise Men"] with the most involved of these being Associate Professor Mark Lintermans [who discovered the SPP alive and well in Blakney Creek in 2005 while searching for something else].  The SPP team met in Gunning recently to start work on our local SPP Recovery Action Plan.

Your GDL subscriptions and taxes at work:  From left, Scott Keyworth, Vince Heffernan, Luke Pearce, John  Edwards and Assoc Prof Mark Lintermans meeting in Gunning to begin work on the Southern Pygmy Perch Recovery Action Plan

GDL has engaged Mark to do much of the necessary work.  In essence, Mark will be

1.       identifying the best sites for preservation and restoration work;

2.      finding any further small remnant populations if he is able to do so [similar to a small population found to our surprise and delight in Oolong Creek near Dalton earlier this year];

3.      recommending the best ways to involve land managers in sensitive areas so they can use management techniques that allow for continued production as well as preserving the SPP; and

4.      recommending where our limited funds for the construction of a riffle pond or two might best be used if this is a useful thing for us to do.

We also expect Mark to be involved in various community engagement/education activities.  As well as guiding our work over the next few years, the plan will be a very good document to support further funding applications.

While Mark has been engaged by Gunning District Landcare his activities will, almost certainly, go beyond our area and at least some of his recommendations will have wider application.  We have invited neighbouring networks to be involved in this project and have had very encouraging responses from them.

We are both excited and optimistic about this project.  There are very few local recovery action plans in existence and our advisers encourage us that we are on the right track with this.

Is there a gender balance issue here.  The SPP team at a local Meadow Creek property.  The cataract you see behind the group is a very effective barrier to Carp and Redfin which have brought the native perch to the brink of extinction.  Mark will be exploring the very real possibility that the upstream reaches of this waterway will be a really great place for Southern Pygmy Perch.

Hidden Treasures and Riches Disappearing

Southern Pygmy Perch: Photo courtesy of Luke Pearce

We are lucky to live in a beautiful and productive landscape but it is vastly different to the one that the Aboriginal people knew and managed before European occupation. 

Much of the beautiful box gum grassy woodlands have disappeared through clearing and many species of wildlife are now lost to us. Despite these losses there is a lot to be optimistic about.

We still have some healthy remnants and GDL is working to restore our bare and degraded farm lands to productive, sustainable and healthy ecosystems.

Yellow-spotted Bell Frog: Photo courtesy of Luke Pearce

We are also working to recover from the brink of extinction two beautiful little creatures that are found almost exclusively in our local area: the Southern Pygmy Perch and the Yellow-spotted Bell Frog.

Most of us would never have seen either of these creatures but their loss would make us all the poorer.  We are partnering with several government agencies to bring back these two critically endangered species.  

We have good reason to believe we can succeed.  

If you would like more information visit: http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/

Could We Make the Gunning District a “No Go” Zone for the Feral Fox?

Do You Know There Are Around 10,000 Feral Foxes in Our District?

That's right!  Some 10,000 foxes have been preying on vulnerable stock and wildlife in our area.  They are a huge environmental and economic menace, having driven many species to extinction.

Until now, efforts to remove the fox as an environmental threat have been patchy and spasmodic.  GDL wants to make a real and lasting impact on this problem. We have been working with South East Local Land Services to develop a more strategic attack on fox numbers across the Gunning district and surrounding areas.  

Let's Make the Fox a Rarity Around Here

We have set ourselves the ambitious but attainable long term goal of reducing the district fox population by 90% or more.  Foxes will always be with us but we know that if enough neighbors work together to eradicate foxes over a wide area then we can have a really significant impact on their numbers.  

We have established a network of group organisers and will be undertaking at least two major baiting programs each year. Our first group baiting was a huge success with over 5,400 baits going out over the district. 

Action on this scale has to make a difference. We won't transform our district into a fox free paradise for lambs and lizards overnight.  But we can make steady progress towards this very achievable goal through persistent and widespread action over a number of year.

If your property is 10ha or larger, please consider joining us.

Oolong Creek, Dalton

Volunteers at community planting day at Oolong Creek. Photo credit here.

We have been working with the Dalton Community Association to remove woody weeds and replace them with native plants.

During this work two local youngsters found two fish which they rightly believed to be a previously undiscovered remnant population of Southern Pygmy Perch – only the fourth population known!

While this very small population is under great stress, it is a very hopeful and inspiring find for us.

We will continue to maintain and improve this area.

Yass Habitat Linkages

Yass Habitat Linkages Map

Here is an opportunity not to be missed by those of us living in the area shown in the map above.

This project aims to restore wildlife habitat and vegetation across a valued agricultural landscape.  Returning areas to native vegetation and linking them to older remnant stands will improve productivity and biodiversity. 

This is a great project.

Participants may receive $4000 per km for fencing plus tubestock and direct seeding.

If you would like advice on how your place can benefit you should contact: Jeni DeLandre at Greening Australia on (02) 6253 3035 or jdelandre@greeningaustralia.org.au.