From: Moretonbayotter@aol.com
Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2005 08:41:20 EDT
To: dnmadden@eis.net.au
Cc: ifusmelllalalala@hotmail.com
Subject: NC report No 44
Hello Damien
How did your meeting with Ken go? Here's the draft of the next report while I've been watching broncos knocking over the eagles!
NC Report No 44
Contact details dnmadden@eis.net.au ph 33248307 Damien
Moretonbayotter@aol.com ph 33907805 Dawn & Tony
www.n4c.org.au
The primary goal of the "Get dirty on litter in Norman Creek mangroves" campaign is to voluntarily remove the unsightly litter/rubbish particularly the soft plastics which are harmful to wildlife from the mangrove banks along tidal sections of Norman Creek, from Stones Corner to the mouth.
The plan for this year is to work methodically downstream from Stones Corner on Sat 28 May simultaneously working from the sources of Kingfisher and Coorparoo Creek to reach the Stanley St East Bridge by 30th June 2005. Then in the following months to concentrate on the banks downstream of the bridge from Bate Court - Churchie - to Heath Park and the opposite bank adjacent to the Coorparoo Secondary College to the flying fox colony and Bridgewater Creek.
In addition every 3 months monitoring/observations are undertaken at the worst sites of litter accumulation to remove litter and determine rates of accumulation and trace their source
The secondary goal is to raise public awareness of the extent of the problem and to assist in developing strategies with BCC Catchment Support, local Councillor and work crews to prevent litter entering the creek and restoring it back to its natural beauty - no litter left on footpaths, gutters, parks and walkways means no litter in the creek.
Please be aware that work undertaken is at your own personal risk with limited insurance coverage available - however you may find that the joy/satisfaction from assisting in the creeks restoration and caring for our wildlife far outweighs any risk - do take care.
Support References
www.cleanup.com.au Clean up Aust Day
'Say no to Plastic bags'
www.healthywaterways.org 'Backyard to Bay'
www.epa.qld.gov.au Posters/technical advice
www.dpi.qld.gov.au 'Apopt a mangrove'
www.planetark.com 'Plasticbag free suburbs
www.biec.com.au 'Do the right thing'
Latest Report (monitoring Trip) draft
Trip outline/Introduction
Today's trip was a three monthly monitoring trip and also the start of the push down Coorparoo Creek. Then at 2pm the plan was to meet Emanouel Manatakis (Manny) from the Beverage Industry Environment Council (BIEC) to inspect this site and 2 others for strategic planing.
Date Friday 29 April Trip No 44
Site Source of Coorparoo Creek Time 8:30am - 11:45am
Area The mangroves in Coorparoo Creek start 28m from Cambridge St
The monitoring site extends from the start of the mangroves at the source of Coorparoo Creek and extends parallel to the graffiti wall which measures 69m The opposite bank is adjacent to the skate park
This site also includes the figure for the area around the skate Park
Quantity Graffiti wall mangrove bank (69m x 9m = 621 sq m)
53 empty spray paks
47 spray pak lids
26 plastic bags
14 glass bottles
25 plastic bottles
193 assorted items (coolite, plastic lids etc
3 x paint rollers
1 x paint tray
2 x 2litr paint cans
1 x 14kg dry powder fire extinguisher
2 x 4.5kg LP gas cylinders
1 x 2m water pipe
1 x milk crate
1 x childrens plastic shovel
1 x 1m x woven garden refuse bag
1 x Spirax A4 Note book with ID
3 x bongs
1 x 100ml syringe in wrapper
3 x 100mp empty wrappers
Total = 379 pieces
Skate park mangrove bank (69m x 6m = 414 sq m)
53 x paint spray paks
1 x 20 litre paint can
24 x plastic bottles
20 x plastic drink containers
8 alum soft drink cans
4 glass bottles
90 assorted pieces
1 x 125 sharps container
1 x waist wallet with ID
total = 202 pieces
Skate Board Park surrounds tba
Disposal 5 clean up Australia bags were placed behind the Moorhen Flats shipping container
Comparisons Aug 04 109 spray paks
Sept 04 38 spray paks
Feb 05 129 spray paks
May 05 53 spray paks
Observations Green waste being dumped over bank near graffiti wall
Sheets of plaster board, wooden pallets and concrete at Clarence St
Comments
Suggestions mounds between Skate Park and Creek could double as a grassy grandstand for spectators under the shade of native gums
Wildlife pair of yellow rumped thornbills, noisy minors, willy wadtail, little friar bird, pee wits, drongos, white faced heron
Flora largest grey mangrove measured 1.4m waist height - trunk branched at chest height (remember this section of Coorparoo Creek was the original water course of Norman Creek)
Weeds weeds poisoned
Water Quality tests urgently required
Follow ups Skate Park section to be cleared after this long weekend
Good News * noticed the wall on the inside of the mens toilet were clear of graffiti and a sharps bins has been installed - a shame that its necessary but better than syringes in the mangroves.
* Also noticed 'Say no to plastic bags' posters in BCC busses
Progressive Totals tba
Planing Ahead
Last flood Jan 01, March 02, Nov 2004
Last sewerage overflow 23.3.2003
Manny who'd just driven back from a meeting with the Gold Coast Council had no sooner arrived when he spotted a white emulsion flowing down the gutter at Cambridge St - after locating the offending pipe a quick call to the BCC call centre was made with the request for someone to come out ASAP.
We inspected the mornings catch of spray paks, Manny suggested we get a number of 44 gals drums and ask some of the graffiti artists to spray "spray pak bins" on them. BCC was also advised of the dumped plaster board, concrete and pallets at Clarence St
Then to the other side of the bank and the skate Park - temporary fencing needed until our plans of a mound/grand stand planted with natives comes to fruition
Next was Lerna St - and again Manny straight away picked up on the pollution
Then to behind the shops at Stones Corner - Manny pointed out that the tiny bubbles of coolite break away and are mistaken for fish eggs and eaten by fish. It seems our fish and turtles are full of soft plastics, coolite and cig butts - but it was the pollution that Manny stressed the most - we need a shared vision pollution first then the litter - water quality testing imperative - the Caloundra Council has an 11 point plan of which litter is only one. It's possible that people are now desensitived to our reports of figures on litter - Are Norman Creek residents with expensive properties living next to a toxic cesspool with visibly unsightly hard plastics and the dangerous to wild life soft plastics - would they allow their children to swim there or eat the fish and crabs - urgent water quality reports required.
Manny recommends the Victorian litter action Alliance web site - Qld legislation needs an big overhaul - He recommends Peter James a retired man, Consultant Project Manager for the Caloundra Council and Rod Young for litter prevention. He suggests we attend the next workshop at Ipswich City Council.
We got back to Cambridge St at 4pm to find Ian from BCC Environment Management team - he'd found the culprit of the acrylic paint spill and dealing with him. Ian advised that the Asset Management team would look after the dumped material
Manny is going on holidays now and has a couple of reports to do then he'll be back to us - I really appreciated his advice and time at such short notice.
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On Wednesday, Dawn and I overnited at the tallowwood slab cabins at the Binna Burra Lodge and had the pleasure of meeting Chris Duncan, the gardener who previously worked 18 years at Griffith University. When he was 14 years old he remembers the 74 flood when his mother taught at the special school near Norman Creek - he would walk thru the mollasis (itchy) grass behind Samios Hardware and watch the dinner plate sized short neck tortoises and large mullet in the concreted section. He remembered well the water hyincyths. He asked whether there were still bull rushes or had the high phosphates levels affected then and what about the kingfishers.
Chris is into native bees and showed us two small log hives - we bought a small jar of his native bee liqueor honey. I'll be looking for native bees on mangrove flowers this winter and a hive higher up in a gum within a 500m range of the bee. He showed us a DPI booket on mangroves and where we could buy one.
He suggested the following trees for planting near salt water Norman Creek
Narrow leafed ironbark E. Creba
Medium leafed iron bark E. Drepatile
Blue gum E tereticornis
Swamp box
Weeping bottle brush C.Viminilis
Lomantras, sedges
Banksia robar
He helped us with the identifying black butt, Sydney blue gum, tallowwood and B. spindulosa - hill banksia. He suggests green corp for
We did short walks - rainforest circuit, Lodge loop, Cave walk (start at Info Centre a few kms down the hill, and the Tullawallal rainforest walk which we can really recommend - saw white brown scrub wrens, lewin honey eaters, heard whip birds and bell birds and pademelons everywhere
Cheers
Tony C
