Our working bees do great work cleaning up and rehabilitating the local coastal reserves. You can see some of our current and past working bees listed below. Everyone is welcome to join in, with no experience necessary. Usually we ask you to bring your own hat and gloves, sunblock and water, and we occasionally have lunches or morning teas afterwards. Come and meet the locals and make Cape a cleaner and greener place too!
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Pete Muskens
10 volunteers attended to plant 300 plants (and guards) to the reserve at Cassia St with a combination of plants provided by CPRRA andBass Coast Shire Council. We were very happy to re-introduce so badly needed manna gums (to help our koala friends) and banksias (to help our yellow tailed black cockatoos) to this reserve. We finished early due to the outstanding turn out and had a very welcome brunch nearby courtesy of Leone Thiele and Helen Tennent. Thanks so much to Helen and Gary for hosting the brunch at their residence!
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Pete Muskens
4 hardy souls braved the elements to plant 300 plants at the boat ramp. We wondered wether we'd be able to do it all with so few numbers but in the end we managed to complete the work by 11:30. As a consequence of enlisting our usual food provider (and treasurer) to help with the planting it was unilaterally voted to shout ourselves lunch at the pub. a very succesful working bee indeed.
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A combined group of around 24 Gippsland Threatened Species Action Group and CPRRA members did a power of spurge removal in ideal sunny conditions to the west of the Mouth of the Powlett River. We managed to clear about 200 meters of low lying Hooded Plover habitat ready for next year's breeding season. We had a delectable lunch of sandwiches and (in light of proximity to the 25th of April) Anzac slices. Thanks Alison and Leone for the refreshments.
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Pete Muskens
We had a good turn out (18 volunteers) for the short (45 minute) working bee where the slope at the boat ramp was weeded in preparation for a council spray. Some new faces were a welcome addition to our regular stalwarts! We then proceeded to the Bay Beach rock pool where 44 people heard the story of how the rock pool was created by the Wonthaggi coal miners over 17 years of hard work, when time off and the tides allowed. In attendance was Ron Gilmour (founding member of the Wonthaggi Life Saving Club) and the families of the miners who had many stories to tell of the pool's construction. Mike Tesch did an amazing job of relating the story.
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Pete Muskens
Our resident geologist Kevin Hill gave an outstanding tour of our beachfront from the Bay Beach to the edge of First Surf Beach. In perfect weather conditions, we learned of the geological forces that shape and have formed our beaches, rock shelves, reefs and cliffs. Who ever knew that the red rocks and seams on our rock shelves were formed from high pressure subterranean water seeping to the surface and that the black basalt differs so much from the ubiquitous grey sandstone on our foreshore. Many thanks to Kevin for educating up to 30 of us on an aspect of our coast that we hardly knew about.
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Pete Muskens
On a day where the conditions could be described as less than ideal, six hardy volunteers engaged in weeding and planting on the First Surf Beach steps embankment. Some further work was undertaken the next day at the boat ramp plantings carried out earlier this year. The six lucky participants enjoyed a light lunch at the Cape Tavern on the Saturday in appreciation of volunteers' efforts during the year.
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Pete Muskens
It was a small turnout (5 people) to do battle with the boneseed in very thickly vegetated conditions. We managed to cut some very mature (3 meters+) specimens. A very enjoyable pea and ham soup lunch was prepared by Leone at the conclusion of our working bee.
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Pete Muskens
Our working bee was small but effective. We planted 150 plants in an area previously cleared during the last three years of boneseed infestation. Working from east to west, we've cleared about an acre of bonseed and replaced them with indigenous plants. A truly sumptuous lunch was prepared for for us by Leone Thiele who seems to achieve greater gastronomic heights with each working bee lunch.
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Pete Muskens
We planted 200+ seedlings around and on top of and around the base of the slope at the boat ramp. We were gratified to see that much our planting from last year had survived once we cleared the kikuyu around them.
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