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Seminar: our declining koala populations

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Brisbane City Council’s next Biodiversity Seminar will  be held on Thursday 11 July. 

Join special guest speaker, Professor Darryl Jones, as he explores signs of hope for South East Queensland’s declining koala population. 

Stefan Hattingh, Ecologist and B4C operations manager, will discuss local efforts to create wildlife habitat. But can they be successful without connecting corridors? 

The seminar will be held at the Belmont Services Bowls Club, 20 Narracott Street, Carina, commencing at 6.30pm.

Bookings are essential. Book your spot through Eventbrite by Sunday 7 July 2019.

For more information, you can:


© Ed Frazer 

Salute a Coot!

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In July’s issue of Feather Fascination, local birder and MCCG member Jim Butler introduces us to the Eurasian Coot.

This small black waterbird is one which most of us will be familiar with. What we may not know, however, is that coots are responsible for the regional survival of many water plants.

Head to Feather Fascination July 2019 to learn more!

Funnel ants – Ed Frazer

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It’s July 2019 and the recent rains have turned up some ant mounds that are conspicuous in mown lawns in the Moggill Creek Catchment area.

They are made by Funnel Ants, a small honey-coloured ant that is common in soils that do not have a lot of clay.

The mounds are made after rain has flooded their chambers, which in dry periods can be a metre or more under the surface.

© Ed Frazer 

When conditions are good the funnel ants build shallow chambers in the root zone of the grass. They bite into the grass roots and feed on the sap that flows out. Funnel ants do not have a bite that hurts people.

The males and fertile females (Queens) develop with wings and fly in November to mate. The Queen lays eggs that all hatch as females and they build up into a colony of workers by late January.

Heavy infestations will damage the growth of lawns and they are difficult to control. Commercial pest control companies have access to products that give reasonable success, but these insecticides are not available to domestic buyers.

If you want to see the funnel ants you have to dig quite deeply as they only come to the surface while they are cleaning out their chambers after rain.

Or you can view an image and learn more about these ants, whose scientific name is Aphaenogaster longiceps, by heading to the Australian Museum website.

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Members check your emails!

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Your Winter newsletter is hot off the press and should  be sitting in your inbox now!

Our sincere thanks to editor Cathi Lawrence for another outstanding production, and to all those who contributed articles.

View 2020 Brisbane’s Wild West Calendar entries

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There is an opportunity to view and vote on the 75 images submitted for the 2020 Brisbane’s Wild West Calendar on Wednesday 17 July at 7:00pm OR Sunday 21 July from 9.00 – 11.00 am at The Hut, 47 Fleming Road, Chapel Hill.

The MCCG and the Rural Environment Planning Association (REPA) support THECA in the production of the calendar each year.

Since 2000, the calendar has featured the flora and fauna of Brisbane’s western suburbs and showcased the work of talented local photographers. 

For more information, head to the THECA website, ring 3878 5088, email [email protected] or [email protected].


More Kids Day Photos!!!!

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We’re pleased to share more photos from Kids Day at the Cottage 2019, courtesy of Dale Borgelt and Jim Pope.

They certainly show what a happy and busy day was had by all!, kids and grown ups alike!

 Weaving with nature

 Two completed looms

 PR officer Dale Borgelt doing some PR!

 

Enthusiastic audience captivated by Martin Fingland


 Martin & a carpet python

 Martin Fingland with a lace monitor

 Martin with a Squirrel Glider

 

Secretary Kathleen Walmsley with Robin Frost

 

 

Treasurer Alan Walmsley having a chat


 SO many crafty things to do!

 Kids helping at Kids Day!

 Look at my bag!


Moggill Creek Catchment Tour 2019

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On Sunday 16th June, MCCG hosted a very successful tour of the Moggill Creek catchment organised by Brisbane City Council (BCC).

The tour was attended by around 30 bushcare volunteers from around Brisbane as well as representatives from BCC’s Habitat Brisbane and Land for Wildlife programs. Our chairman Jim Pope has provided the following report:

The tour started at Dumbarton Drive, Kenmore, with a tour of the Lower Moggill Bushcare Group that has been supported by Habitat Brisbane since 2000 and is led by Judy Petroeschevsky.

The site stretches almost 1km along Moggill Creek from Kenmore State High School to Kilkivan Ave. Early works focused on the protection of creek banks in several high-flow reaches of the creek, using mass plantings of lomandras.

More recently, large Chinese elms (Celtis sinensis) have been removed along a 300m section and replaced with approximately 1000 native seedlings.

A particular feature of the site is an enormous Moreton Bay Fig tree (Ficus macrophylla) that is 35m tall with a canopy of 41m that is one of the largest of a single tree in any Brisbane park.

Next stop on the tour was a visit to the Blackbutt Park section of the McKay Brook bushcare group, near the confluence of McKay Brook with Moggill Creek.

This section was an addition to the Habitat Brisbane site in 2018 and consists of 500m of the west bank of Moggill Creek adjacent to Kensington Cct. and Parklane Tce.

It is dominated by incursions of Chinese Elms but the bushcare group led by Damien Egan recently obtained a Community Conservation Assistance (CCA) grant from BCC to remove a number of them from one end of the section across the footbridge at the bottom of Branton St. and replace them with natives.

After a delicious morning tea at the showgrounds, the tour then moved on to two adjacent Land for Wildlife (LFW) properties on a ridge overlooking Gold Creek Rd. The owners, Lynnette and Dianne have been registered with the LFW program for 11 years.

With assistance from BCC’s Wildlife Conservation Partnerships Program (WCPP) Lynette and Dianne have transformed large areas of the 4 hectare site that were once dominated by Lantana, Glycine, Easter cassia, Gidgee Gidgee and Climbing Asparagus. 

The properties are a beacon for wildlife. Four seasonal bird surveys in 2014 sighted 58 species. Many tree hollows provide crucial habitat for Squirrel Gliders and areas now cleared of Lantana are now grazed by Red-necked and Swamp wallabies, while a friendly Echidna is often seen waddling along the paths.

Touring Lynette and Dianne’s Land for Wildlife property.

The tour then moved on to MCCG’s Native Plant Nursery at Gold Creek Dam, where Andrew Wilson and Bryan Hacker gave an overview of the nursery, (which has been operational since 1999), and showed the visitors around.

The nursery is staffed entirely by volunteers and provides between 12,000 and 15,000 native plants free of charge each year to members of MCCG and the Pullen Pullen catchment group.

They produce upwards of 200 species of native trees, shrubs, vines, forbes and grasses, mostly from seed collected locally, ensuring that plantings maintain the local provenance. 

Andrew Wilson describes MCCG Plant Nursery operations.


The tour ended back at the Lower Moggill bushcare site, where participants enjoyed a delicious lunch before departing in time to avoid the afternoon storm!

Lunch disappeared fast!
Many thanks to Brisbane City Council, especially Andrew Wills, Paul Devine and Cody Hochen, for organising a very interesting and successful tour.
For more photos, please visit the MCCG Facebook page.

Date claimer: MCCG mid year Public Meeting

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Our mid year Public Meeting will be held:

 Thursday night 27 June at Brookfield Hall, commencing 7.15pm

YOU ARE WELCOME TO JOIN US!

The event will feature Tamielle Blunt from the University of Queensland. 

Tamielle will give a talk on our ever popular annual platypus surveys, the quirky history of the platypus and details of her research. This is guaranteed to be a most interesting presentation!

Throughout her life Tamielle has been lucky enough to volunteer in many different wildlife positions. One of her favourites was with the Australian Wildlife Conservancy where she helped with biodiversity surveys, tracked down numbats and choppered (helicopter) camera traps out to vast rocky outcrops to capture photos of the Sharman’s rock wallaby. 

It was her volunteer position in 2014 with cesar Australia on a platypus survey in the Grampians National Park that led her on the path of researching platypus. She completed her Honours program here in Moggill Creek based on the platypus and their associated habitat and dietary requirements. Now her PhD delves further into details of platypus populations in south-east Queensland. 

We hope you can join us for this interesting talk on platypus!

For more info contact [email protected]

 
A platypus spotted in our September 2018 survey. ©  John Liddington

Wanted: Miconia

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Have you seen Miconia growing in Queensland? Native to  tropical America, miconia is a restricted invasive plant under the Biosecurity Act, 2014. Miconia is being targetted for early detection and eradication.

This small tree invades rainforest areas, competes with native plant species and impacts the habitat of native fauna. It is easily recognised by the distinctive purple underside of the leaves. 

Report any sightings to Biosecurity Queensland on 13 25 23.

For more information, head to the Business Queensland website.