Friends of Morwell National Park - June Activity Report

For the activity we had Matt, Ken, Tamara, Beryl, Caitlin, Joelle, Gordon and Darren. We had apologies from Rose, Graeme, Mike and Cathy.

We met in the car park and were greeted by a fine morning. The forecast was for a fine day, so the risk of it raining on us was small.

Matt updated the group upon the lack of progress related to repairs to the park. Storms three years ago washed out and damaged bridges and there are still no plans to repair or replace these structures. We await the outcomes of insurance before repairs are to be considered. Stringybark Track is still officially closed. Parks have requested that we follow up all members in relation to each person having a valid Working with Children check. Since everybody needs to enter their certificates on the Parks portal, it makes little sense for us to manage this. It is better for Parks to manage this themselves and cut back upon double or triple handling.

Erin (a friend of the group) has put together the results from the many of our past koala surveys. She has collated the results from the 90s until now into a big spreadsheet, so comparing the local koala numbers over time will be a lot easier.

The work for today was to work again upon Foster’s Gully Track. Over the last month more trees had come down and more track widening was needed. While Gordon and Matt collected the equipment the rest of the crew walked towards Foster’s Gully. A few hundred metres into the track, we encountered the first tree across the track. Gordon used the chainsaw to remove the tree.

A little further along the track a few branches had come down and together with other foliage the track was blocked. Caitlin and Darren used cutters and loppers to remove the foliage so that Gordon and Matt could then work upon removing the major branches.

At Landon’s Landing there was another small tree to remove from across the track. This was the last of the trees down across the track. The remainder of the track required track widening. Parks workers had recently been in with a brush cutter to widen the track. Matt and Tamara use the brush cutters to complete the widening, while the rest of the group cleaned up the track.

Caitlin collected some great photos of fungi she encountered on her way around. Caitlin retrieved the botanical and common names from the Morwell National Park Online website.

During our circuit of Foster’s Gully three different groups of walkers passed us, each enjoying a walk on the clear winter’s morning.

After the circuit of Foster’s Gully the group returned to the picnic area to eat lunch. After lunch the group went home with plans to work on Stringybark Track next month.