KILLCARE WAGSTAFFE TRUST NEWSLETTERKILLCARE WAGSTAFFE TRUST NEWSLETTERGeneral Meeting Sunday February 8 at 9.30a.m. at Maitland Bay Centre
Guest Speaker: (at about 10.30) – Local resident Malcolm McCall will talk about “50/50 by 20/20 Renewable Energy”
The Agenda will include on-going concerns and projects and plans for the future.
At
the Australia day celebrations at Wagstaffe it was formally announced
that public access has been legally granted to the fire trail that
connects the Lobster beach track with the Flannel flower track that
climbs up through the National park to Hawke Head Dr. It is the
culmination of over five years of sustained effort, principally by
Graeme Anderson and the other owners of the land that the trail crosses.
The
fire trail was originally bulldozed in 1962 and became part of a
network of informal walking trails on the peninsula. It was included in
early walking maps of the area. The trail crosses or borders seven
private properties. As these properties became developed over the
succeeding decades, the public tended to continue to use the walking
track and the owners of the properties became concerned about their
responsibilities and liabilities should someone be injured. One irate
and careless walker threatened to sue one of the owners for not
maintaining the track.
Rather than attempt to close the track to the public, the owners came together and decided to investigate the possibility of transferring responsibility to National Parks and granting public access. The first letter was written in 2003 and, although NPWS was receptive, the process has proved anything but straightforward.
For
the right of way to be granted, a legal easement had to be created
through the properties and a legal agreement had to be made with the
NPWS. Legal costs were likely to be significant so the local community
groups were approached for help with these. The Trust, The Bouddi
Society and the Community Association all agreed to donate $1000. In
addition, members of the Community Association put up a fund-raising
barometer outside the Wagstaffe store and raised a further $1000 in
donations from the public over just a few days. This strong local
support encouraged the owners to persist. NPWS is also expected to
contribute $10,000 to the legal costs.
Five years and seven
lawyers later, the legal easement has been created and the NPWS is
formally responsible for the maintenance of the track and the liability
for those that use it. In the meantime, three of the properties were
sold and in two of those cases, the agreement with the process of
creating the right of way was conditionalized as part of the sale.
In the short term, the trail will be upgraded, particularly the section that runs behind the properties near the Lobster Beach track. Some simple signage will be added. The walking maps have been altered to include the new access. Bike riding on the right of way is forbidden
The
land is still private property but the public right of way exists in
perpetuity and will be unaffected by future sales of the affected
properties. The arrangement can be cancelled by the NPWS or agreement
by any four of the seven owners.
Thanks is due to Graeme
Anderson, the other owners and members of the community groups who
supported the process. It has been a good example of the persistence
required to bring into effect what, on the surface, looked like a
simple proposal.
(with thanks to Jeanette Blomfield)
This
4 kilometre return walk is along a moderately level fire trail and
starts at the top of Wards Hill, opposite to Maitland Bay Drive. In the
first ten minutes you get fine views to your right over the Cockle Bay
Nature Reserve wetland and the waterways of Brisbane Water. Walk for
2km, ignoring the small firetrail to the left at 0.8km and the larger
“Fishermans Trail” at 1.7km. A couple of hundred metres past this
second firetrail, the road forks. One hundred metres along the left
fork you will see a National Park sign for the Daleys Point Aboriginal
Site. On the extensive flat areas of rock at this location you will
find aboriginal carvings and grinding grooves for sharpening
spearheads. Please help to preserve the carvings by carefully watching
where you walk. Below the rock shelf, caves with deep middens have
yielded carbon samples up to 5000 years old. If you walk on past the
site, the trail narrows to a narrow foot track that leads down to The
Rip Bridge. Back at your car, you can also take a short stroll (look to
your left) to the Allen Strom Lookout. This fenced lookout perched on a
clifftop above Hardys Bay has a magnificent panoramic view over
Brisbane Water.
(Ochna serrulata) Ochna
serrulata is a native from South Africa but was introduced into
Australia and escaped from gardens and become a weed in many areas of
the coast.
It is a shrub which grows up to 3 metres high. Leaves are dark green, finely toothed and 2 – 8 cm long, although the new foliage is bronze-coloured. Flowers are bright yellow, 3 cm in diameter, have 5 petals and occur in spring.
Flowers turn red in autumn and hold five glossy black berries, which look somewhat like a “Mickey Mouse” face. Seeds are dispersed by birds such as Currawongs and germination of new plants from bird droppings is common.
Mickey Mouse Plant is an Environmental Weed ie. a plant that invades a natural area such as a national park, bushland, grassland or waterway (as opposed to agricultural weeds which invade agricultural land). These plants can colonise and out-compete the indigenous vegetation, creating a highly altered mix of vegetation in an area.
This can affect the survival of native animals and reduce the quality of waterways and creeks, ultimately degrading water supplies.
Mechanical removal
of Mickey Mouse Plant is very difficult due to the nature of the
underground tap root system, which can re-shoot at considerable depth. 
Even hand pulling seedlings is difficult due to the tendency for the stems to snap off and re-sprout.
Chemical removal is the most effective means of removal for the Mickey Mouse Plant. A herbicide such as “Roundup Bioactive” (glyphosate) can be applied by scraping the bark off a stem with a knife and applying the chemical. When using herbicide, be sure to follow the instruction on the label and wear protective gear during application. The plant can then be left until stems are dry and dead. Composting of Mickey Mouse plants is not recommended as seeds remaining in the compost may germinate.
Article courtesy of City of Botany Bay, Council’s Noxious Weed Control Officer.
Drawing by volunteer bush regenerator, Jenny Porter.
Like all such issues, the solution is not clear cut. Politics and the economics of the tourist trade are not the only concerns. The environmental impact of dredging (or failing to do so) must also be considered.
Gosford City councillor, Dr. Peter Freewater (The Greens) has alleged that the channel dredging was essential to the wellbeing of Brisbane Water as well as maintaining safe navigation, tourism, fishing and boating access. Peter is an academic at the University of Newcastle, specialising in Coastal Resource Management and Marine Ecology. He has also worked for Gosford Council in the area of Natural Resource Management of coastal, foreshore zones and wetlands.
He
suggests that the constricted entrance means less tidal flushing; and
that the health of Brisbane Water depends on a certain amount of
quality water flowing in the channel. Because less water enters and
leaves the estuary, the quality of water is generally lower as
pollutants entering from storm water and sewage overflows are not
diluted as much. This will impact on every aspect of the ecology of the
estuary, resulting in less fish, contaminated oysters and toxic algal
blooms. It means that swimming will be more dangerous, sediments will
accumulate faster and navigation will be diminished. This will flow on
to affect our lifestyles.
The dredging will not impact on habitat because the material to be dredged is clean sand that has moved off the existing sand bar into the channel. There is no seagrass in the channel, the sand does not contain acid sulfate soils and can be moved to the far side of the shoal, towards the beach to improve the shape of the shoal for surfing. The dredging will only remove sand from a very small section of the channel adjacent to the rocks at the southern end of Lobster Beach. Some of the best coastal modellers in Australia have investigated the sand removal and the placement of sand to determine how to improve the shoal. The sand can be placed in the deeper sections towards the end of Ocean Beach and will be spread by natural wave action to fill those gaps.
Some residents have suggested that the sand should be placed on Ettalong Beach but research suggests that it will not stay there but be be washed off during the next big storm. This has happened before and is the reason that there have always been navigation problems between Ettalong and Wagstaffe. If people want to put sand on Ettalong Beach, it must be taken from the Wagstaffe shoals. Do not introduce more sand or the navigation in Brisbane Water will diminish further. We must not allow sand miners to take the sand away.