The frequent sightings of platypus in the Hobart Rivulet Park is drawing attention to the semi-wild places that nature-lovers call “patches”.
The folk of South Hobart are responding as never before to initiatives to clean up the once neglected and polluted waterway to make it a safe environment for both wildlife and people.
The focus on the rivulet follows a recent ABC documentary on the “platypus whisperer”, local resident Peter Walsh and his efforts to publicise the plight of Hobart’s urban platypus. The program, however, has also put a focus on preserving patches.
We all have our favourite patch where we go to chill out and bond with nature. It might be our garden, a river-side walk or a city park.
The subject of patches came up during Science Week last month when adult education conservationist Bob Holderness-Roddam delivered a lecture at the University of Tasmania, “Protecting Your Patch”.
He described a patch as any space with natural values. It could be a balcony with pots, a garden, a beach, a wetland or a river. The conservationist then went on to emphasise the importance of these areas in all their guises as vital for not only biodiversity but human mental and physical wellbeing.
The three-kilometre linear Hobart Rivulet Park stretching from the CBD to the Cascade Brewery has all the qualities, attributes and challenges to meet the patch criteria but, as Holderness-Roddam pointed out, the great thing about patches is you can pick and choose different locations and environments, as with my recent focus on the Hobart Rivulet.
Although I often walk the route from South Hobart to the CBD, I’ve never viewed it as a patch as such, worthy of my citizen science projects like recording the abundance of flora and fauna at different times of the year for the Waterworks Landcare group.
I may have neglected the Waterworks recently in favour of the rivulet and watching the platypus there but I have not been distracted from my beloved birds, which are found in abundance along the water course, including species only found in Tasmania, the biggest of the honeyeaters, the yellow wattlebird among them.
Bob Holderness-Roddam not only covered the ecological importance of these precious open spaces in his lecture. He had advice on what we can all do to protect them, even simple things like rubbish removal. And he gave examples where volunteers had made a difference, among these a group called the Willow Warriors involved in clearing invasive crack willows hampering fly fishermen along the Tyenna River, a tributary of the Derwent.
Holderness-Roddam is working on an extensive guide to patches and their conservation and hopes to publish it in due course. It will be a must for all those trying to make a difference of their own when it comes to preserving the wonder of nature for future generations.