The noisy miners were being particularly raucous one Sunday afternoon this month when Hobart’s Bushcare volunteers gathered for their annual year-end BBQ.
A lone magpie and a flock of eastern rosellas put in an appearance, too, although they graced the event with sweet song and not the miner’s harsh, look-at-me, look-at-me cry.
Perhaps the birds were there to say thanks to the Bushcare volunteers for all the hard work they had put in over the past year to help conserve the city’s bushland and at the same time protect avian homes. I like to think so.
It was fitting the event – held at the soon-to-be opened community hub at the Domain – should ring with birdsong because this year’s gathering marked a significant milestone for the Bushcare movement. It was celebrating the 25th anniversary of its foundation in the city.
Hobart Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds said that Hobart was defined by its bushland and the work of the Bushcare volunteers had transformed this landscape forever with their weed-clearing and tree-planting programs.
The city has 13 Bushcare groups and this year alone the members spread across Hobart had racked up more than 2800 hours of work, including an emergency call to arms by 200 volunteers to clean up more than half a tonne of rubbish after the devastating floods in May.
“The council could not manage its reserves to the same degree without the Bushcare volunteers,” said Mayor Reynolds, shouting to make herself heard above the noisy miners.
As an example, the lord mayor said one old-established group, the Friends of the Knocklofty Reserve had been formed in part to rid its West Hobart domain of invasive gorse and had achieved this.
Along with litter removal, weed-clearance and tree-planting, the Bushcare groups have this year been involved in fuel reduction burns for the first time.
In a fast-paced, time-poor world it is easy for lovers of nature to become armchair conservationists, but the Bushcare program enables us all to “make a difference”, as the saying goes, on our own doorstep.
I have been a member of the Waterworks Bushcare Group for close to two decades and it’s been fun to lead my community’s annual bird-watching outing to the Waterworks Reserve.
My group has made great strides in clearing the Waterworks Valley of such invasive weeds as boneseed, Spanish heath and cotoneaster and is now turning its attention to an old quarry along the Sandy Bay Rivulet overgrown with weeds.
Like all the Bushcare gatherings, usually once a month, the event has always ended with tea and biscuits and a good chat about our achievements, and what still has to be done.
My efforts at weed-clearing, though, are never likely to win me the Golden Secateurs Award recognising an individual’s positive and lasting impact on Hobart’s bushland, which this year went to Janet Stone of the South Hobart group.
Another award on offer seemed a more likely achievement for me: the volunteer who eats the most biscuits at the end of each session.