Update from Namabunda – Bundjalung Country

With support from the FNPWS and FRRR we are working on our project “Youngman Creek Watershed Rehabititation”. We had a great day on Tuesday June 14th, planting trees in the Youngman Creek rehabilitation corridor. About 30 of us met and yarned about what’s going on at Namabunda. We cleared another 300 square metres of degraded creek line and created a rehabilitation area with an initial planting of 45 plants.

Then over 4 days between June 23 and 26, we had another busy time. The Bundjalung Tribal Society had its first board meeting since the floods – this meeting was held on the property and we harvested some bananas, chillies, greens, mandarins, lemons, and a couple of native yams and shared them out.

On Saturday Bundjalung leader, Anne Kelly provided a stirring welcome to country to the small group of 10 volunteers (including 3 Bundjalung community members). This time, instead of planting, we focused more on maintaining the existing plants, clearing space and surveying the ecosystem. What we found was fascinating. We have identified several priority areas on the site for planting out the rest of the trees.

These are areas where there are:
1. existing native species populating the area and we can support those with weeding, maintenance, and planting of supportive native species.
2. identified koala habitats where we can plant out koala food trees.
3. ephemeral water courses connecting standalone areas suitable for native rainforest species and koala food trees.

This was very exciting for us, because we didn’t realise we had so many native tress finding their way up amidst all the invasive species (on the property it is about 95% invasive species). It was encouraging to see that the ephemeral water courses are such important areas that support the native rainforest species. Thanks to all who have come along and brought the project this far. Oh and we still managed to plant out another 50 rainforest species too! This brings the total now to over 500 square meters and 150 trees planted. We have a way to go as the target for our rehabilitation grant is 1,000 plants.

Additionally, the shed now has hot and cold running water and a camp kitchen/food prep workspace. We also finished the landscaping around the shed including a grey water area for the run off from the kitchen. We also planted out a winter vegetable plot. In the next few weeks we will be installing the new compost toilet at the shed, making compost using the Johnson-Su Bioreactor method, and clearing weeds and planting more trees towards the bushfire recovery/creek rehabilitation project. Standby for more dates to come and participate.