Landcare – Dick's Creek Bush Regeneration

Working Bee – 07.03.2026

It was perfect weather to do some bush regeneration today. My intention was to continue on at the same location as the last working bee. However, before starting I did a quick inspection of past locations.

At the start of the trail down to the mid section, it is clear that it is time to start removing some of the fishbone fern. It is hard to see in this image below but the stand of bracken fern that I cleared the fishbone fern from, years ago, is holding its own. I have decided not to clear that area further until some of the bigger branches of the dead camphor laurel have dropped.

Dick’s creek between first and 2nd falls

My plan is to start from the Ghania near the creek and clear strips a few metres wide of fishbone fern. That will allow the ghania to move into that area and will allow the sun to reach any new growth.

This plant that I was hoping was swamp lilly does not appear to be swamp lilly. I imagine it is unlikely to belong but I will id it before removing it.

This one is hanging in there. I will clear the fishbone fern sometime soon.

Sandpaper figs are really going strong at present. They have always done well but they are now also moving towards the area near the first fall.

This guy has struggled for years but has now clearly got it’s roots in. There has been a lot of growth in the last 12 months. It will be interesting to see how it handles the next big wet as the current can be quite intense at this location.

I checked the location of my previous plantings at this spot.

This was the Hibbertia scandens I planted at the end of 2024. It looks healthy but has not grown much. Surprising as I thought this would be the perfect location for it.

Next to this, on the bank, I planted Dichondra repens (Kidney weed) which is still going well but is in danger of being overshadowed by palm grass and some other problematic weeds. It’s now on the to-do list.

On the other side I planted viola hederacea (native violet) which was battered badly at one point by the fast currents during heavy rain. I still see a single seedling so it is possible it will spring back but unlikely at this point…

Below is the south bank at the bottom of first fall. It also needs more maintenance. Unfortunately, it has taken a battering from the local kids playing at this location. It should bounce back…

My reference point. Looking up to first fall from the top of 2nd fall. Still too much fishbone fern on the right and swedish ivy on the left.

I had previously been happy with the variety of natives at the south bank at the top of 2nd fall. It is still going well but the ground cover is a problem. Swedish Ivy and unwanted grasses need to be removed.

At this spot (not all visible), pittosporum, cheese trees, elderberry panax, hairy clerodendrum & native olive.

On the other side, it is a bit of a mess though not all bad. A native vine, Gynochthodes jasminoides is dominating. I leave it as it is not smothering anything too badly. It just looks messy.

Swedish Ivy is taking off on the North bank as well… I had previously cleared fishbone fern at this spot, expecting the bracken fern to take its place but that is not how it has turned out.

North bank under 2nd falls has gone steadily backwards. It’s more privet than anything again.

I eventually made my way to the desired location, between the old fallen tree and the pit and spent a solid chunk of the day breaking up the lantana at the location. What I know as the ‘pit’ is waist deep hole, about nine square meters in diameter. I have no idea why it is there but it contains some human debris so I assume it is man made. I had previously cleared the area of lantana in the past but I didn’t really finish it and so I am not surprised that it came back to bite me. It’s not finished but I was happy with the progress.

I was accompanied by a large water dragon while working. It had very unusual colouring with a dark red on the belly and orange on his back. He had no fear of me to the point where he would come straight at me to grab a bug that might of been uncovered while pulling up roots.
Unfortunately I didn’t get a photo while I was working so I was happy to see him as I was leaving the site. I thought I would capture him on film but he then went and did the same thing and scared the bejesus out of me while going for a bug just in front of me.

Working Bee – 22.02.2026

A solid morning of bush regeneration today.

I have multiple locations which require attention but I decided to try and stay focused on the areas where the lantana has sprung back. It requires some discipline to walk past areas that are in dire need but all in good time…

At the rear planting site, it looks good in general but it is surrounded by privet and lantana. You can see in the photo below, quite a few natives with only a few offending species that need to be removed (ie passionfruit in the foreground). I can see pittosporum, bleeding heart, poison peach and some of the natives we planted. So mostly good. I will try to move the mound at some point.

Just in front of this site though, was an infestation of privet and lantana. Actually, this is true in all directions but one step at a time…

I cleared the space upto the big fallen tree:

Cleared site between planting site and big fallen tree

This photo still looks chaotic but it is a big improvement. It takes a a while for the remaining plants to shine through and the uprooted plants to die off.

I think I will be focused on the area on the other side of the big fallen tree. I am yet to finish the map showing these landmarks I use.

I should be able to do most of this area:

Overgrown area between old fallen tree and the ‘pit’

I never really fully removed all lantana from this location and now it has come back to bite me. On the plus side, now there is natives growing in the area while in the past, there was nearly no native lower canopy and mid canopy species.

The mound made from today:

Working Bee – 15.02.2026

Finally got to the planting site at the rear of the reserve. It had fared better than I feared. I was worried that palm grass was going to take over the site but surprisingly there was not much more than the last time I attended.

Pittosporum at the front, bleeding heart to the right, tobacco tree center left.

Tree fern doing nicely. Palm grass looks worse here than reality. It was only the one patch

There was a lot of night shade which can be seen in this photo.

There was a lot of night shade which is typically not considered too bad an exotic considering it is easily removed but it can still suppress native growth so out it came.

This is a short video I took from the entrance to the planting site (from Glen’s alley).

For a while I was having trouble orientating myself. I could not find plants I knew I had planted. I eventually found this guy:

Lilly pilly going strong despite being strongly shaded by privet when I first found it.

Some of the plants (most?) had not survived but some were doing well and there were numerous plants that had self seeded. Bleeding heart and sandpaper fig is always present but this time, poison peach (trema tomentosa) was popping up all over.

From next to the Lilly pilly with the mount on the far right.

I did not do a full census of the survivors but this image shows a few “Dodonaea triquetra” and some small “Acacia implexa” and “Acmena smithii” going strong.

These plantings along with the native growth makes me feel it is heading in the right direction. I will be happy to leave this spot for a while and keep pushing back towards the 2nd water fall. Just taking out the privet and lantana creates notable improvements at this site.

Working Bee – 14.09.2025

A solid working bee today. Once again croften weed, mist flower and others was taking off in the south bank of the creek. It has never come back as badly as it was when landcare first started working in the area.

It was good to see some natives amongst the mix. Unfortunately my camera was too dirty to take some good before and after pics but I will put this one here to remind me of what accomplished:

Blurred photo of results by end of working bee session

Site inspection – 19.01.2025

We’ve had some big storms in Newcastle over the last week. Many trees and branches have been blown down from wild winds and a few downpours. So I was interesting in determining how the new plants had fared.

In all, they have fared well. The native violets would of been fully submerged in the creek and I can see the surrounding soil was partly washed away but the plants are still in place.

I decided to leave the plants as they are, even though one of them has a fair bit of its roots exposed. I figure it must be been grounded to some degree to not be washed away.

The other ground cover was fine:

At this stage, I think it just wants more sunlight and it will do well. I still need to keep some of the invasives back though.

I was expecting the dianellas to be going strong with all the rain, and two of them are, but the middle one is struggling for some reason. My guess is it is getting too much water so maybe it will come good as the ground starts to dry out.

The Sydney golden wattles at the front of the reserve are going gangbusters. They have all sprouted substantial new growth. I think at this point they are not going to need any more maintenance.

A few of the acacia longifolia at the front of the reserve

The plants that were just planted at the rear of the reserve are all going strong. I was worried that some of them would cop a branch or two but mostly they were all lucky.

I am hoping that with the ground getting such a good drenching, it will give them all a boost. Fingers crossed.

Working Bee – 04.01.2025

I could not ignore the infestation of palm grass growing on the south bank at the bottom of first fall. It has been getting steadily stronger for the last 12 months so that became my starting point this morning. I forgot to grab a photo so that will have to come later…

Fred and Sandra were on site this morning and worked like a powerhouse to clear a substantial amount of lantana and privet along the creek towards the rear of the reserve.

I kept on working in the same fashion as the last few working bees. With the privet being close to the creek’s edge, it is important to preserve the root system to avoid erosion. Hence I used the cut and paint method on trees close to the creek.

Here’s me in front of a section I was working on…

With a little more access to the creek, it was a little faster to get the plants watered. It is not normally required to water plants in bush regeneration but the weather is notably dry at present. I will keep giving them some water until I am sure they have established themselves.

After our working bee, we were just having a cup of tea when we saw this guy:

We don’t see these guys as often as some of the other birds so it is always interesting to see them.

Working Bee – 01.01.2025

New years Eve. What a great day to make a little more progress on the target area. I have been feeling the need to give the plantings some water but it has been quite the struggle to get down the creek to gather some water and then back to the plants. So, to make the process easier, I intended to remove the lantana and privet to allow a shorter path to the creek.

It didn’t work so well. Numerous native vines had wrapped around the privet to the extent that it was far more difficult than normal and even after removing the privet, the vines still make the trip to the creek quick tricky. Still, it was an improvement and the plants watering was a lot quicker this time.

This was my progress for the day.

It is not possible to see the creek but it is now possible to reach the creek through that vegetation.

Working Bee – 01.12.2024

A very productive working bee today. It felt like I got three times as much done than usual…. maybe because there were three times more people than usual?

Fred and Sandra Anderson joined the group on Sunday for a spot of lantana bashing. I had a clear idea of the area I wanted to work on but we had to get there first. So the direct track down to site A got a little work:

A track through the fishbone fern down to Site A.

There are some used railway ties near this location. If I can cut them down to size somewhat, I might be able to make decent stairs over the slippery parts.

We made our way down the cleared lane-way at the rear of the reserve to get to the large patch of lantana between the ol’ fallen fig tree and the creek. Before we reach this location, we need to penetrate the wall of privet that lines the lane-way.

A small hole in the privet wall to access the field of lantana

At this location, there is at least 100m² of this:

I had previously cleared most of this location but then left it alone for far too long. While it is once again dominating the scene, it still has not gotten to the point it was at before I first cleared it. It’s younger and easier to pull up. Still a job though…

Here and there were a few plants that had obviously taken root when the lantana was previously pushed back. For example, this tree fern:

Hopefully the shock of all the extra light won’t be too much for it.

Another interesting find was this bower bird nest:

I had only cleared this area a few weeks back so I know it is new but no obvious decorations yet. I hope we did not disturb it too much…

After a few hours, I believe we had cleared a solid third of the field of lantana.

We left it at that but with Saturday’s weather forecast looking good, I should be able to push on further at this location on the next working bee.

More plants on the way – 2024

I’ve just been informed that the Lake Macquarie landcare nursery has 40 or so plants that would be suitable for the Dick’s creek site.

Now I just need to find suitable locations…

Edit, they were:
5 x Acacia implexa
5 x Acacia ulicifolia
2 x Acmena smithii
3 x Syncarpia glomulifera
5 x Dodonaea triquetra

1 x Hibbertia scandens
5 x viola hederacea
5 x Dichondra repens
3 x Dianella caerulea
2 x Lomandra longifolia
4 x Gonocarpus teucrioides

Working Bee – 19.10.2024

A perfect day for bush regeneration. Nice temperatures on a cloudy day with soil softened by recent rains.

It has been a disappointment to watch the Sydney golden wattles at the front of the reserve dying. I planted these trees only about four or five years ago so I was surprised to see them pass so quickly.

The trunks are being hollowed out by insects. I think the living sections do not have long to live. It is hard to know if the insects killed the tree or if they started devouring the tree after it died.

My first task of the day was to clear some more monstera along the track leading to the bottom of first fall. It is shaping up nicely and I believe it will soon be my preferred track to enter the reserve.

Currently though, this Rhus tree is in the way…

It did use to be a lot larger until I cut it down but it is still going strong. It is going to need to be poisoned to have it gone once and for all.

Today I decided it was a good time to focus on fishbone fern. Fishbone fern is loving the weather and is popping up and taking over in many many locations. It does a great job at establishing itself in difficult locations such as rock faces. From there it can spread out and prevent new growth.

While clearing a stand of fishbone fern from the bottom of first fall I noticed a currawong making full use of a native olive tree. I do get a kick out watching native birds eating from native trees.

The currawong’s nest is nearby so I will be watching the spot underneath for more native olive trees saplings next year.

Red cedar growing underneath the canopy of a bleeding heart tree

It was also interesting to check out this red cedar tree that has been growing from underneath the bleeding heart tree. The bleeding heart does not appear to impinge the growth of the red cedar but I suspect the favour will not be returned as the red cedar starts to outgrow the bleeding heart.

I made my way over to the stretch of Gahnia between first and second falls. Some Gahnia was popping up further up the bank so I worked to clear the fishbone fern around that and then I followed the same principle from there.

That is, clear the fishbone fern on the way to and around any natives. Sure enough, while clearing the fishbone fern I found small natives that had not been able to clear the dense fishbone fern. I am sure they will be looking a lot better in the next month or so.

Area of fishbone cleared around a sweet pittasporum tree

Finally, to keep a promise to myself, I had to clear the lantana off the poison peach tree I noticed a few weeks back. The area, to my horror, has returned to a dense privet forest interlaced with lantana.

This location was largely cleared of privet a few years ago, so it shows how prolific privet can be. On the plus side, these trees are quite young so they should be easier to handle.

Lantana was also going strong at this spot. I was able to remove the main culprit, a large lantana that was spreading in all directions. I can see the weight of the lantana’s branches had striped off some branches off the poison peach tree. This photo shows one side of the tree is lacking in branches. It should be happier now.

That was enough for the day. Hopefully next weekend produces the same type of weather so I can start tackling those problem areas.