lantana – 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 – 02.03.2025

Weather forecast was for a warm one so an earlier start to usual was the smart move. Apart from the heat, it was a perfect day to get some bush regeneration done.

I was strolling to the planned location when I walked past this section I had cleared previously at the big ol’ sandpaper fig.

‘Cleared’ area just above the ol’ sandpaper fig

What clearing right? Latana was already diving for that empty space. Natives were still doing well but it was clear they would be in battle soon. So slight detour, maintenance was in order.

I pushed back against the upper wall of lantana and cleared more privet at the entrance. There are small birds that use the lantana for nesting near this location so I could not push too far.

There was multiple poison peach and sandpaper saplings at this location so I feel it has been worth the effort so far.

After this short detour, I kept onto with the original plan of extending the clearing of invasives at the recent planting site.

As far as how the new plants are going… just great. I think it is 100% survival rate at present.

The only concern is the amount of invasive plants that have also popped up. Hence the benefits of surrounding the plantings with mulch but at this location, trying to get mulch into place would be a mammoth job.

I spent another few hours at this location and made good progress. I had brought the weed puller down to handle the larger privet that could still be pulled out. It really paid off. I think this photo shows the idea. There was also Cassia, Lantana, Ochna, Camphor laurel which had to come out.

Some of the trees remove via the weed puller

Another chunk of bush cleared of invasives

I was happy with the results. There is about half a dozen poison peach trees of varying maturity in this section. Apart from the other usual suspects, I also noticed some white cedar here. It seems to be all paying off. Just need to put a stop to that regrowth around the new plants.

I expect next week to be more of the same…

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 – 23.12.2024

A very productive working bee. First step was to get some more plants into the ground. I put the lomandras in the top level after pushing back the fishbone fern. A Hibbertia scandens (Guinea Flower) went beside the creek, just before fern wall. I neglected to take photos but all the planted plants are looking healthy for now.

I had barely taken a step on the track down to site A when I was drawn to a very loud but unseen bird in the fishbone fern. I didn’t recognise what type of bird it was but it was going crazy which made me curious enough to stop and see what it was concerned about. Only because I had stopped, I saw this guy:

A snake on the track. Not sure what type it was but I’m glad I saw it before I was on top of it. It didn’t move despite me trying to make some extra noise, stomping on the ground etc. However, I threw a stick nearby and it moved into the ferns then. I saw it go but I still didn’t want to walk on the track. I made a large detour via the alternative track. Spotting a snake is a first for me at Dick’s creek.

I notice this shrub each time I walk near site A and a few have popped up elsewhere as well.

I finally asked for identification via the facebook group ‘NSW plant identification’. Best guess appears to be: Claoxylon australe (Brittlewood)

It’s not part of the Hunter Valley Moist Forest profile but it is endemic to the East coast of Australia so it gets to stay.

I got back to the target site where I have been working for the past few weeks. It was sad to see the bower bird’s bower had been flattened.

I am not sure if that is their normal behaviour or if something interrupted them but I have been seeing the female bower bird a lot lately so I think they have moved onto raising some young.

It has been quite dry and warm for the past few weeks. It made it easy to spot any lantana that was missed previously.

Lantana with some remaining roots can be spotted easily via the sprouting leaves.

On the down side, the dry soil does make it a bit harder to pull out plants with the roots attached.

I started from where I left off last week…

I believe the clump of trees & shrubs is on the mound which I remember from years ago when it was just a few instances of false bracken fern battling against the lantana. The false bracken fern is still there but so is a lot of other plants… Privet (of course), lantana still, tobacco trees, poison peach, bleeding hearts, sandpaper figs, lilly pilly, a tree fern and some others I am less sure of. I freed up most of the natives so it should all be heading in the right direction once again.

A lot of the plants lean on each other and so take a while to straighten up after the exotic species are removed. You can see that here with the bleeding hearts and the false bracken fern.

With the exotic species gone, the remaining natives are going to be getting a lot more sun. I am hoping for some rain to help them transition.

There is still much more to be done so it will be a similar working bee next week.

Working Bee – 08.12.2024

Another productive working bee today. I was originally thinking of removing the lantana in a linear fashion but I noticed the bower bird fly off when I arrived at the site so I decided to keep a distance from it’s bower (the structure on the ground). Strangely, it was a female that flew off while I would of expected it to be a male considering it has no notable decorations around the bower. After googling, I have now discovered that the bower birds bower is not a nest like I thought it was. Shows how much I know!

I had barely started when I noticed this tree poking out from the lantana along the creek:

A Bolwarra tree (Eupomatia Laurina) I believe…

A good place to start. If I see a native being crowded out, it makes sense to free it up. Upon clearing the lantana away from this Bolwarra tree I found multiple other natives in the same spot. It’s hard to spot but the after photo shows bleeding hearts and sandpaper figs amongst others…

Bolwarra tree without lantana draped over it.

Unfortunately, the privet behind the Bolwarra tree was too big to deal with today. Those have been put on the to-do list.

With that done, I returned my attention to the edge of the clearing we made last week. It was not like I expected it. There was numerous natives hidden underneath the lantana. It was great to see but it did make progress a fair bit slower. Amongst the usual natives of bleeding heart and sandpaper figs was some poison peach, lilly pilly and also what I believe is murrogun, even though I have never had it definitely identified. It is well worth removing the lantana but it also makes it clear that this area needs more attention fairly urgently to ensure the natives survive.

Results from my efforts:

It doesn’t look like much but the rafts of lantana show I was doing something…

There is a lot more to do. I believe I will be doing similar work for at least a month or so…

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.

Working Bee – 23.11.2024

Today’s working bee was all about preparation for the new plants we will be picking up in the coming week (plant list).

At the top level, the grass stops most other plants from spreading or getting going. So that appears to be the best location for the smaller plants such as grasses and ground cover. I pulled out grass from various spots to make way:

Should be suitable for lomandra and/or some of the ground covers

I had planned on planting some of the trees at the rear section of the reserve so I headed there to find suitable spots. On my way to the desired spot, I walked down my old route which was informative. I had cleared this area previously and various trees took the opportunity to grow but lantana was once again reclaiming the area.

I remember saving a Clerodendrum tree in this area. At the time it was bent right over due to the weight of the lantana. Now it is prospering:

Clerodendrum I saved years ago and one of the first poison peach trees I discovered in the reserve

In front of it is also a poison peach tree which started growing not long after I cleared the area.

I took some film at this location as well…

After this spot, it got much worse. I was shocked by the condition of the bush. Lantana is back in a big way. I struggled to make my way through so I forgot about taking some photos. Along the creek, palm grass has also taken off.

There were some positives. Lots of sandpaper figs and other desirable plants but it is all under threat by lantana at present.

I will not be able to plant the trees in that location next weekend. I will have to keep some of the new trees in their pots until I can improve the condition of the area. It is going to take some time…