sandpaper fig – Dick's Creek Bush Regeneration

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 – 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 – 17.11.2024

I was in the mood to tackle some lantana today but as always, priorities changed. As I walked past ‘site A’ I was disturbed by the density of privet. Lantana contributes but it is the privet that has taken hold at this location. I had previously cleared this area and for this reason, there is numerous young natives popping up. Sandpaper fig, bleeding heart, pittosporum and others are there but their life is hard when they are amongst this:

So I started removing the privet with the weed puller which I had luckily brought with me. While the privet is a big problem, I found it easier to deal with than in the past because most of it was still young and had not fully established itself. Another twelve months and it will be notably harder, I believe.

This is the first patch I cleared:

After lunch I moved along the track and tackled any privet I noticed. I finally got to the bank on the south side of Second fall… it was mostly just small privet.

Most of the privet gone but there is still a large privet tree which requires some climbing to get to

Past ‘Site A’, I found some natives amongst the fishbone fern so it was worth while to deal with that directly.

Young elderberry panax and pittosporum now free from fishbone fern

I decided it would be more efficient to move downhill and clear the privet from underneath. However, I found the ol’ fallen sandpaper fig to still be being harassed by privet and lantana so I spent the rest of the day at that spot. There is three or four poison peach trees in that location as well so I did my best to help those out.

After clearing privet and lantana from the sandpaper fig and the peach trees.

One of the poison peach trees is a good five meters tall now.

There is still more to do for the ol’ fallen sandpaper tree. I think I will start here next week.

Working Bee – 10.11.2024

With the weekend filling up, I only had a few hours for this week’s working bee. I had grandiose plans of clearing the track upto Site A and then doing most of Site A but that was just dreaming I had realised after an hour or so. Still I was happy to give some native plants some clearance from the fishbone fern.

I spent some time again on the track coming up from Second fall. It is a mess but if I remember back to what I started with, I can be happy at how its going. Whenever some space is made in the fishbone fern, the natives use the opportunity to get started.

Before I started…

Fishbone fern making it hard for everything else

After pushing back the fishbone fern

The smaller sandpaper figs should get a boost from this. There was also some other species of trees which I believe are native but I am yet to identify them with certainty.

This amount of clearing took about an hour to do. At that pace I should be able to get a sizable chunk of Site A done if I can get a 3-4 hr session done.

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.

Working Bee – 18.09.2021

I got a few hours of lantana bashing in on Saturday…

The main pile of lantana at the end of the day.

Mostly I focused on the lantana near the creek towards the rear of the reserve. I had cleared the creek edge previously and this led to some natives taking off. The usual bleeding hearts and sandpaper figs but also a lilly pilly amongst others. Still, I hadn’t moved far from the edge of the creek and the lantana was threatening a return. I put an end to that…

That spot was chockers with lantana but now those sandpaper fig saplings towards the center of the photo should have a good headstart.

I am having to consider where people will walk when an area is cleared. There appears to be enough people going through the reserve now to make a difference. Not a bad thing but something to keep in mind in case some more fragile plants could be damanged. I left some privet and debris to deter people using this area. Easily removed when the saplings become big enough to not be easily walked on.

Just enough debris to deter would be walkers. They can go the usual way…

Here is a summary video I took at the end of the day. Poor quality unfortunately…

That fern tree that can be seen in the video is another win as well. More of those, yes please.

Working Bee – 12.09.2021

A quick session today. Actually classified as exercise rather than bush regeneration 🙂

Once again, just pushing back on lantana. I came across a large sandpaper fig tree that I had previously freed up from lantana. It had since then, fallen over but it continues to thrive. It had once again started to provide structure for the surrounding lantana. I removed the offending lantana and also bits of privet.

Sandpaper fig after I had cleared off the lantana.

I will need to come back to this spot as there is various promising saplings which need defending.

Here is a summary video I did of the site after clearing the fig.