working bee – 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

Working Bee – 20.09.2025

At the entrance of the reserve, near where the creek flows under the road, is a stand of ginger lily. Ginger lily is not welcome at Dick’s creek but I have never had a suitable replacement so it has been left alone. There was also some palm grass mixed in with it but over time the palm grass has come to dominate that location. Palm grass is becoming more and more of a problem throughout the reserve so this stand was a good place to start the process of removing it all.

I took advantage of the fact there nothing endemic at the location. I chopped at it to get to the stumps:

Then I had to use a mattock to get the stumps out. There were quite large and numerous.

It looks a lot better with just the ginger lily. Of course, it would be better again if it was native ginger. It will have to stay there until there is a replacement though as it is a location that is at a high risk of erosion.

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 – 24.12.2024

It was taking all too long to prepare various locations for the remaining plants given to us from the landcare nursery. There was a risk they would die before they got a chance to be planted so I decided to bring forward the working bee to plant the remaining plants. The location we have recently cleared seemed quite suitable. We had 24 plants left so it was quite a job to get them all planted in one session. I had some helpers too. Lee and Ella were there to help…

It’s quite hot and dry at present so I am going to need to get down to water them over the next few weeks.

Unfortunately we have no mulch to use. What would be great is if we could convert the lantana rafts into mulch but there is no obvious way to do that yet.

Planted species were:

5 x	Acacia implexa
5 x	Acacia ulicifolia
2 x	Acmena smithii
3 x	Syncarpia glomulifera
5 x	Dodonaea triquetra
4 x	Gonocarpus teucrioides

A good way to finish the year…

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 – 14.12.2024

It was a quick one today. Between Flaggy creek working bee and the Flaggy creek christmas get together, I was able to get in an hour long working bee.

No.1 priority was to get the ground cover plants that the Landcare nursery had given us a few weeks back. They really weren’t liking there current situation.

There were a few spots along the creek edge that were suitable. This spot was just buffalo grass:

I am hoping this native ground cover is as resilient as the buffalo grass I replaced it with. It will need to set root fairly quickly as this spot does get flooded when we get solid rain.

The other location I chose was on the other side but it was in much worse shape as palm grass was taking over.

I dug that out but left most other plants… which included some bleeding hearts, some young lilly pillies and a few other undesirables which I had to correctly identify before dispatching.

Here is an image of the ground cover after just being planted.

Ground cover in after clearing away the palm grass

UPDATE (01.03.2025): It has now been over three months since these were planted and I can confirm that both plantings have prospered. As long as I can keep the weeds back for a while, they should extend their coverage.