Landcare Cleans Up

By Merilyn House

Sunday, March 5 is Clean Up Australia Day. Helensburgh & District Landcare has been participating for more than 25 years.

Each year we provide an opportunity for local residents to clean up an area of their own choice, e.g. local park, street or footpath. Landcare members also clean up selected areas.

Register at the Old Mine Surgery, 78 Parkes Street, between 10.30am and 1.30pm. We will provide you with a bag to collect rubbish, which you return to us. You need to wear covered-in bugs in the February issue). The bugs have turned up in pretty big numbers, which they seem to most summers, to feed on the tree roots that twist up and out of the yard. shoes, long sleeves and a hat. For more information: email merilyn@helensburghlandcare. org.au or ring 0414 819 742.

I’ve spent more time than I care to admit, watching these vibrant green jewels buzzing around the yard, bouncing off of the clothes hanging on the line, crawling across the ground, and finally all seemingly settling on the same tree root. How do they choose? And then how do they convey the message that ‘This is the one, guys, today we feast on this root’? However they do it, they extend their proboscis and pierce the root, mostly lined up in a heads-down, bum-up kind of way.

And then the lizards sidle up. If both males are in the same area, a series of frenetic head bobs will take place, a puffed-up throat and a leg wave or two, a lizard warning if you will. But their focus remains on the free feed. The bugs, while they don’t move, are safe. The lizards watch and wait, the young one turning its head at an angle, its eyes searching for any movement at all. And the first bug that moves, that decides to get into a better position to feed? It’s snatched up, crunched by sharp, reptile teeth.

It’s an eat-and-be-eaten world, out there.

Helensburgh & District Landcare members were delighted to receive a Crown Reserves Improvement Fund Grant to assist with our work at Helensburgh Station Reserve. The money will be used to employ a bush-regeneration team to work on coral trees, Madeira vine, and other environmental weeds. The focus of the work will be in Tunnel Road on the corner where it crosses the creek. We have been concerned about safety here as the vegetation blocks visibility for pedestrians and drivers when approaching this corner. Work has started at the site and will continue for months.

If you see someone in trouble in a rip, what would you do?