Leschenault group’s Collie River plan

A COLLIE River, South Branch, project plan is to be undertaken following Tuesday night’s Leschenault Catchment Council forum at the Collie Ridge.

There were some 50 people at the forum which far outweighed the expectations of the council which made a commitment to set up a Collie River project on the South Branch.

Those at the forum were inspired by a project at the Harvey River which is showing early signs of success.

Harvey project co-ordinator Jane Townsend and Dr Tim Storer, of the Department of the Environment and Water

Regulation, provided ideas for setting up the Collie project.

Ms Townsend outlined steps taken to improve the health of the Harvey waterways in the face of a drying climate.

She emphasised the project was community designed and led. It involved collaborative action from multiple stakeholders and was a long term project which could be carried out in stages.

The project took as its motif the marron species, as marron are sensitive to temperature, oxygen supply and salinity.

“Successful rehabilitation requires catchment health, community connec- tion, practice change and business sustainability,” Ms Townsend said.

To date, larger marron and cobbler and smaller species, such as nightfish, are being found in the section which was treated.

Dr Storer has been involved in monitoring and research of south west waterways for some years.

He said his department has been assessing more than 1,000 sites since 2008.

“We have been targeting pools to be assessed during the dry season, and have a fair idea of the health of the river,” Dr Storer said.

“These two-day assessments give a good idea of what is in the river,”he said.

“Our monitoring has shown how important a single pool can be to the whole river.

“A single pool sustains native fish during the dry season, with concentrations of hundreds of fish and once the river starts to flow again, these fish spread to the other parts of the river and reproduce, so pools in the south branch, such as Long Pool and the Cardiff Town Pool, would be good prospects.”

The council’s executive officer, Caroline Hughes, said the next round of grants is about to open, but emphasised that the grants required matching funding.

A report on ideas generated during the forum will be circulated to attendees.

Cans for ANZAC

THE Collie Senior High School's ANZAC tour group is fundraising for their trip via Cash for Cans. Anyone recycling bottles and cans and who would like to support the students can quote the ID C10989692 at the Collie depot and donate their refunds.

CENTENARIAN: Ella Massara-Peters recently celebrated her 100th birthday. Nephew Terry Massara and other Collie-based members of the Massara family flew to Brisbane to surprise her.

Shotts-raised Ella celebrates

FORMER Shotts resident Ella Massara-Peters celebrated her 100th birthday in style earlier this month, with a large group of family and friends in attendance to mark the milestone.

A number of Collie-based family members flew east for the occasion, with a special morning tea held at Mrs Massara-Peters’ nursing home residence in the Brisbane suburb of Chermside.

Mrs Massara-Peters was born in Collie on March 10, 1923, the eldest of five children, and grew up in Shotts. She left school at the age of 14 to help run the Shotts local shop and garage, before moving to Perth four years later to study nursing.

When the World War II broke out, she joined the army, transferring to the