Our community’s commitment to nature was on display at the recent Greater Sydney Landcare Awards where five local nominees were recognised:
Kincumber High School – Joint Winner Junior Landcare Award
Clean 4Shore – Highly Commended Community Partnership Award
Long Jetty Waterwatch Group – Highly Commended Streamwatch/Waterwatch Award
Jed Field – Winner NextGen Landcare
Palm Grove Ourimbah Creek Landcare – Highly Commended Community Group Award
The Palm Grove/Ourimbah Landcare group has been working to restore a highly disturbed site of Ourimbah Creek floodplain since 2000. This land was previously agricultural land, which was compulsorily purchased for the construction of the M1 Motorway. The 20 hectare site covers land owned by both Transport NSW and Central Coast Council.
The Landcare group formed two years prior to beginning work, by community members keen to look after the bush in the area but didn’t have a confirmed work site till 2000. The group meets Monday and Thursday each week, with regular work hours being 7:30am to 12:30pm.
Jed Field won the NextGen Landcare Award. For the last 12 years, volunteer Jed Field has run environmental programs at Central Coast Wetlands, Tuggerah. The Wetland is a 155ha Crown Land Reserve located between Tuggerah and Wyong, the region’s biggest area of open space for public access.
Jed joined the Central Coast Wetlands Pioneer Dairy Land Manager board 12 years ago as an 18-year-old and the youngest member to join the board. He has remained an active volunteer board member for the past 12 years and for the past three years has been Chair of the board.
He has restored 5.5 ha of endangered vegetation (from former paddock), run countless community and high school tree planting workshops and events and established an environmental volunteering group in 2022 which has grown to include 20 members.
In the last five years Jed has organised planting of 2500 trees and ran a fox control program that has resulted in 81% decline in fox sightings and 167% increase in native ground mammals like the Swamp Wallaby.
Jed has achieved $320,000 in environmental funding such as weed control programs. Each year there are new species of wildlife recorded at the reserve, and the site is a NSW bird watching hotspot partly thanks to the work Jed undertakes and programs he manages.
Creek restoration programs Jed runs are vital to provide resilient refuge areas for wildlife as climate change takes effect and helps improve water quality to Tuggerah Lakes. Jed has boosted habitat quality by arranging installation of nest boxes which support the threatened Squirrel Glider. Jed’s passion has increased community awareness and participation in important conservation initiatives.
Jed has collaborated with many organisations to improve natural resource management and promote and encourage the community to become involved in Landcare activities. These organisations include Central Coast Birders, Central Coast Cross Country, Community Environment Network, Everyday Ability disability support services, Kulnura Public School, Little People Nutrition – Foodie Nature Play, Local Land Services, Mark Churcher Golf Range, National Parks and Wildlife Services, Parkrun, Rumbalara Environmental Education Centre, St Peters Catholic College Tuggerah, SWAMP – Sustainable Wetlands Agricultural Makers Project – Central Coast, University of Newcastle , WildVenture: Landcare for Young Adults.
Jed collaborates with user groups of the reserve on a regular ongoing basis to achieve the best balance between community use and environmental outcomes. Jed regularly applies for grants and runs tree planting and other activities to improve local biodiversity. He works with school groups to bring young people to the wetland and provides educational talks on wetland biodiversity.
Jed runs two social media accounts to promote activities at the wetland:
https://www.facebook.com/CentralCoastWetlandsPioneerDairy
https://www.instagram.com/centralcoastwetlands
Finally, the Long Jetty Waterwatch Group was Highly Commended in the Streamwatch/Waterwatch Award.
Five local community volunteers with broad life experiences manage Waterwatch at Long Jetty, on the NSW Central Coast. They test the water quality of 35 drains on Tuggerah Lakes foreshore and have monitored and tested since 2010. 6 to 8 drains are monitored monthly. The group initially started off with 5 members, Neil Bevege, Lee Bond, Beryl Boness, Doug Darlington and Fiona McDougall. Neil and Doug are still involved today along with Max, David, Sandra and Julie joining the group in recent years.
Venice Street drain (LJ7) had problematic test results. High levels of phosphate were detected over several months including during dry weather events. This alerted Waterwatch volunteers of potential problems. Observations also included duck weed (not normally found in the Tuggerah Lakes system) flowing down the drain. The group contacted the Waterwatch coordinator with their concerns. A plan for further testing in the catchment was devised to verify the unusual results. The Waterwatch group traced the problem upstream and suspected the source may be a holding dam of a local golf course.
Approaches were made to Wyong Council (now Central Coast Council) and the golf course management and together further investigations were carried out which confirmed the source of the problem. Meetings with golf course management achieved agreements to lower dam water levels to avoid overflow into drains except during high rain fall events. This partially solves problems. Other drains have recorded high phosphate levels, low oxygen, diesel odours and large amounts of rubbish. Wyong Shire Council implemented a storm water quality improvement program along Tuggerah Lakes foreshore at Long Jetty.
Four drains identified through Waterwatch monitoring had a high priority due to water quality results. The four drains were redirected into two constructed wetlands and planted with macrophytes where nutrients will be absorbed before the storm water enters Tuggerah Lake.
The golf course has initiated change with more solutions required. The integrity of the dam needs continued monitoring to stop leakage into the storm water drain and eliminate high rainfall overflow. Without the dedication of the group and water quality monitoring at the 35 sites that the group test, the issue of increased available phosphate levels would not have been detected, and the issue raised with local council. The group continue to work lobbying council and the EPA on diesel contamination at LJ19. The site is currently under investigation.