First planning walk for the corridor

A weedy vine taking over a canopy tree

On Sunday 11 December 2011, a few of us braved the weather and did a walk along two of the properties in the Koala Corridor with Juliet Musgrave and Tina Ravenau from Fraser Coast Regional Council. 


We identified weeds and plants. Juliet has since provided us with templates for the weed management plan and lists of weed species. Tina has provided some advice on planting strategies. 


There is an almost continuous, but slightly fragmented riparian zone on the properties involved in the project. During our walk, the impact that vine weeds, particularly Cats Claw and Balloon vine are having on existing canopy trees was evident. Also, being on the main trunk of the river, and in the pondage of the barrage, the riverbank suffers the pressure of boat wash, artificial maintained water height and high erosive flows during floods. Another factor contributing to the instability of the banks is the sodic soil, which when wet, has very little structure to hold it together, and therefore erodes easily. In this video below, one of the landholders talks about the erosion he has experienced on his river bank and the measures he has taken to try to prevent it. 

We noticed that even though the properties are very close together, they have different vegetation and different weed issues. The one has a lot of eucalypts whereas the other has more rainforest type trees, particularly a tree called the Native Elm.

The walk was topped off by the siting of a koala on one of the properties. 

The koala was in one of the gums right on the river bank. 

Can you spot it?