A project of the Greater Mary Association Inc. and friends.
Funded by a Community Action Grant and the love and hard work of landholders and volunteers.
On Sunday 30th September, 81 trees including six different koala food species were planted in the Koala Corridor.Thanks to everyone who came along to lend a hand.
Arriving in the corridor - this area will soon be fenced off
Planting in some preprepared ground
A family affair
A momentous occassion! The wire is cut between two neighbouring koala corridor properties to join up the corridor. Notice the new fence on the other side.
The whole gang getting stuck into the planting
Planting on the second property.
Each tree was marked with a bamboo stick
and mulched with some cardboard
We also planted blackbean seeds within the riparian zone
Out of this first batch of 150 koala trees, we still have to plant another 19 trees for the second corridor property and 50 trees for the third corridor property. Fingers crossed for some rain so that we can plant these trees and also to give a boost to the trees we planted next year.
At our GMA meeting we also proposed at date for our community event as part of the koala corridor - we are calling it Love Mary day which will take place on 16 February 2013. More detail to come. If you'd like to help us organise the event, please let us know!
Fencing commenced for the tree planting area along the Mary River at Tiaro.
A 360 m fence has been constructed that creates a riparian corridor approximately 40-50m in width. That makes a continuous fenced riparian zone of over 1.5km.
At our GMA meeting on 12 June, we made decisions about the fencing and species lists for our project.
The current species lists are based on the trees that Koalas in our region prefer. It's based on advice from local koala expert Natalie Richardson.
The species list will be further refined with the by consulting the lists of species that are associated with the regional ecosystems found within the Koala Corridor. We'll also refer to expert advice from Greg Smyrell after his visit to the site this year, and previous expert advice from Marilyn Connell.
We will also be getting some quotes for weed control contractors in the near future.
On Thursday 17 May, three of the landholders involved in the Mary River Koala corridor met to discuss how the funds for fencing, revegetation and weed control would be shared across their properties.
Based on the decisions made, progress can now be made on installation of fencing - a combination of electric and permanent as well as protection of regenerating trees outside the fenced area.
Agreement was also reached about how to approach the weed control and revegetation.
Today the Federal Government announced that the Koala has been listed as a vulnerable species under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.
It therefore has the same status as lungfish.
This listing makes our Mary River Koala corridor project even more significant.
On 3rd April, Kate Lyons from BMRG was shown some of our project site and Tingid Breeding facility by our secretary Glenda Pitman.
Kate's visit means that the contract for the weed and pest grant is one step closer. At the GMA meeting last week, expenditure on the tunnel house was approved. We are aiming to erect the house in late May and have a working bee prior to then to pot up some new cats claw to be infected.
On 11 March 2012, we had Peter McAdam, stream geomorphologist and Healthy Habitats/Land for Wildlife Officer at the Mary River Catchment Coordination Committee join us for our outdoor meeting. Peter gave a very informative presentation about "How Rivers work and the implications for Riparian Restoration".
You can watch excerpts from his presentation below.
Part 1 is about how to defining a river.
Part 2 follows directly from Part 1 and in this, Peter focuses on the way rivers change. In particular he identifies some of the changes that have occurred as a result of European settlement.
