Narbethong Holly control project

The Friends of Marysville Walks and UGLN have been carrying out a very successfull project to control Holly in bushland and along waterways in the Narbethong area.

Working with and under the direction of Marilyn Connor from Friends of Marysville Walks, UGLN have controlled many hectares of holly on private and public land along Fisher Creek, Dom Dom Creek and Hermitage Creek by using our Recycling for Recovery funds to employ specialist weed control contractors.

Marilyn Connor with CVA volunteers at The Hermitage.

We have also supervised many volunteer days cutting out and poisoning holly at the‘The Hermitage’. Which is a heritage-listed building in Narbethong set amongst the tall Mountain Ash forest at the summit of the Black's Spur.

Our most recent day was with 10 volunteers from Conservation Volunteers Australia on the 15th June. Funding for this day was generously donated by the Kinglake Landcare Group from their Kinglake Stream Restoration Project.



CVA volunteers removing holly from bushland at Narbethong

ANZ Landcare Fire Recovery Week

Another very succesful week of volunteer work carried out with volunteers from the ANZ bank.
Throughout the week 96 volunteers assisted us with fencing, weed control, nest boxes and tree planting at fire affected properties at Kilmore East, Pheasant Creek, Strath Creek, Heathcote Junction and Narbethong. The team did a great job despite at times having to battle steep slopes and thick scrub with leeches and prickles.

NAB volunteers at Narbethong

The first large group of NAB volunteers for 2011 arrived Narbethong on 10/3/2011.

Forty volunteers from Head Office arrived at Saladin Lodge by coach & car .

Originally a day of fencing was planned but heavy overnight rain made vehicle assess to the fencing site impossible . Kim had plenty of other jobs to be done so after a delicious morning tea Plan B was put into action . The Uniting Church men converted a large heap of logs in firewood which one NAB team split and stacked in the shed . The fire restrictions have been lifted so Leon the gardener supervised another group clearing fallen dead timber . The bonfire they built was impressive . The third group worked with Janet on maintaining the revegetation work done last year. Kim supplied an amazing a BBQ lunch for the 50 workers in her new accommodation centre . After lunch Alan and his team took the volunteers next door to remove an old burnt fence line .

The next large NAB team will do the fence building we promised Kim.

'Accenture Australia'

28th February 2011

Holly removal from the gardens of the historical "Hermitage" Guest House on the Black Spur at Narbethong.

Thirteen employees from Accenture joined Phil and Janet from Landcare for a peaceful day of 'cutting and painting' wild holly with loppers and herbicide.

The original gardens at 'The Hermitage' were laid out by Baron Von Mueller in 1893. There are now many magnificent exotic trees mixed with the native mountain ash and tree ferns . I am not sure if he introduced the hollys but he did bring the first blackberries to Australia ! Thousands of wild holly plants are now invading the surrounding bushland.

Many of the trees were too large for loppers and handsaws , Chris has organised a contractor to do the major chainsaw work , then more teams of volunteers can be recruited to cut out the smaller plants . This would be an overwhelming project for the owner and his wife to complete without assistance.

Thanks Accenture volunteers.

Five of the volunteers were heading off for a long Australia Day weekend after helping us , bushwalking to Lake Tarli Karn and down the Macalister River , what beautiful weather they had for this adventure .

Conservation Volunteers lend a Hand

An international team from Conversation Volunteers Australia helped out with our Fencers Without Boundaries program for 5 weeks in the Buxton/Narbethong area during May-June 2010.
The group was well lead by team leader Andrew Matthers and constructed many kilometres of fencing.