The Coal Point Chronicle: June 2022

Friday 17 June 2022

Art & An AGM 26/6/22

The Annual General Meeting of the Coal Point Progress Association is almost upon us, 26th June. Historically, these are very swift affairs with an annual report providing the highlights of the past 12 months, a Treasurer’s report outlining the finances of our group and an election of office bearers. The agenda was outlined in the May Chronicle.

This AGM is no exception, with enough nominations already received to form a committee for another year, the financial statements passing the auditor’s eagle eyes and an annual report rolling off the press.

What is always welcome at the AGM is catching up with some of the CPPA members and you are warmly invited to come along from 2-3pm, for the AGM and then a social catch up afterwards… or you can do your socialising beforehand!

This year the Coal Point Art Collective (CPAC) is having an Open Studio from 11am-2pm, prior to the AGM. They’ll be creating, as they do every week when they meet at the hall, and also showcasing their artwork. Some items will be for sale from $30, cash only or by arrangement. The CPAC are a talented bunch and there are samples of their work below.

If you’re heading out for a Sunday stroll on the 26th June why not head in the direction of the hall for something a little different. There’ll be tea and coffee and snacks available by donation, also the opportunity to become members of the CPPA or TASNG, our local community organisations. Becoming a member seems to be one of those things lots of people mean to do but don’t get around to it, so this might be the day?

Looking forward to seeing you on Sunday!

Suzanne Pritchard
President- Secretary

The Coal Point Art Collective includes:

Garth Anderson, Cheryl Ormiston, Stephanie Sullivan, Suzanne Pritchard, Moira Sullivan, Wendy Welch, Susan Ryman, Dianne Taylor, Christine Stewart, Harvey Mitchell, Annie Hayes and Kerrie Marshall.

Moira Sullivan

Annie Hayes

Christine Stewart

Dianne Taylor

Harvey Mitchell

Kerrie Marshall

Susan Ryman

Wendy Welch

Stephanie Sullivan

MoM and Chronicle THANKS!

Mother-of-Millions Muster

Our sincere thanks to all those who walked through Gurranba Reserve during May and took the trouble to toss a stem or two of this persistent, noxious weed into "the coffin".

Removing Mother-of-millions has been one of our greatest challenges over the years. You have made a real difference. We may not know your name, but we know you care.

A big THANK YOU from your Coal Point Landcare team!
(P.S. May is now over and the container will disappear for a few months)

Expanding the Chronicle distribution

Once again thank you to the locals who have been chipping in to continue the expanded distribution of the Chronicle into Kilaben Bay and parts of Toronto. At $116.61 per edition, the $648.54 received has kept the local news in our community’s letterboxes this year.

The hope was that there would be an increase in membership to either the CPPA or TASNG to support the expanded distribution, and there’s still time.

You can drop by the Progress Hall on Sunday 26 June between 11am and 2pm to join up, peruse some local art, have a cuppa and a chat and if you’re really keen hang around for the AGM at 2pm.

The option to donate online is still available .

Got something to sing about?

Did you know the Newie Pub Choir has been singing each fortnight, 7:30-9ish since May in the Mulberry Room at the Toronto Pub? Four amazing musicians have been guiding about 30 voices in learning one song each session, classics like Simply the Best, Bittersweet Symphony, Zombie and My Happiness.

The final sing along in this season will be Tuesday 28th June when in addition to a new song, all the songs previously learnt will be sung. A great opportunity to see what the group is about.

The Newie Pub Choir crew will also be evaluating what interest there is to continue.

You can see what the group has been up to on their facebook page.

Safe cycling in Westlakes? Your views matter!

Cycling Campaigner- Nico Marcar

The only significant shared path around Toronto is the Greenway track between Toronto and Fassifern Station. There is no off-road link through the 80kph Woodrising stretch to Booragul and to the shared paths through and beyond the Five Islands bridge. Nor is there any off-road connection through the hilly 80kph stretch to Rathmines Peninsula.

Unfortunately, it will be very expensive to build the necessary off-road connections north and south. Although these connections form part of the Principle Bicycle Network in Council's 2021 Cycling, Walking and Better Streets Strategy, they are not designated as high priority, and Main Road is noted as the NSW Government’s responsibility. Though Council is aware of the issues, Toronto/Westlakes remains in limbo. Whilst there are some longer, alternative routes, you cannot currently cycle safely on the shorter 80kph stretches.

The Toronto Action Group is willing to take up the issue and has already raised it with two of our Ward councillors and Council staff. As a starting point, we need to know more about actual and potential demand for cycling.

Do you currently cycle for commuting, leisure or exercise? Would you take up cycling or cycle further if there was more safe infrastructure? What do you see as the main impediments to cycling locally? We'd like to hear your views. Please contact Nico at torontoareasng@gmail.com.

TASNG Waste Report

By Waste Warrior -Steve Dewer

On Saturday June 4, Toronto Area Sustainable Neighbourhood Group (TASNG) held a stall outside Woolworths, Toronto, to celebrate World Environment Day and alert the public about the ban on single use plastic bags (including bio and compostable bags) which came into force on June 1. What a joy it was to see trolley after trolley with reusable bags rolling out of the store. Congratulations Toronto!

We had a number of give-aways including cloth reusable bags, low water shower heads, and especially the net veggie bags! Handouts for living sustainably proved very popular.

A petition to encourage Coles, Aldi and IGA to follow Woolies’ phase out of the cheap, 15 cent, thicker plastic bags, was signed by many people and later given to Managers of those supermarkets.

A decision has been made by TASNG to continue the message of “Recycle and Reuse” (including bamboo reusable coffee cups) at the Living Smart Festival in September and the community car boot event at Puntei Park in October.

The ban on plastic straws, plastic cutlery and plates, plastic cotton buds and microbeads is due to commence on November 1!

The Plastic Free Cafes project is on the move again, with a planned roll-out of $2 reusable coffee cups in the next few weeks to distribute to local cafes and coffee vans.

King & Co and Belluno’s in Toronto are carrying the good quality bamboo reusable coffee cups.

Can we have a Community Cat Curfew?

There is mounting evidence of research about the impact of cats upon local wildlife, not just ferals, but roaming domestic pests. In our community, where we still have wildlife, cats as well as foxes are an extreme threat to the survival of the local populations of native animals including squirrel gliders, birds, lizards and recently discovered Feather-tailed gliders.

The Invasive Species Council is conducting a “Cats in Australia” campaign recognising that Australia has a cat problem. After being introduced in 1788, feral cats now number between 2.1 – 6.3 million depending on rainfall conditions, and there are another 3.8 million pet cats in our neighbourhoods.

Together, they kill over 2 billion animals every single year. Most of those are native. And no matter how much we adore them, we can’t escape the fact that our pet cats that are allowed to roam are responsible for over 500 million of those deaths.”

Our local wildlife carer is continually confronted by the impact of feline ferocity: “earlier this week I got a call, to ask if I cared for gliders... the cat brought it in, he thought it was a sugar glider, but it is actually a feathertail... this is the first one I've known to be found around here. I hate to think how many animals that cat is still killing. The glider is with an NATF carer and is apparently OK. It’s a female sub-adult weighing 8gm (adults are 12gm), and is buddied up with some others.“

The Invasive Species Council offers this advice to cat owners.

“Many of us believe our pet cats never kill animals because they are only get let out at certain times or are too passive, lazy or slow to catch anything.
But even if your pet cat hasn’t brought native wildlife home, any cat allowed free-roaming time is almost certainly killing native wildlife. Research using tracking collars and scat analysis has established that the vast majority of animals killed by pet cats are not brought home. We also know 4 in 10 pet cats that are brought in at night sneak back out again to roam and hunt.
There are many things that responsible cat owners can do to help keep our wildlife safe and our pets happy, but the most important one is to keep your cat securely contained at home or on a leash at all times just like a pet dog. This will keep them safe from injury and disease and protect native wildlife in your local neighbourhood.”

Our wildlife will never be safe until we all do something about it. Can we start by containing our cats?

Burgeoning Battery Power

There’s a local boon in battery power happening.

Eraring is Australia’s largest power station supplying around a quarter of NSW’s energy needs and is Origin Energy’s only coal-fired generator.

Origin has reached an important milestone in its plans to develop a large-scale battery at Eraring Power Station, receiving planning approval from the NSW Department of Planning and Environment (DPE).

The proposed Eraring battery has an overall capacity of up to 700 MW and a dispatch duration of 4 hours, making it Australia’s largest battery project to achieve planning approval to date.

There is also a proposed Awaba Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), a 50MW stand-alone battery to be located adjacent to Ausgrid's Awaba Substation on Awaba Road.

Once operational, the Awaba BESS will provide a range of electricity and power market services - supporting Firm Power's mission to power the clean energy transition.

The Awaba BESS forms part of the Hunter Dispatchable Energy System (HDES) - a distributed stand-alone battery system for the Hunter region, designed to balance the grid and support the performance and future uptake of renewable energy in NSW. View a Fact Sheet of the Awaba BESS project.

Firm Power are currently preparing a socio-economic impact assessment (SEIA) for the BESS in Awaba. As part of this process, they are conducting a community survey to better understand community values, challenges and aspirations as well as potential impacts and benefits associated with the proposal.

The community survey is an opportunity for you to let them know:

about your local area,
what is important to you,
any concerns you may have,
your views on project benefits.

You can find out more about the project at Awaba BESS | Firm Power, and take the community survey at Awaba Battery Energy Storage System Survey.

Lake Macquarie community invited to assist with seagrass restoration

Operation Posidonia, a project led by marine ecologists from UNSW Sydney and the Sydney Institute of Marine Science, aims to restore endangered Posidonia australis seagrass meadows in Lake Macquarie with the help of local citizen scientists.

Posidonia meadows are an incredibly important habitat for a variety of fish species, capturing large amounts of carbon and protecting shorelines from erosion. They have been declining at an alarming rate in NSW’s most populated estuaries due to human pressures. One of the most significant ongoing threats to Posidonia meadows is traditional swing moorings with heavy chains that scour the seafloor.

Operation Posidonia is combining seagrass rehabilitation with environmentally friendly moorings, which don’t have a swinging chain component, while also restoring the species to old mooring ‘scars’ where the seagrass has not recovered naturally. Operation Posidonia has developed a restoration method that doesn’t require removing donor material from remaining vulnerable meadows.

Citizen scientists known as the ‘Storm Squad’ are asked to collect naturally-detached fragments of the seagrass that wash ashore in strong winds. If fragments still have a rhizome (anchoring structure) attached, they can be replanted underwater. Operation Posidonia is focusing its efforts around Belmont and Marks Point, where most of the Lake’s Posidonia meadows are found. Replanting of seagrass collected by citizen scientists began in May near Belmont Baths.

Most of Lake Macquarie’s Posidonia meadows exist on the Eastern side of the lake, between Swansea and Belmont. Small pockets exist elsewhere, such as at Coal Point. Depending on wind conditions, however, it is possible to find Posidonia fragments in almost all corn

ers of the lake. You can expect to find washed-up fragments around Coal Point and Toronto after strong southerly and easterly winds.

There are moves afoot to get a collection station at the Toronto Baths, but in the meantime fragments can be deposited at Belmont Baths.

Find out all the information you need to join the Storm Squad at operationposidonia.com/lake-macquarie

Clayton Mead | Research Assistant , UNSW Sydney