The Committee Confabulation

The February Committee meeting of the Progress Association will be held on Monday 1st February 7-9pm at the Hall, with a light supper provided. All members are welcome to attend and join in some interesting discussion.

The Transition Town Steering group meets the 2nd Monday of the month 4-6pm at the Hall. Planning for the awareness raising events is underway and anyone willing to lend a hand is most welcome to come along and find out a bit more.

The Membership renewals will be arriving very shortly. Apologies for the delay but in the cause of good governance a privacy policy for dealing with email addresses was needed so that it was clear for what purposes the email addresses would be used. 

A copy of the draft policy can be seen at  http://coalpointprogress.blogspot.com/ or if you would like your own mailed to your inbox send a request to coalpointprogress@gmail.com.

Alcohol Free zones in the Reserves of Coal Point?
On New Years Eve at Birriban reserve a considerable crowd of revelling youth, partied on into the wee hours causing disturbance to the local residents through abusive language, not-so-indiscreet displays of overt affection and lack of use of public toilets and rubbish facilities for disposing of personal and other kinds of waste.

This gathering appears to have suffered from the consequences of excessive alcohol consumption in the reserve. There have been other incidents recorded in local reserves of anti-social alcohol-induced behaviour as well.

A suggestion has been put forward to consider alcohol- free zones in the reserves as a way of addressing this issue. This issue will be discussed at the February Progress meeting. Any comments or suggestions are most welcome.

Agenda items for the February meeting include  alcohol-free reserves, the privacy policy, events for the year, the Annual General Meeting, Environmental Education Grant submission for introduction to the community brochure and Transition Group events.

Around the reserves

It’s a sign!

It has finally happened…the signs for Threlkeld, Gurranba and Burnage Reserves
are up and awesome. The signs tell a tale of the Landcaring that has been
happening for over a decade on these reserves. The Landcaring journey has also
been about learning about these special places and now that knowledge can be
shared. Many thanks to all the contributors who provided photos, information,
proofing and putting up with a big thank you to Lake Mac Print for making them
look so lovely.

Lake Macquarie Landcare is organising a Field Day around Coal Point Landcare sites on  Sun 11th October 9.30am - 12.30pm

Join us for this exciting field day visiting several of the Coal Point Landcare Groups wonderful sites and learn about weed treatment and creek stabilisation in an urban
environment. Meet at the Carey Bay Wetlands at 9.30am, then to Burnage
Reserve at 10.15am (morning tea) and to Gurranba Reserve at 11pm (lunch at
12pm). Contact the Landcare Resource Office on 4921 0392 or for more
details or to register for catering purposes. See you there!

New additions at Birraban
If you don’t get out to Birriban reserve much you’ve missed the installation of the
fabulous Fish Cleaning table. It shimmers and shines and is big enough to share
a dugong on. Installed along with the pristine piscine piece was a bubbler to
satiate the thirst of the park users. The fish cleaning table was funded from a
Recreational Fishing Community Grants Programme which LMCC applied for on
behalf of the Progress Association. Sincerest thanks to LMCC and the locals who
kept an eye on the progress.

What’s Going on at Gurranba
Apart from the new sign there is lots of activity in the ‘lower 40’ redressing the
insufficient capacity of the stormwater water pipes that became obvious in the
storm of 2007. LMCC are relocating the detention pits, installing larger pipes and
relocating the outflow of the stormwater to prevent flooding of the adjacent
properties. Some of the Casuarinas on the waterfront will be removed to
accommodate the changes and LMCC will replant the site when they’ve finished.

Around the Reserves

The Carey Bay Wetlands has been a focus of activity recently with a National Tree Day planting and an inspection from Keep Australia Beautiful-Tidy Towns-Sustainable Communities Assessor.

National Tree Day was  tree-mendous  with 140 plants making it into the ground with time enough left over to do a bit of maintenance on previous year’s plantings. This was the 5th year of planting out the bygone Blackberry briar and there was a celebratory flavour to the day with a BBQ feast provided by Joe’s Meat Market, Toronto Square and morning tea and lunchtime pastries and bread provided by Bakers Delights to keep the energy levels up. The site had been well prepared by local Landcarers with assistance from the Landcare Resource Office. All in all a very satisfying morning.

Lots of Action at Birriban-The long awaited fish cleaning table is under construction at Birriban reserve.

Ambrose Street and Yural Reserves will be the focus reserves for September with additional help  on September 10th provided by the Landcare Office.