Celebrating Our Backyard Biodiversity

September is Biodiversity Month, a time to celebrate the richness of life around us. Here along the Coal Point peninsula, we don’t need to travel far to be reminded of just how lucky we are, our reserves, link tracks and lake foreshore are buzzing with life.

There’s so much to love about our beautiful and biodiverse bigger backyard. Every Thursday the Landcare crew revels in the joys of Mother Nature. And every Tuesday we get a wonderfully-crafted reminder of where we’ve been, what we’ve done and where we’re going from Ros, our Landcare coordinator.

Over the past month the team gathered at sites like Hampton Street Link, Gurranba Reserve and Puntei Creek. We tackled invasive plants that threaten to smother the bush. We’ve been pulling out swathes of Mother of Millions (Bryophyllum delagoense), hacking back Black-eyed Susan (Thunbergia alata), and keeping an eye on the surprise arrival of Australian Umbrella Tree (Heptapleurum actinophyllum) seedlings, a native species but not from this part of the country.

Clearing weeds may sound unglamorous, but every thistle uprooted or tangle of Morning Glory (Ipomoea indica) removed gives native plants room to breathe. It means Basket Grass (Oplismenus aemulus), Scurvy Weed (Commelina cyanea) and young Grevillea sericea can flourish. It means flowers return to the bush, and with them the bees, birds and lizards.

And what a cast of creatures still call our peninsula home. In recent weeks, landcarers have encountered a resident blue-tongue lizard, a secretive Blackish Blind Snake (Anilios nigrescens), and the usual chorus of birdlife. Just last month, Pandorea pandorana and Clematis glycinoides were in bloom, adding to the colour of spring.

These small weekly efforts add up. Together, they keep the bush in balance and remind us that biodiversity isn’t an abstract idea, it’s the living world right at our back door. The resilience of our native plants and animals is something to be celebrated, and it depends on community care.

This Biodiversity Month, take a walk through your local reserve, pause to notice the small flowers pushing through the leaf litter, or the rustle of skinks underfoot. Every sighting is a reminder: we are fortunate indeed to live among such abundance.

And if you’d like to lend a hand, the Landcare team meets every Thursday morning. Come for the weeding, stay for the cuppa and company, and help keep our backyard brimming with life. Visit the CPPA calendar to see where we will be. 

International Day of Biodiversity (IDB) 22 May

On ‘International Days of’, the mantra of Think Globally and Act Locally creates a time to reflect on what we are doing on the ground with our community and how it contributes to global goals.

The following musings are on the International Day of Biodiversity 2025 theme “Harmony with nature and sustainable development"

Biodiversity is the foundation of all life on Earth. It is fundamental to human well-being, a healthy planet, and economic prosperity for all people. We depend on it for food, medicine, energy, clean air and water, protection from natural disasters as well as recreation and cultural inspiration.

The United Nations Global Biodiversity Framework has 23 Targets that set out an ambitious pathway to reach the global vision of a world living in harmony with nature by 2050.

As a local community group we are actively implementing several of these targets to reduce the local threats to biodiversity

TARGET 4: Halt Species Extinction, Protect Genetic Diversity, and Manage Human-Wildlife Conflicts

The local geography of the peninsula which extends from Toronto to Coal Point means there is a high potential for existing isolated populations of a locally-threatened and vulnerable species to become extinct if the threats aren’t addressed.

Threats for the locally vulnerable Squirrel Glider (Petaurus norfolcensis), a small gliding possum, include the loss of hollows from the removal of older trees, habitat fragmentation of vegetated corridors from increased building footprints, especially the flowering shrubs that allow for movement and provide food and, increasingly common, are attacks by roaming cats.

Installing nestboxes, planting flowering native shrubs in your garden and keeping your cat inside are actions we can all take to ensure the survival of our local small mammals and birds.

TARGET 6: Reduce the Introduction of Invasive Alien Species by 50% and Minimize Their Impact

Exotic plants, alien species, aka weeds are an ever-present threat to our local bushland. From the exotic grasses that creep and covertly control the ground layer, to the vines that cover and crash the canopies, being aware of the impact of garden escapes and everyone doing their bit to keep garden plants in the garden makes a difference.

The extrusion of lawns into local public bushland is a major threat to our biodiverse reserves. Once in the native bushland, buffalo, couch and kikuyu smother the local natives, suppress germination and diminish the food available for local wildlife. There are a suite of native grasses and groundcovers that provide for low maintenance groundcover options. Stopping your lawn at your boundary, not dumping your garden waste and encouraging natives will greatly assist in burgeoning our biodiversity.

Along the West Ridge there is quite a population of the threatened plant Tetratheca juncea (Black-eyed Susan) - its survival depends on a native understorey devoid of exotic grasses.

There are local plants for sale at the Landcare & Sustainability Centre at Teralba, and Trees In Newcastle at Belmont.

TARGET 7: Reduce Pollution to Levels That Are Not Harmful to Biodiversity

Pollution comes in all forms. Excess nutrients from fertilisers or dog poo washing into the lake, unsecured soil from construction sites that ends up as sediment over seagrass beds from the stormwater system, rat poisons that accumulate in the food chain and kill native birds wildlife and pets, abundant lighting that disrupts nocturnal animals habitats and distracts insects and frogs and of course plastic, ever present, pervasive and problematic.

Actions that make a huge difference locally include minimising fertiliser use and picking up the pooch-poo.Both of these pollutants flow directly into the Lake, which of course surrounds the peninsula. Using alternatives to the Second-generation Anticoagulant Rodenticides (SGAR), will keep our pets and wildlife, especially our local owls, alive a lot longer. Minimising night-time illumination keeps the nocturnal habits of the wildlife aligned with protecting the vulnerable from predation, whilst saving electricity. Doing your best to prevent plastic entering the environment by using alternatives and ensuring it doesn’t end up in the bush or lake helps too.

TARGET 8: Minimize the Impacts of Climate Change on Biodiversity and Build Resilience

Council's approach to supporting communities that may be impacted by long-term inundation due to sea and/or lake level rise is to proactively undertake adaptation planning for the worst affected communities. Whilst the eastern side of the Lake has had six local plans produced, the Teralba to Toronto Climate Resilience Plan will be the first on the western side. Over the next few months, the plan will be going out for community consultation.

Suburbs between Toronto and Teralba (including Carey Bay) are likely to be significantly affected by the impacts of climate change, particularly sea level rise. Council is working with these communities so they can adapt to changes in the natural environment. Increasing tree canopy in urban areas will be important for reducing the effects of urban heat and ensuring streets and public spaces are cool and comfortable. Preserving bushland will support the city’s mitigation of and adaptation to climate change, while protecting our biodiversity and showcasing our highly-valued natural environment.

TARGET 12: Enhance Green Spaces and Urban Planning for Human Well-Being and Biodiversity

The recent adoption of Council’s Housing Diversity Plan whereby minimum lot sizes for subdivision and dual occupancies were reduced, whilst a win for increasing housing supply, has the potential to diminish the biodiverse assets of our community. The premise of the plan, to avoid encroachment of urban development into environmentally sensitive land by making more efficient use of available urban land needs to also consider the available greenspace and exiting corridors and fortify it against further fragmentation. We are so fortunate to still have healthy bushland and wildlife, retaining this during a density transition requires the will to find the way to align with the Community Strategic Plan’s Environmental goals.

Blink and you’ll miss it- Biodiversity on the brink

Biodiversity month just finished…did you notice? Held in September each year to focus on the variety of all living things it was a blink in the calendar of life. You can make the memory last though. The CPPA has started an iNaturalist project, https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/projects/coal-point-landcare to collect and share images of the wonderful wildlife that surrounds us. Inaturalist is easy to use. You can download the app and when you see something you know or don’t know, take a picture and the team of specialist behind the scenes will assist in identifying your discovery. 

We can’t protect what we can’t see, love it or lose it. Recently the Department of Environment and Heritage produced the NSW Biodiversity Outlook Report 2024.

There were several key findings in the report:

• only 50% of threatened species are expected to survive the next 100 years
• only 29% of the capacity of habitat to support native species remains
• past habitat loss and future climate change will significantly reduce the capacity of landscapes to retain biodiversity over the next 50 years
• for the first time, land permanently secured for conservation has exceeded 10% of the state, increasing from 8.6% in 2007 to 11.2% in 2023.

It’s no secret the CPPA’s focus over the past few decades has been on protecting and preserving the local environment. Long-term locals can recall a time when little birds, like pardalotes, use to flit through the abundant bushland understorey, the chorus of frogs resonated after rain, blue-tongue lizards were about, the foreshore didn’t need fortification and big trees provided hollow-homes for parrots, possums, squirrel gliders, sugar gliders and microbats.  

More recently locals have been witnessing the fragmentation of our biodiverse bushland through sub-division and larger building footprints, the loss of small birds and ground dwelling animals as uncontrolled cats and the odd fox roam at night and kill, the smothering of the relatively fragile native flora as robust exotic plants and grasses are dumped into local reserves, the incursion of possums into roof spaces as their hollow bearing trees are felled, and the disappearance of canopy connectivity that allows the local wildlife to navigate space but also provides shade, shelter and the backdrop of our bigger bushland backyard.

We know a fair bit about our local biodiversity. From 2012 to 2018 the CPPA completed a $1million project, Threatened Species Last Stand (TSLS), on the Coal Point peninsula. There were many great outcomes from that project. There was a successful environmental burn, which you can read about as part of the journal Ecological Management & Restoration .The Landcare activity around our 12 local reserves trebled and allowed the landcare team to get the upper hand on many of the long-term weed incursions. There was a shift in the recovery trajectory of the reserves and in the capacity of the landcarers from despair to hope. Flora and bird surveys were regularly undertaken and for the first time threatened species were formally identified; the very cute Squirrel Glider, the ever graceful plant, Tetratheca juncea, and the majestic Powerful Owl. During this period Council undertook plans of management for these three threatened species and noted both their presence and the tenuous nature of their existence on the Coal Point peninsula due to the isolated nature of the populations in an increasingly fragmented bushland.

Another major finding from the TSLS project was that, because of the mosaic of public-private land along the bush-dominated ridge tops and the dearth of public land along the foreshore mid-slopes, unless private landholders also do their bit to support the local wildlife and the bushland it depends upon, our public reserves run the risk of becoming little more than silent islands of isolation and uniformity. In addition, options for wildlife dispersal on a peninsula are somewhat constrained by being surrounded by water.

Retaining our local biodiversity requires a multi-pronged approach involving boosting the options that are available for wildlife and their habitat on public and private land, whilst ensuring that future housing models do not further fragment and destroy the basic integrity and connectivity of the bushland that remains.

Living a Local Life

Dates for the Diary

A choir where the audience does the singing!

Upcoming Dates:
27 September, 11 October, 25 October.

No experience necessary, just turn up, grab a drink and get ready to sing.

We meet fortnightly: 7.30 pm, Mulberry Room, upstairs at the Toronto Pub.

Green Waste Tour with TASNG

Wednesday 28 September,

9:30-11

Awaba Recycling Centre

Wilson Roard, Awaba

RSVP to torontoareasng@gmail.com

Wednesday 28 September, 10am-noon
Morisset Multipurpose Centre, 143 Dora Street

Natural systems with higher biodiversity are more resilient against change, pest damage, disease and extreme weather events. Learn a range of techniques to encourage biodiversity in your garden.

Lachlan Storrie of Tree Frog Permaculture is an enthusiastic purveyor of all things permaculture and the natural world. His background in Biology, ecology and 12 years of sustainable gardening will get you excited and informed, ready to do the same in your corner of the globe! Call Southlake Neighbourhood Centre on 4973 7000 to book your spot.

TASNG Monthly meeting 
2nd Wednesday of the month.

5 - 6:30pm
The Hub, 97 The Boulevarde

Next meeting is 12 October 

- All Welcome -

Sunday 16 October , 11am-3pm
Myuna Bay Foreshore Park

The Nature Conservation Council is holding their first Picnic for Nature event where local communities will host and hold picnics - coming together to celebrate nature.

Our local picnic is being hosted on Sunday 16th October by the Coal Ash Community Alliance at Myuna Bay Foreshore Reserve, 11am-3pm. They are organising an amazing program, from fun activities for the kids, to discussions on what's next for the area. Bring a picnic lunch and something to sit on.

As well as a fun day out with the family, it’s also an opportunity to celebrate our local natural beauty and biodiversity and a chance to connect with locals who also care about nature in our area. More information 

The Aussie Bird Count

October 17 – 23 Outdoors and online

Taking part in the bird count is easy, register to participate, take a seat and admire the birds!

Spend 20 minutes in your backyard, local park, farm, balcony, or anywhere you can see birds, and submit your count using the web form or the app – both come with a handy bird finder to help you identify what you see.

Count as often or as little as you like. Some people count multiple times per day, others only once or twice for the week. Every count helps.

https://aussiebirdcount.org.au/#register

The Hunter Bird Observers Club website has many great resources available, including their newly-released publication, “Birding Guide to the Cessnock Woodlands“

Dreamtime to Modern

Sunday 23 October, 2 - 4 pm 
Rathmines Theatre , Stilling Street, Rathmines

The Lake Macquarie Wind Band presents, in partnership with the Gabinya Miyay Aboriginal Dance Group, an afternoon celebrating aspects of culture, from ancient indigenous dance, a smoking ceremony and modern Australian soundscapes.

Gold Coin Donation.Bookings are recommended via the Dreamtime to Modern Booking Link.

The Great Southern Bioblitz

28-31 October- Online

The Great Southern Bioblitz returns 28-31 October when the southern hemisphere’s natural world awakens from its winter slumber.

Help us learn about biodiversity across our suburban backyards, parks and bushland reserves, and see what is recorded in this snapshot of spring across three continents.

The iNaturalist website and phone app connect you to expert scientists and other naturalists from around the world, and let you collect observations that contribute to biodiversity science. You can explore observations from Lake Macquarie and the world, and get help to identify plants and animals.
To participate sign up to iNaturalist and join the Great Southern Bioblitz 2022 Lake Macquarie City project.

Great Southern Bioblitz 2021- Lake Mac City - 22-25 October

Over the past few months of exploring the local surrounds you may have noticed an occasional fungus, a periodic petal or two, the abundance of birds, the incessant insects, those tremendous trees, superb shrubbery, and groovy grasses. Their presence has helped to keep us present and provide much needed respite from the constraints of the COVID cloisters.

The Great Southern Bioblitz is an opportunity to celebrate and acknowledge this biodiverse abundance in our backyard, a way of saying thank you to the silent majority and recognising their place in our community space… and you’ll get find out the names of these floral and faunal friends.

All you need is a camera and computing capacity to upload to inaturalist, a very easy-to-use app/desktop application. A community of citizen scientists will assist with the naming.

Lake Macquarie City will be joining in the Great Southern Bioblitz from 22-25 October 202. In addition to increasing awareness of what we have across Lake Mac’s suburban backyards, parks and nature reserves, we can see what is recorded in this snapshot of Spring across three continents.

You‘ve still got time to learn how to use  inaturalist app, here’s an instructional run-through.

All of the details on how to participate
in the Great Southern Bioblitz are here. 

A caring community

Since the March Chronicle there’s been a mighty shift in what it means to be a part of a community. The CPPA Committee contemplated the role we can play in the current crisis, utilising our strengths in local knowledge and a hand-delivered communication channel.

Activities at our Hall have ceased due to gathering and distancing constraints. The CPPA and TASNG committees along with the Art group are meeting online. Landcaring has been officially called off by LMCC.

We sincerely hope everyone is keeping safe, appreciating the beautiful bushland suburb we live in and finding ways to support our neighbours, friends and family.

Here are our suggestions for sharing and caring locally:

Send your neighbour a contact card.

 

Introduction Card

Have you thought about dropping a hello card into

Connection Card

your neighbour? Everyone loves a letter that’s not a bill. The connection card in this Chronicle makes the introduction easy. Knowing who lives across the road may ease concerns of isolation. There's also a simple introduction card or a piece of paper will do.

Do you need a hand or want to lend one for shopping? 

The CPPA is setting up a register to connect ‘at risk’ locals, who need a hand with shopping, with those who don’t mind picking up a few extra items when they’re out. The CPPA will collect names and phone numbers and put people in touch with each other, the rest will be up to the helper and the recipient. Phone m: 0438596741 or email Suzanne coalpointprogress@gmail.com.

The Lake Macquarie Sustainable Neighbourhood Alliance has contact cards 

Explore our amazing bushland tracks and landcare sites and some not so obvious access points. 

Did you know you can walk:

• Into Toronto along the foreshore from Ambrose Street gaining access from the lakeside reserve.
• Along the Coal Point Ridge by joining the track at the crest of Whitelocke Street…exploring the Water tank mural is always fun.
• From the Carey Bay Shopping Village to Puntei Park by a pathway at the rear of the shops.
• From the Fire station on Ridge Rd to Kilaben Bay along the firetrail.

There is an online brochure ‘Wandering around the Coal Point Peninsula’ which shows the access points to many hidden treasures within our community and some greater detail in a post on a footpath strategy from 2011 

Safe Walking

 True. Walking on the right hand side facing the oncoming traffic lets you see approaching traffic and enables you to make sure that drivers have seen you. Be extra careful where the view of oncoming traffic is obscured.

Go on a Fuzzy Fauna Hunt.

Put out a stuffed or toy animal in your front window or wherever is visible from the street so when families are getting exercise they can get involved with a Treasure Hunt. The CPPA is supplying the wildlife for The Carey Bay Shopping Village which will be changed each week. You can post pictures of your findings on our Facebook Page or the Bear Hunt Lake Mac group https://www.facebook.com/groups/bearhuntlakemac/

Join a real bio-adventure. 

This is an online identification game that will open your eyes to the amazing and beautiful life all around us in our bushland suburb. The CPPA has set up team, if you want to join it get in touch.

By taking photos of as much life as you can you score ‘game gold’ for every sighting, with extra gold if you can identify what you’ve found. And even more gold if you can find something rare or interesting.

QuestaGame is a fun experience with nature, friendly competition learning about life in all its forms, and it helps protect biodiversity as all sightings are shared with CSIRO’s Atlas of Living Australia.https://questagame.com/the-game

Donate to Pampercare. 

If you’d like to help out those doing it tough and rough you can donate vouchers or gift cards to the Pampercare project by dropping them in at the Woodrising Neighbourhood Centre. They helped 11 local families in March.

Volunteer for Toronto Meals on Wheels 

Meals on Wheels are always ready to welcome new volunteers to support the work they do. If you’re interested in becoming one of their volunteers go to www.mow.net.au and follow the links to join as a volunteer by completing the paperwork. You could be delivering meals, or even catching up with people over the phone in the Have-a-chat program to support isolated elderly people in our local community.

From the Meals On Wheels GM, Damien Isaacs: We’d like to remind everyone that we are here to support the community. People over 65, people living with disability, and anyone in the community who may need a little bit of support with a meal or two per week delivered – for whatever reason.

Roadside Verge Embankment Planting Guide

Have you ever wanted a biodiverse bank instead of a hard to mow hill? Thanks to the Threatened Species project and the skills of Nature’s Magic Garden Designs a landscape concept plan has been put together to guide and inspire the transition of those tricky verges and embankments into low maintenance habitat havens.

Designed with sight lines and slopes in mind there is a concept plan, an alternative plant list and information on the habitat benefits available for downloading on the Plants In Our Bigger Backyard tab  on the CPPA website .

BioBlitz for beginners

The votes may all have been counted but on Saturday September 14^th from 9am till night time the local flora and fauna of the Coal Point peninsula will be the focus of the polls.

September is Biodiversity month and it will be celebrated at Progress Hall with walks & talks, surveys, displays and an opportunity to find out what resources are available to help you learn about and care for the web of life that surrounds your home.

The variety of life from giant gums, amazing animals, frilly fungi to soil microorganisms and everything in between is biodiversity. 

The inaugural BioBlitz event will have experts on hand to help you identify that weird plant or the curious night time noise. 

There will be opportunities to learn some survey and identification skills too. What does a habitat hollow look like, how does a GPS work, how are plants surveyed and how do you know what birds are in the area are some of the questions that will be answered.

The day of discovery aims to share local knowledge and resources.

9:00-4pm Progress Hall open for displays and discussion. Do you want a hand with weed control, native plants or nest boxes? Book in for an expert to advise on what treasures you have in your yard. Find out who are the local wildlife carers and experts and what Council can do to help. 

10-11 am -Birds in the bush. Walk & talk around Stansfield Reserve with bird observer Tom Clarke. 

11.30-12.30- Know your natives. A look at the plant survey plots around Stansfield Reserves and what’s in them with botanist John Moen. 

12.30-1:00- Wildlife carer Catherine Rowe explains her role and that of the Native Animal Trust Fund. 

1-2:30 Habitat hollows. What cracks and crevices do our local wildlife have to live in. A survey of the West Ridge reserves with nocturnal mammal expert Chris McLean

1.30-2.30 - Birds and the bush. Walk & talk around West Ridge Reserves with bird expert Tom Clarke and botanist John Moen.

6:00 pm What goes thump in the night? Spotlight tour of West Ridge Reserves with Chris McLean. Meet at the top of Whitelock Street. Limited numbers RSVP essential.

All activities, except for the spotlight tour, start at Progress Hall, 197 Skye Point Rd, Coal Point 

Food and drinks available at the hall. 

To assist in coordination of the day please RSVP to  coalpointprogress@gmail.com or ring Trees In Newcastle during office hours on 4969 1500.

YURAL RESERVE

At the northern end of Laycock Street is Yural Reserve. This small reserve is a great place to sit and watch the world and the yachts pass by.

During the sailing season Yural is a great vantage point for most of the action on a fair bit of the lake.

Thanks to LMCC there is also now a table for eating off and a bench for sitting on so you can plan a full picturesque picnic.

If you’d rather sit on the grass in the shade there is some of that as well on the foreshore, below the bank and adjacent to the cul-de-sac behind the pipe fence.

The western end of this reserve has easy access in to the Lake if you like to splash about, and don’t mind walking through a few types seagrasses.

As with all Lake swimming though, beware of rocks, razor fish, blue ringed octopus and sea urchins, who also like the lake and call it home. Happy International Year of Biodiversity!

A Bonus for the International Year of Biodiversity

Five years ago a revegetation project started at Carey Bay Wetlands courtesy of an Envirofund grant.

The goal was to replace the extensive Blackberry Briar with a Swamp Mahogany -Paperbark forest as close as possible in make up to the remnant that was next to it.

This National Tree Day was a mini-momentous occasion which saw the final 180 trees planted. The Blackberry is all gone, there are a few other tenacious weeds still to tackle and of course there are the other layers of the system such as shrubs and ground covers yet to be planted, but all the trees are in.

The canopy is important to get growing, it helps shade out many of the weedy species, especially the grasses, it also allows any existing weed problems to be dealt with.

Over the past five years, 1000 or so trees have been planted on National Tree Day. Not all have survived, the rabbits are certainly healthy, but enough have grown to make a difference and provide much needed habitat, expand the remnant ecosystem and add local variety to the plants which are part of the wetlands of Carey Bay around Puntei Creek.

Protecting Biodiversity is more than the individual elements it is the sum of all the parts.

National Tree Day 2010

National Tree Day 2005