Green hands make light work on the Common
Photos supplied
Top, Jasper Lees, Rebecca Gottschalk and Inala Swart bagging weeds. Bottom, Millie Knott and Brontë Temple cutting dry seeded weeds and dabbing the stalks with weed solution.
By Di Robinson and Liz Douglass
WEEDING IS a back-breaking job so for an area the size of the 52 acre Westbury Town Common, you need all the help you can get. Three Young Greens from Hobart – Jasper Lees, Inala Swart and Millie Knott – drove three hours here and back again, to spend five hours weeding with Di Robinson of the Town Common Landcare Group. Joining Rebecca Gottschalk from Launceston and Brontë Temple from Devonport, their efforts collected six extra-large bags of weeds. Hand weeding is the only environmentally friendly way of removing weeds and preventing them spreading. On the Common, the large population of seven frog species, including the threatened Green and Gold Frog (Litoria raniformis), means that toxic Green hands make light work on the Common chemical sprays should not be used. Green weeds dug out and bagged for removal included various thistles, wild turnip, ivy, cape weed, asparagus and teasel. Conifer, prunus and hawthorn seedlings are removed as well. Dry seeded weeds are cut above ground level and the stalks dabbed with a woody weed solution – no impact on any of the resident threatened species. The corridors of native grass on the Common are a vital habitat for resident fauna including both the southern brown and eastern barred bandicoot, a variety of lizards and all seven species of frog. For autumn and winter, the flattened grasses become a blanket of protective corridors for all the small animals. Nocturnal bandicoots sleep deeply through the day and are especially vulnerable.
These blanket corridors are integral to their daytime safety – providing pantries, pathways and bedrooms – so should be left undisturbed by walkers, dogs and slashers. During the day, the weeding team were delighted to hear many Common Froglets celebrating the onset of rain and to see Green and Gold Frogs basking in the sun. For the past 10 years, the Town Common Landcare Group has taken great pleasure in sharing their outdoor living classroom, the Common, with many preschool, primary and special needs students. The Young Greens are all planning on returning in the near future and inviting other members to volunteer for the next environmental working bee on the Town. Lunch was supplied by Verde of Westbury, kindly donated by Cassie O’Connor of the Tasmanian Greens.
