Banksia Bulletin spring 2008

banksiaissue number 032 - spring 2008

bulletin

Friends of Bayside 2008 contact list

Friends of Balcombe Park Coordinator: Joan Couzoff26 Balcombe Park Lane, Beaumaris 3193Phone: (03) 9589 1060

Friends of Bay Road ReserveCoordinator: Michael Norris 5 Deakin Street, Hampton 3188Phone: (03) 9521 0804

BRASCACoordinator: Janet Ablitt4A Fairleigh Avenue, Beaumaris 3193Phone: (03) 9589 6646

Friends of Brighton DunesCoordinators: Elizabeth McQuire34 Normanby Street, Brighton 3186Phone: (03) 9592 6474andJenny Talbot71 Champion Street, Brighton 3186Phone: (03) 9592 2109

Friends of Cheltenham ParkCoordinator: Valerie Tyers65 The Corso, Parkdale 3194Phone: (03) 9588 0107

Cheltenham Primary School SanctuaryPO Box 289, Cheltenham 3192Phone: (03) 9583 1614

Friends of Donald MacDonald ReserveCoordinators: Alison and Bill Johnston4 Wellington Avenue, Beaumaris 3193Phone: (03) 9589 5459

Friends of George Street ReserveCoordinators: Val Tarrant47 Bayview Crescent, Black Rock 3193Phone: (03) 9598 0554andPauline Reynolds9 Reno Road, Sandringham 3191Phone: (03) 9598 6368

Friends of Gramatan Avenue Heathland SanctuaryCoordinator: Ken Rendell

Friends of Long Hollow Heathland/Friends of Table RockCoordinator: Ken Rendell33 Clonmore Street, Beaumaris 3193Phone: (03) 9589 4452

Friends of Merindah Park and the Urban ForestCoordinator: David Cockburn72 Spring Street, Sandringham 3191Phone: (03) 9598 6148

Friends of Native WildlifeCoordinator: Michael Norris 5 Deakin Street, Hampton 3188Phone: (03) 9521 0804

Friends of Ricketts Point LandsideCoordinator: Sue Raverty5 Rosemary Road, Beaumaris 3193Phone: (03) 9589 2103

Friends of Watkins BayCoordinator: Moira Longden73 Dalgetty Road, Beaumaris 3193Phone: (03) 9589 2725

Marine Care Inc. Ricketts PointConvenor Phil StuartPO Box 7356, Beaumaris 3193Mobile: 0419 366 513

St. Leonards College Conservation Group163 South Road, Brighton East 3187Phone: (03) 9592 2266

AcknowledgementsThank you to all the people who have contributed to this issue of Banksia Bulletin. The editors encourage people to submit articles, however Bayside City Council reserves the right to edit or omit articles. Artwork, illustrations and photographs can also be submitted to feature in the publication.

DisclaimerThe views expressed in the Banksia Bulletin are not necessarily those of Bayside City Council or its representatives.

EditorsAmy Hough, Andrea Davies and Terry O’Brien

Copy deadlines 2008Copy deadlines are set for the first Friday of the month of release:Summer 2008 Monday 1 Dec 2008 for release mid DecAutumn 2008 Friday 6 March for release end March

Banksia Bulletin is published quarterly by Bayside City Council to service people interested in enjoying and protecting the local environment.

If you would like to be added to the Banksia Bulletin mailing list, please contact Bayside City Council on 9599 4444 or email: [email protected]. Please indicate whether you would prefer to receive your Banksia Bulletin by post or via email. Corporate CentrePO Box 27 Royal AvenueSANDRINGHAM VIC 3191Telephone: 9599 [email protected] of business 8.30am – 5pmMonday – Friday (except public holidays)

Cover photograph: Acacia paradoxaby Pauline Reynolds Printed on 100% recycled paper.

banksia bulletin - spring 20082

In this ISSUEFriends of Brighton Dunes 4 Jenny Talbot

Friends of the George Street Reserve 5 Valerie Tarrant and Pauline Reynolds

Planting for Bronzewings 6 Michael Norris

From the Bushland Crew 7 Mitchell Benders

A butterfly haven at Bayside 8 - 9 Val La May

Can including shrubs make your revegetation more noisy miner free? 10 Land for Wildlife News

The Bayside Friends Forum 11 Barbara Jakob

The dreaded Indian myna - the cane toad with wings 12 Derek Hanley

Bayside Pigeons 13 Michael Norris

A snake on Sandringham breakwater 14 John Nacamuli

Sandringham Heathland 15 National Trust

Draft Bayside Open Space Strategy (2007-2017) 16 - 18 Amy Hough

Working Bee Dates 19

5

12

8

The dreaded Indian myna - the cane toad with wings

banksia bulletin - spring 2008 3

Friends of Brighton Dunes In his well researched and fascinating book, Feral Future, Tim Low makes the point that Australia has countless invasive plants, insects, fishes and animals, and that sometimes it is just beating one’s head against a brick wall trying to be too much of a purist about pest control.

The rabbits, descended from a few pairs introduced to Australia in 1830, still dominate our countryside in their millions, only kept under control by the development of a new type of the disease myxomatosis every few years.

Cats kill millions of birds and small mammals every year.

The early settlers wanted to ‘civilise’ the bush, and scattered cabbages, chickens, lemons, rye, coffee, pigs, wheat, cherries, and everything else they could think of wherever they went.

The famous Baron von Mueller went for walks scattering blackberry seeds to ‘improve’ the bush. We owe many of our choked waterways to him, as well as the beautiful Botanical Gardens.

All of Melbourne’s bush reserves are weed-infested according to Tim Low. Indeed he says that the most weed-infested city reserves are right here in Melbourne.

One of the important aspects of our work is to prioritise weeds, and not sweat the small stuff, like the charming little grass from Canada known as ‘hare’s tail’.

Too purist an attitude, through over-use of machinery and poisons, will often result in throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Spraying several times a year is not a good idea. Whatever happened to pulling weeds out by hand?

Touch poisons should rarely be used, spray poisons even less. And poisons should only be used by people trained to use them. They are often used indiscriminately and inexpertly. A large tea tree at Green Point was killed several years ago because it was prostrate and the person spraying accidentally sprayed the leaves as well as the weed underneath.

The soil is the basis of life. The problem with poisons is that they interfere with the microfauna in the soil. The mesofauna are the animals large enough to burrow through the soil. The microfauna move through the spaces, gaps, and cracks that already exist in the soil – beetles, cockroaches, ants, witchetty grubs, cicada nymphs, slugs, worms. Both mesofauna and microfauna live off the plant material digested and excreted by the microfauna. To poison the soil is to poison the microfauna.

Although it is an invasive weed from Africa, the boxthorn (Lycium ferocissimum) serves a number of purposes and should never be removed wholesale but only in small patches. Much of the ground cover has gone, so the berries provide food.

The thorns protect the birds from the assaults of cats, which kill thousands of birds a year in Bayside. Bayside should consider a curfew for 12 hours a night such as they have in Surf Coast Shire. The roots of the boxthorn, with so much vegetation gone, form an essential holding system for the sand dunes, against the ravages

of human feet, and the wind.

Jenny TalbotCo-Convenor –

Friends of the Brighton Dunes

(Dr Jim Willis Reserve).


Friends of the George Street Reserve‘Nothing is so beautiful as spring’‘Nothing is so beautiful as spring’,

the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins

declared in the opening lines

of his poem, ‘Spring’. He could

have been writing of the George

Street Reserve heathlands as they

burst into their new 2008 flowering

– perhaps the best we have seen

in recent years.

Hopkins continues with a line

about weeds which ‘shoot long

and lovely and lush’. Surprising

to us is the idea that weeds

are lovely, since Citywide and

we volunteers spend many

hours uprooting the weeds

which threaten to take over our

indigenous flora. As Jo Hurse

pointed out in the recent Bayside

Environmental Friends Forum, we

do the work because of the value

of conserving precious remaining

tracts of the heaths, woodlands

and foreshore vegetation that are

unusual in an area so close to a

large city.

The rewards are particularly

noticeable in springtime when

the abundance of the heathland

flowering in the George Street

Reserve is a delight. The

pure white of beard heath

(Leucopogon virgatus) stands out

against the ‘eggs and bacon’

(Bossiaea cinerea) clumps of

bronze and gold, and creamy

wedding bush (Ricinocarpos

pinifolius) buds begin to open.

The vegetation in the burn sites is

flourishing and it looks set to survive

very well, although another hot dry

summer would be a testing time.

Recent visitors from northern

suburbs have enjoyed walks

through the whole reserve,

commenting on their amazement

at finding such tracts of bushland

in the midst of houses and

factories. Friends would like

residents to introduce people

from different parts of Melbourne

to our reserve. One good place

to start is at the slip-rail in Tulip

Street where the excellent new

signboard tells the history of the

area and shows photographs of

wildflowers. A second is on the

George Street boundary where

the signage contains maps of the

reserves and useful information

about the vegetation.

As Bill Molyneux wrote in the Flora

of Melbourne, (Hyland House,

Melbourne, 1993):

…‘we need to recognise just how

fortunate we are in having such

a rich flora at our back door ….

we can all do something towards

reversing some of the

vast damage done to this

vital heritage’.

Valerie Tarrant and Pauline Reynolds

Joint Coordinators

Photograph of Bossiaea cinerea

by Pauline Reynolds


Planting for Bronzewings On 19 July, 29 volunteers, mostly

Friends, helped put in over

350 indigenous plants at the

Sandringham golf driving range

in George Street. Most of the

plants were acacias, grasses,

flax-lilies and bossiaeas, chosen

because their seeds are food for

a locally threatened indigenous

bird, the common bronzewing

(Phaps chalcoptera).

Our leaflet (on page 13) shows

the other pigeons that reside in

Bayside.

We have recorded up to seven

bronzewings regularly at the golf

range and its surrounds since

1995, with signs – but not proof –

of breeding. Their favourite site

had understorey and also water

– vital for a species that eats only

seeds – but was largely cleared

in 2005. Presumably they still

drink at the nearby Pobblebonk

Park pond, where incidentally

tree frogs have arrived since it

dried out and was cleaned and

replanted by the Council in 2004.

Cheltenham Park used to be

the bronzewing stronghold.

In the 1992 Cheltenham Park

Management Plan, Damien

Cook noted a nest and up to

ten birds, a large number for a

species that is uncommon in the

Melbourne suburbs, and included

a photo of a bronzewing feeding

on introduced grasses. We never

counted more than six birds but

found three nests in 2000 alone.

Then the population crashed in

2001 with no more than one bird

being seen until early this year.

We cannot know why the crash

happened but many threats

were evident. A favourite

site had been tidied up,

dying acacias had not been

replaced, flowering gums were

encouraging the noisy miners –

aggressive native honeyeaters

that have invaded much of

Bayside in the last 30 years – foxes

were present, drought or climate

change had brought in crested

pigeons – rivals for grass seeds

never seen in Bayside until 1994,

and Pindone oats had been

used to control the local rabbits

around the time of the crash.

Elsewhere in Bayside up to four

bronzewings still turn up from

time to time, with a possibility

they still breed on the Royal

Melbourne Golf Course. Large

numbers occasionally come

to the George Street area for

large seeds. Ten or more were

recorded at Bay Road Heathland

Sanctuary in 2001, probably

feeding on black wattle seeds,

and at Brixton Road in 2005,

eating seeds of the introduced

tree lucerne at a site recently

sold for development.

It is a mystery how they know the

food is there, or where the extra

birds come from. But the crested

pigeons behave in the same

way. Like magic over 100 of

them recently arrived at a newly

seeded oval where the average

count was 14. No wonder they

can out-compete bronzewings in

the search for grass seeds.

While we were working a

noisy miner drove off a nearby

bronzewing. We hope the

planting will provide a haven for

these beautiful birds and help

them to survive.

Many thanks to all who helped:

the lessees and staff of The

Range, Sandringham, Citywide

Parkcare, including Carmen

Skrobonja who designed the

plant layout, our photographers

and poster designers, the Bayside

Leader, Bayside City Council

and Melbourne Water for great

support, and of course the

volunteers. We especially valued

the enthusiasm of the six who are

not yet Friends, and hope they

enjoyed the experience and will

join in again.

Michael NorrisFriends of Native Wildlife

Common Bronzewing photograph by Kim Croker taken at Donald MacDonald Reserve


From the Bushland CrewMy name is Mitchell, and I’m the

newest member of the bushland

crew here in Bayside. All my

life I’ve had a keen interest in

native animals. After I finished

Year 12, I studied zoology at the

University of Melbourne where I

became interested in ecology

and botany. My interest in

botany stemmed from wanting

to help preserve native species.

I feel that the only true way to

preserve native species is through

the rehabilitation of their natural

habitats. In this way, pest species

can also be controlled and the

ecological equilibrium between

different native species can

be preserved.

My interests have grown

substantially, stemming from

planting a couple of nectar

producing shrubs in my backyard

to maintaining large areas of

bushland. I joined the Citywide

Bushland team with a view to

help maintain and regenerate

bushland habitat for the many

native species found in Bayside

and hope that I will be part of a

team that achieves that.

I have just recently taken over

the role of managing both

Cheltenham Park and Gramatan

Avenue Heathland, and I greatly

look forward to the challenges

that each will pose. It will provide

me with important knowledge

and experience of looking after

inland reserves and broaden my

plant identification skills.

In Cheltenham Park I’m hoping

to maintain the aesthetics of the

park, and hopefully next year

continue the revegetation works

that have taken place.

In Gramatan Avenue Heathland

Sanctuary, I want to help

preserve this remnant patch to

be as weed free as possible as it

offers such a unique habitat to

some local native species that

utilise this relatively uncommon

habitat type.

I look forward to working with

the all the volunteers and friends

groups to help manage the

parks, and hope that together

we can maintain these areas for

many years to come.

Mitchell BendersCitywide Parkcare


The garden is located on Bluff

Road, just in from the corner of

Royal Avenue in Sandringham.

This article will concentrate on

a few of my favourite species,

including two that had not been

previously recorded for the

Bayside area.

The yellow admiral, shown in the

photo opposite, can be seen

year-round in the garden. (During

the cold months, most butterflies

are in their egg, larval, or pupal

stage.). This is an attractive insect,

of about 50mm in wingspan. Also

known as the Australian admiral,

the butterfly flies rapidly and

erratically, frequently alighting

on vegetation.

These admirals often land upside

down on a tree trunk and drink

from sap flowing out of the tree.

I observed this behaviour in the

Indigenous Resource Garden

last February; the admiral was

feeding from the sap of a

large spotted gum (Eucalyptus

maculata) in the eastern part of

the garden. The butterfly is most

likely gaining nourishment from

the carbohydrates in the tree sap.

‘My’ admiral is rather ragged,

having possibly escaped

a bird-attack.

Michael Norris, who has been

monitoring butterflies in Bayside

for at least ten years, observed a

yellow admiral feeding from coast

wattle sap last year in the garden.

He even tasted the sap and

found it rather sweet.

Adult butterflies can only

consume liquid food, because

their mouthparts are modified

into a tube-like proboscis, which

is coiled at the front of their head.

Butterfly larvae feed on solids such

as leaves, wood, etc. Thus the

two different life-cycle stages do

not compete with each other for

food. In fact, some butterfly and

moth adults do not feed at all—

they lead a brief (but happy?) life

dedicated to reproduction.

A much smaller butterfly, the

saltbush blue was first recorded

in the garden in late 2007. The

saltbush blue has a wingspan of

only 18mm. It is also known as

the chequered blue, because of

its bold underwing pattern. This

butterfly zooms around low to the

ground, but it does frequently

alight on plants, such as the coast

saltbush (Atriplex cinerarea) and

the seaberry saltbush (Rhagodia

candolleana), which are

abundant in the garden.

Slightly smaller than the saltbush

blue is the greenish grass dart. It

is one of the ‘Skipper’ family of

butterflies, which is expanding its

range, due to introduced grasses

being widely planted. (Another

‘Skipper’, the orange palm-dart

Cephrenes augiades appeared

in southern Australia several years

ago, probably brought in with

tropical palms.)

A butterfly haven at BaysideThe replanted Bayside Indigenous Resource Garden is a great place for butterfly watching.


Yellow admiral

Yellow admiral dorsel

Greenish grass dart

This little grass dart (also called the yellow-

banded dart) frequently settles in the sun to

bask, or lands on the side of a grass stem. But you

have to be quick to photograph it, as it takes

off like a rocket. It is another new butterfly to our

area. Like most of the ‘Skippers’, the butterfly has

a distinctive way of holding its wings at a right

angle to its body when at rest.

Who knows what other species of butterflies

await discovery in our local gardens and

reserves? Now that the warmer weather is

here, frequent butterfly searching will no doubt

be productive. Just don’t forget to take your

camera along!

Val La MayFriends of Native Wildlife

References

Braby, M.F., The complete field guide to

butterflies of Australia. CSIRO Publishing 2004.

(Available on Google Books)

Coupar, P. & M. Coupar, Flying colours, common

caterpillars, butterflies and moths of South-

eastern Australia. NSW Press, 1992.

[Photos: All by Val La May (taken in the Bayside

Indigenous Resource Garden) except the extra

of the yellow admiral by Martin Purvis and the

side view of the greenish grass-dart, which is © P.

& M. Coupar.

Saltbush blue dorsal


A similar domination can also occur

in planted wildlife corridors.

A research project carried out

in the Southern Highlands of

New South Wales aimed to

determine which corridor plantings

encouraged the presence of small

native birds in regions where noisy

miners dominate.

Six vegetation mixes were

investigated in the main study:

eucalypts with and without shrubby

understorey; acacia with and

without shrubby understorey; exotic

conifer, and exotic deciduous

trees. A supplementary study then

examined sites with a mixture

of eucalypt and acacias with a

shrubby understorey.

The findings showed that noisy

miners dominated corridors of

eucalypts, virtually excluding

small birds, whereas native

acacias, exotic conifer and exotic

deciduous corridors had small

birds and no resident noisy miners.

The non-native sites appear to

be supplementary habitat, rarely

being used by small birds for

feeding and mainly being used

as a convenient resting place.

The greatest abundance and

richness of small birds occurred

in plantings combining eucalypts

with at least 15 per cent acacias,

in this case bipinnate species and

a shrubby understorey. Given

these results, it is recommended

that eucalypt plantings should be

supplemented with both larger

acacias (preferably bipinnate) and

a shrubby understorey.

Bipinnate acacias are not an

important feeding resource for

noisy miners, but do provide small

birds, such as thornbills, with a

desirable food resource and also a

vegetation structure in which it may

be easier to evade noisy miners. It

is possible that noisy miners avoid

sites with a proportion of trees and

shrubs with dense foliage and low

food benefit because to dominate

them would provide insufficient

return for the energy output.

Active management to encourage

regeneration from residual

species, the soil and seed bank,

and naturally dispersed seeds

us usually the preferred method

for regeneration of remnants.

Where this is not possible, and the

aim of the project is to provide

habitat for small native birds, then

plantings that contain at least 15

per cent non-eucalypt canopy

species (particularly bipinnate

acacia species) with a shrubby

understorey could be beneficial. In

all cases, appropriate revegetation

practises should be used, such as

using locally indigenous species,

matching species to the landform,

and establishing natural spacing

and layers in the vegetation.

Note: if your vegetation type

doesn’t have taller bipinnate

wattles (e.g. black wattles and

silver wattles) then use other local

species of a similar type – e.g.

sheoaks, mint bushes, banksias and

tea trees.

Reference: Hastings, R.A. and

Beattie, A J (2006) Stop the bullying

in the corridors: Can including

shrubs make your vegetation

more Noisy Miner free? Ecological

Management & Restoration.

Volume 7 Number 2

Taken from Land for Wildlife News

– Research Page 7

DSE Vol. 6. No. 3 April 2008

Can including shrubs make your revegetation more noisy miner free?Noisy miners are aggressive Australian honeyeaters that dominate many areas of remnant vegetation and forest edges from which they can competitively exclude small birds.


Her introduction emphasised the

environmental issues for the world

and the people here in Bayside

that do their share to make this

earth a livable place.

Jo Hurse, Bushland Team

Leader from Citywide Parkcare

introduced us to the daily work

her crew is doing. Year 9 students

from Sandringham College gave

a presentation showing their care

for Ricketts Point and the Marine

Sanctuary and the practical

action they have undertaken,

helped by the ruMAD program

(that means ‘Are you making

a difference?’)

Kerrie Spinks spoke about

volunteers. She really got

us thinking about different

generations and what each

generation has to offer to others.

Brendan Condon told us that

climate change is a real threat

- and there are real ways of

countering it, with vegetation

playing an important part.

We can help by preserving

biodiversity and making corridors

for plants and wildlife to move.

All together a most enjoyable in

inspiring event.

Barbara JakobBayside Environmental

Friends Network

The Bayside Friends ForumThe Bayside Friends Forum was held on Saturday 13 September 2008. Barbara Jakob opened the day and welcomed all guests and speakers.

Upcoming meetings of the Bayside Environment Friends Network in 2008

22 October and 19 November4.30 – 6.30pm at Hampton Community Centre14 Willis Street, Hampton

Please RSVP to Barbara Jakob on 0408 03 2963 or via [email protected]


The common Indian myna – a chocolate brown bird with a black head and neck, and yellow legs and beak. They have white wing patches, which you can see when they fly. They are very numerous around greater Melbourne. (However, they are not to be confused with our native noisy miners - a grey bird of similar size, which inhabits semi bushland areas.)

These feral birds are an environmental menace. Common Indian mynas nest in tree hollows, or places like them, such as cavities in roofs. They reduce biodiversity through predation and competition with our wildlife, particularly hollow-nesting birds such as rosella’s and small mammals. They are aggressive competitors for nesting space and they will kill chicks and destroy the eggs of native birds.

Originally, Indian mynas were brought to Melbourne in the 1860s to control insect pests in market gardens. They have been spreading since, always following human activity. They establish themselves in new areas by following roads into towns etc, rather than penetrating through bushland directly.

Apart from a direct threat to our wildlife, they are also a hazard to humans; for instance they congregate in shopping areas with outdoor cafes, and are opportunistic feeders when plates of food are left unattended.

They sleep overnight in communal roosts. Usually in large exotic trees with dense foliage. Several hundred at a time inhabit each roost, and there are usually several roosts in each suburb. They are very noisy prior to dusk and you can hear the roosts from a kilometre or more away.

Basically, their range is on the eastern Australian seaboard centered on Melbourne, Sydney and Cairns. They have spread out from there. There is a population in Canberra and regional areas as well.

There are a number of informative websites, such as The Australian National

University website – Common Indian Myna:

http://sres-associated.anu.edu.au/myna/index.html

Anyway, it’s all very well to talk about Indian mynas, but what is being done about them, and more to the point; what are we

going to do about them here in Melbourne and Bayside in particular?

I’m not saying that we can eliminate them, but they need to be controlled, because if we don’t, then a few years down the track, all we will see around will be Indian mynas.

You can look at Canberra and what has been happening up there. In 2006, some people decided to do something about the myna problem, and formed an organised group, which has spread to about 500 people actively involved. They have trapped 17,000 plus of these feral birds across the Canberra suburban area in this two year time-span. Have a look at the Canberra Indian Myna Action Group website:

www.indianmynaaction.org.au

Because the bird is a communal rooster at night, strategies to capture large groups all in one go are being researched, but in practice this is difficult, as some roost trees and structures are huge.

Part of a strategy to control them is individual trapping. This must be carried out in an ethical and humane way.

We’ve all seen them strutting around the streets in pairs, or in small groups of a half dozen or so.


Trapping on an individual scale is a drop in the ocean, but as in the Canberra experience, a network across an area starts to impact on numbers significantly. Traps have been developed and various commercial varieties are available for purchase. These traps exclude other birds by means of selective valves, and are designed specifically to trap Indian mynas. For example, see Myna Magnet Australia Pty Ltd website: http://www.mynamagnet.com.au

Various groups have formed to actively control myna numbers, particularly across regional New South Wales and up through the coast, so the mynas are not going to get it all their own way.

Which leads me back to us here. Is there anybody else interested in this issue out there in Bayside (and beyond)? If there is, I’d like to hear from you.

My email is [email protected]

If you haven’t got a computer,

my mobile is 0422 953 684.

Derek HanleyBayside resident

BaysidePigeons

Common Bronzewing. Scarce in SE Melbourne, feed on seeds

of grasses but likes larger seeds from

wattles, wheat, tree lucerne.

Needs water.

Males have a yellow forehead.

Crested Pigeon. Dry country bird first seen in Bayside

in 1994. Now in all open spaces. A

symptom of climate change?

Only one with that spiky hair-do!

Spotted Turtle-dove. Common in gardens and bush.

Introduced from SE Asia in the

nineteenth century.

Has a spangled collar.

Rock Dove. European, introduced almost

worldwide. Huge range of breeds

including racing and white fantailed

pigeons. Few live away from humans.

Has a bump above bill (the “cere”).

Barbary Dove. Domesticated for centuries in North

Africa. A few released or escaped

cage-birds have nested in Bayside.

Black collar band. Some are white.

Three other pigeons seen in Bayside in the last 10 years are far less

common: the Brush Bronzewing and two probably from aviaries,

Diamond and Peaceful Doves. All are Australian.

By Michael Norris, Friends of Native Wildlife


Then around 5pm, as I was walking to my favourite fishing spot, I found what appeared to be a snake, which had been run over by a vehicle. As my camera goes with me at all times, I took some shots of the snake and contemplated whether the skin could be preserved but due to the hot sunshine and the condition of the snake, this was not possible.

I have been fishing on the Sandringham breakwater since 1963 and never seen a snake, but I have seen snakes in other parts of the foreshore. And due to the large population of rats and mice along the foreshore of the whole of Port Phillip Bay, the possibility of snakes is very real. Snakes are not a real threat to humans and as they are usually very shy, a snake will scatter rather than ‘stand and fight’; only if cornered will a snake attack and bite.

Snakes usually feed on what is available in their habitat and surrounding, in this case, I believe the abundance of rats and mice which are unfortunately kept well fed by the visitors to our foreshore bringing all kinds of food and rubbish and dropping this refuse in the garbage bins along the beach and vegetated areas.

I am sure I am not the only person who has seen a snake and I’m sure there will be more snakes sighted for many years to come.

John NacamuliBayside resident

A snake on Sandringham breakwaterDuring last summer, work (by Parks Victoria – Editor) on the Sandringham breakwater and their use of vehicles prevented me doing any fishing until their work ceased in the late afternoon.

Photograph by John Nacamuli

Editors Note: We have sent John’s photographs to the Museum Victoria and also Healesville Sanctuary for confirmation and identification. We will let our readers know what species this snake was in our next edition.


Editors Note: This article was passed to me recently and I thought it may be of interest to our readers. It is taken from page four of the Trust News by the National Trust, March 1981.


The Bayside Open Space Strategy (2007-2017) aims to provide a well connected open space system that is flexible enough to meet the changing needs of our community.

The focus of this strategy is Council-managed open space. This includes parks, community areas, and foreshore reserves. This does not include other areas managed by Council (roads and lanes, roundabouts, shopping strips). Nor does it include areas managed by other authorities (railways, roads) or private owners (private golf courses, shopping centres).

Population projections for Bayside over the life of the strategy indicate a slight rate of growth over all age cohorts until 2021. Compared to other metropolitan municipalities, Bayside’s population can be described as stable.

An analysis of open space provision has been done for the municipality. This is compared to a number of other metropolitan municipalities.

Open space is stratified and development standards established based on that stratification.

A detailed analysis of provision by hierarchy is done for each of the nine suburbs that comprise the municipality. That analysis indicates some gaps in open space provision at a 500m-catchment level. At the broader level that is shown on the map overleaf.

Opportunities for implementationIt is anticipated that this Strategy will be implemented over a ten-year period (2007 to 2017), subject to the availability of funds at the time.

Draft Bayside Open Space Strategy (2007-2017) Now available for public comment

1. Preparation of appropriate plans for all parks1.1. Prepare masterplans for Regional Parks,

Neighbourhood 3 Parks, Bushlands and Conservation areas over the life of this Strategy.

1.2. Prepare profile plans for all other open space.

1.3. Ensure all open space is developed to the agreed standards for hierarchy and function.

1.4. Review maintenance levels and service levels based on established standards for hierarchy and function.

1.5. Ensure asset management and renewal priorities maintain open space to agreed levels.

2. Integration of open space with existing linkages and networks2.1. Integrate linkages between open

space and Nepean Highway, railway reserves, Beach Road, the road and footpath network.

3. Seeking partnerships with other agencies3.1. Enter into partnerships to achieve

linkages and create local open space in areas that are currently inaccessible to the public. Other agencies might include with VicRoads, VicTrack, Department of Education, private landowners, private schools, and public schools. This might be achieved through management agreements involving privately owned lands.

4. Provision of the basis for an open space contribution scheme, and guiding the use of these contributions.4.1. Seek open space contribution:• Whereopenspacesupplyis

considered deficient• Whereopenspaceservicelevelsare

considered deficient• Toprovidelinkagestoothernetworks.4.2. Consider swapping land that provides

more valuable land for open space than some land that Council currently owns.


The following table summarises the key results of each of the suburbs when open space provision is assessed

according to the criteria.

Suburb Provision of Open Space Distribution Size Infrastructure and

OpportunitiesCommunity Needs Linkages

Enhanced provision of open space required in the following areas

Beaumaris •Distribution•Linkages

Black Rock •Amount•Distribution•Linkages

Brighton •Distribution•LocalNeeds•Linkages

Brighton East •Distribution•Linkages

Cheltenham •Linkages

Hampton •Linkages

Hampton East

•Distribution•Size•Linkages

Highett •Amount•Distribution•Size•Linkages

Sandringham •Linkages

There are some areas with deficiencies in open space that arise because of either insufficient quantity of open space (Black Rock and Highett) or inadequate distribution of open space (Beaumaris, Black Rock, Brighton, Brighton East, Hampton East and Highett).

All areas of the City of Bayside have been identified for improved linkages and connections to other open space destinations, the regional open space network or key community services and facilities. This improvement in infrastructure will be required to meet the increasing demands that rising participation in walking and cycling place on providers of open space.

To achieve the opportunities for implementation requires resources. To complement the existing source of resources through Council’s rate base, it is considered that a contribution scheme is warranted.

This Open Space Strategy 2007-2017 builds a business case for the need for a developer contribution scheme.

To realise such a scheme may require further analysis of open space distribution at the path network level, and profile plans across the municipality to determine the gaps in service delivery based on the now-established standards.

Public consultationSubmissions and feedback on the draft Open Space Strategy are encouraged and will be received by Council until Friday 5 December 2008. Comments may either be emailed to:

[email protected]

or posted to:Bayside City CouncilParks DepartmentPO Box 27Sandringham VIC 3191

Copies of the draft Open Space Strategy 2007-2017 are available on Council’s website www.bayside.vic.gov.au under the ‘Have your Say’ section.

Hard copies of the draft Open Space Strategy 2007-2017 are also available at the Bayside City Council Corporate Centre and at all Council libraries.

Alternatively, copies of the draft Open Space Strategy 2007-2017 are available on CD by request, please contact Parks Administration Officer, Marian Nicholls on 9599 4668.

Should you have any further queries regarding the draft Open Space Strategy 2007-2017, please contact Council’s Environment Research Officer, Amy Hough on 9599 4444.



Time/Day OCT NOV

Balcombe Park Last Sunday 10am - noon

26th 30th

Bay Rd 2nd Saturday 10am - noon

11th 8th

BRASCA Contact Janet Ablitt ph 9589 6646

Brighton Dunes Tuesdays 8am - 10am 7th, 14th, 21st,

28th4th, 11th, 18th,

25th

Cheltenham Park 1st Sunday 10am - noon 5th 2nd

Cheltenham Primary Contact school 9583 1614

Donald MacDonald 1st Sunday 10am - noon 5th 2nd

Elsternwick Park Lake Contact Port Philip Ecocentre 9534 0413

George St 3rd Sunday 10am - noon

19th 16th

Gramatan 1st Sunday 1 - 3pm 5th 2nd

Long Hollow Last Sunday 1pm - 3pm 26th 30th

Friends of Native Wildlife Contact M. Norris on (03) 9521 0804 1st Saturday 9.30am

Ricketts Point Landside 3rd Tuesday 1pm - 3pm 21st 18th

Table Rock Last Tuesday 12.30pm - 2.30pm

28th 25th

Watkins Bay Last Wednesday 1pm - 3pm

29th 26th

Gardenvale Primary SchoolContact Brigitta Suendermann ph. 9530 0328

Sandringham East Primary School Contact Katrine Lee ph. 9555 5250

Friends of BaysideWorking Bee times for October to November 2008


www.bayside.vic.gov.au

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Banksia Bulletin spring 2008

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