NEWSLETTER OF THE BEDFORDALE RESIDENTS’ ASSOCIATION

http://bedfordaleblurb.blogspot.com/

President’s Message May 2013

BEDFORDALE

RESIDENTS’

ASSOCIATION

President:

Margaret Paley

9399 1498

Vice President:

Kerry Batt

9498 1957

Secretary:

Jude Kealty

0413 024 690

Treasurer:

Lyle Metcalf

9498 2855

T H E B L U R B

Summer/Autumn 2013

Meetings are held bi Monthly

on the second Tuesday of

the month at the community

hall on Admiral Road off the

Albany Hwy.

Come along and join us and

have your say on local

issues.

For further information or to

confirm meeting details ring

Jacqui on 9498 3332.

The next meeting is Tuesday

the 13th

June 2013 at

7.45p.m.

All are welcome.

If you would like to contribute

an article to the Blurb or you

have any comments you would

like to share, please feel free to

send them to:

theblurb@ausms.com.au

Thank you to the new Committee members that were elected at our Annual AGM and welcome to Jude our new Secretary. Everyone is very busy and some are also on other Committees, but they work to represent the residents of Bedfordale. Thanks also go to those whom attended the AGM. It is always inspiring to hear about the Associations in the area and what they do for our Community. I would like to thank Jacqui for her tireless work over the years on the committee and her organisation of the 2 sites for Clean-up Australia. Thanks also to Liz Sanders for manning the Bedfordale Hall site, this year, in Graham’s absence. Helen and Keith, with their grandson, single-handedly cleaned up Churchman Brook Rd; Lyle and Ian were seen in the preceding 2 weeks cleaning up the Highway and Nola cleared up the 2 Wallangarra Drives before the day. A big thank you goes to them and also the many other volunteers that helped on the day. Thanks are also extended to Peter who gets the Blurb out twice a year and Southern Hills Christian College who print the many copies for us. Without this we would be very limited with our Communication to the Community. The Committee are now delivering as many Blurbs as possible but we would love any other volunteers to assist us. Anyone who does not receive one may be able to get one from Yul Du. Kerry was again successful in receiving a Grant that paid for the amusement for the children at our Annual Christmas Party and BBQ. Brian, Mike, Gavin, Alison and the Bedfordale Volunteer Bush Fire Brigade put in many hours as well, to again make this such a success. Tony Simpson has been a great support to the Association with his assistance with printing and postage and his attendance at many meetings and Mark Geary and Guenter Best have been great advocates as our Council representatives. We were pleased to have been successful in having a notice board installed at the Churchman Brook Hall. This is a positive step and enables us to advertise our events and those of the Fire Brigade and other community groups. We are now having alternate meetings at this Hall, the next being 13

th June.

Churchman Brook has also been assured that a generator will be installed in the event of loss of power to the area so that water will still be available. We have also been successful in having some areas in Bedfordale cleared so as not to pose a fire risk. We have been in contact with the City Of Armadale re the disposal of the freehold land at Lot 108 Springfield Rd. Because of this the AGM was well attended and all residents were given the opportunity to voice their concerns. It was obvious from the meeting that the residents are opposed to this and we have let the City of Armadale know of the outcome. It is now up to you, the residents, to attend Council meetings and/or write to council voicing your concerns. Also keep an eye out in the local papers as the Council will advertise any decisions and/or ask for feedback through the papers.

Useful Phone Numbers

FIRE, AMBULANCE & POLICE

(EMERGENCY)

000

POLICE

(Non emergency)

131444

POLICE

(Armadale Police Station)

(Office Hours)

9399 0222

CRIME STOPPERS

1800 333 000

CITY ARMADALE

(Office hours) 9399 0111

CITY ARMADALE

(After hours incl. Ranger)

1300 886 885

STATE EMERGENCY SERVICE

1300 130 039

MAIN ROADS

(Emergency)

1800 800 009

WILD LIFE CENTRE

(24 Hrs) 9474 9055

(Office Hours) 9394 0885

Clean Up Australia 2013

On the 3rd March 2013 Bedfordale

Residents Ass. Organized two

sites for Clean Up Australia. The

first site was at Bedfordale Hall on

Admiral Road, where 7 people

turned out. A big thank you to Ian

Thompson and Lyle Metcalfe, who

together, spent many days before

the Clean Up Day, collecting

rubbish all down the Albany

Hwy. In total 40 bags of rubbish

were collected.

The site at Churchman Brook

Community Hall had a very

disappointing turnout. Helen and

Keith Wildsmith and their 8 year

old grandson Travis Wildsmith, did

a wonderful job of cleaning up an

appalling mess along Churchman

Brook Road. They collected 17

bags of rubbish, 25 car tyres, an

old microwave, an air conditioner,

a scooter and a suitcase with

contents. They were the only

vo lunteers to appear , so

unfortunately no one cleaned up

the verges on Churchman Brook

Estate, or the other estates, a real

lack of community spirit!!

Our thanks to Tony Simpson for

sending out notice of this event to

everyone on the electoral roll.

DARLING RANGE WILDLIFE SHELTER INFORMATION

Wildcare Helpline Number 24 Hrs 9474 9055

Darling Range Wildlife Shelter, MARTIN Hours 9am-5pm 7 Days a week. 9394 0885 Fran is the Volunteer coordinator for Darling Range Wildlife Shelter. Please call Fran on 0400 802 409 if you can spare a few hours per week or weekend to volunteer at the Darling Range Wildlife Shelter on Hayward Rd Martin off Gosnells Rd East. It’s a good idea to have a blanket, thick gloves and a carton in your car for carrying injured wildlife to a nearby vet. Treatment of wildlife is free of charge at all vets .The vet then deals with the care, assessment and/or euthanasia of the injured animal. Our nearest vet is the Armadale-Byford Vet on South West Highway. Remember to stay calm. Enter the Wildcare Helpline number into your mobile phone for advice. Joeys can live for three or four days in a dead mother’s pouch, so please check any dead female kangaroos you pass on the road. Remember do not give cow’s milk or baby formula to an injured kangaroo as this will give it diarrhea. Injured roos or birds need quiet, warmth and darkness or they can die from stress. Cover an injured animal’s eyes with a towel. When moving native possums, remember to use thick gloves, as they can bite and have sharp claws. If you hook a pelican or another bird while fishing, please cover the bird’s eyes to calm it. Then carefully try to remove the hook or line. If you need help, please call W.A. Seabird Rescue for assistance Ph 0418952683. Don’t forget, bandicoots are now on the vulnerable list. (They are not RATS)

HAPPENING IN YOUR AREA

5one4

Don’t forget, apart from the Sunday at the Bedfordale Hall, 5one4 have many activities that you would be interested in.

On Wednesday nights they have a group of ladies who get together and go to the gym and then have a coffee together afterwards.

On Thursdays they have a mixed group, (men, women and children) who meet down off Eighth Rd.

On Fridays, the younger crowd get together for some fun. If you have any questions, queries or comments, you can eMail them to: 5one4.info@gmail.com

Or phone 0411 115 434.

Armadale Art Society The Armadale Art Society has many members and welcomes all. It runs classes most days, including drawing , watercolour, portraits in oils, mixed media and much more. Demonstrations are given at their monthly meetings and anyone interested can contact the vice president Dot Marshall on 0409 921 838 or Secretary Jean Coppendale on 9456 0362.

ILLEGAL FIREWOOD COLLECTION $5000 max penalty

Under the Local Government Property Local Law

There are still incidents of illegal firewood collection occurring within Bungendore Park. Residents who are aware of people removing wood from the Park are encouraged to call the City of Armadale Ranger Department on 9399 0111 or 1300 886 885 after hours. If possible, recording car or trailer registration numbers will help Rangers identify offenders and administer appropriate penalties. Rangers are treating this problem seriously and will be monitoring commonly used access points. The City has been made aware of entry points through particular private properties and will be monitoring these also. Help maintain this precious resource - fallen logs provide vital habitats for many animals and are an essential part of the Park ecosystem.

Bungendore Park Management Committee is

pleased to announce that four Phyto Fighter 1000 units will soon be installed at key locations within the Park. The Phyto Fighter 1000 is a self contained boot washing station for walkers, designed to minimise the spread of the pathogen. They have an easy to use, brush and spray system which removes contaminated soil from footwear, before spraying with a sterilising solution to kill Phytophthora spores.

A recent study identified 9 different species of

bats using the Park. A “Bats of Bungendore Park” brochure is currently in production with release planned for the Bush Breakfast in November. An oil painting of “Bungendore Bats” by Perth artist Rob Fleming will also be auctioned at the breakfast, with limited edition prints available on the day.

Dieback Treatment for 2013 was recently

completed with over 3.2km of dieback front treated with foliar spray and over 12,000 tree injections administered.

Eight PVC artificial nest hollows or

“Cockatubes”, were recently installed in the Park to encourage the black cockatoos to take up residence.

The Bungendore Park Management Committee

currently has 3 vacancies and would like to encourage interested people to join. Committee meets at the City of Armadale offices every 4th Thursday of the month at 7.30pm and deals with a number of management issues such as Dieback and weed control, f i re management, maintenance and special events. If you are interested, please call Kerry on 0402 327 393 for more information.

BUNGENDORE PARK

MANAGEMENT

COMMITTEE

THE WILDFLOWER SOCIETY

The Armadale Branch of the Wild-flower Society meets at 7.30pm on the second Thursday of each month Feb-ruary to November.

Come along to the meetings and enjoy a good supper too!

Tel.9498 2127 or 9399 3649 for more details.

Even though it was a hot summer, we still managed our seed collecting forays in Bungendore Park. The seeds will be propagated and returned to the Park within the next few years for revegetation. There were many plants still flowering in February and the bush still looked green. After the collecting session in De-cember, some members attended the BEAC volunteer thank-you breakfast held at the Field Study Centre. It is always a pleasure to meet members of other local environment groups . On the 26th-28th October many of our members en-joyed an excursion to Busselton where we had ar-ranged to meet with members of the Murdoch Branch. During the weekend we visited various sites including some on the Whicher Range to look for plants, includ-ing many endemics, growing on ironstones. The Kelmscott Show on the 19th/20th October gave us another opportunity to display our wonderful wild-flowers in the Flower Pavilion. The wide variety that we displayed surprised us all and again our display proved to be very popular to the public that visited the show. It is at this time of year, when is starts to become cooler, that we can look forward to Winter and await the flowering of our local wildflowers, either on the Coastal Plain or on the Darling Range. We have very interesting speakers at our meetings and we welcome you to come along. Helen Wildsmith President Wildflower Society, Armadale Branch. Visit http://www.wildflowersarmadale.gov.au

Jacqui Roo Walking the dogs along the firebreak one morn-ing, adjacent to Churchman Brook Road, I came across a young female roo, obviously severely injured, on the road side of the fence. She had obviously been hit by a car and left to suffer all night, as she had dug a deep hole with her front paws, desperately trying to get up. I could see that she had a baby in her pouch. I took my dogs home and rang the Darling Range Wildlife help line. Their on call volunteer was there within 45 minutes and confirmed that there was indeed a baby alive. She had called the gen-tleman who has the unenviable task of shooting the poor creature. He arrived shortly after. We were able to rescue the baby who is now called Jacqui Roo. Please be aware that there are definite crossing points on most of the roads around Bedfordale, particularly where the animals need to access wa-ter. If you are unlucky enough to hit one, please check for young in the females, and don’t leave adults to suffer. Just because it may move off the road does not mean it is not suffering. Many of the smaller ones and females are too small to jump the terrible fences that now cut them off from their feeding and watering sites and they be-come confused. Where there is one roo on the road there are probably several. Fog lights on cars do give you slightly more time to spot them. Please also ring the Rangers at the council of-

fices, so that dead animals can be removed.

ORGANIC GROWERS

Hi Everyone,

This ye ar, we celebrate Roleystone Organic Grow-

ers 21st birthday!

Kathy Moore and Tony Dowling organised our first

meeting on March 11th 1992. A couple of years

later Viv Keelty and I shared organising the meet-

ings before Viv went bush a few years ago. I, with

Margita (seed bank), Faye (supper and my brains

trust), and Felicia (library) plus others, who help out

as needed have continued to help make our group a

success.

To celebrate we are going to have a field day at our

home along with the usual yummy afternoon tea.

Kathy still has newspaper clippings from the old

days and these will be on display. On our 10 acres

(mostly bush) we have a Japanese garden, veggie

patch, fruit trees, worm farms, fire readiness for our

home etc. So, there will plenty to have a look at and

fellow gardeners to chat to. Well supervised children

are welcome.

The date is Saturday May 18th from 2-4pm. Num-

bers will be limited, so if you’d like to attend please

email me awakeandreadyperth@hotmail.com

If you receive the Blurb in time, you are welcome to

attend.

In June we are having Joe from Tass 1 trees speak-

ing about “Growing and Troubleshooting Fruit

Trees”. July Chris Oliver will be speaking about

Grafting. If you would like to be updated about our

meetings, you are welcome to email me and ask to

be put on the Roleystone Organic Growers email

list.

Cheers,

Lisa Porter

Adult Literacy Are you looking for something to fill those boring hours? Read Write Now (RWN) Armadale Branch is the local unit for the Voluntary Adult Literacy Tutoring Service. At present we have approx 18 tutors but there is a growing need for more. We mainly try to offer our help to Australians who are having difficulties in liter-acy or numeracy. Did you know that 48% of the adult Australian population has problems with everyday functional literacy? If you enjoy reading, there is no greater thrill than to help someone discover that same joy. If all Australian students have a tutor we will also help adults from other countries that are keen to learn. All lessons are on a one-to-one basis, which is easier on both tutor and student with no set curriculum, and each course is individually prepared. Tutors do not need formal qualifications to be ac-cepted into the programme. Good people skills and empathy are far more important! There is a short training course which gives some skills and strate-gies for working with adult students. There is no mini-mum standard of education for students and there is NO CHARGE at all. If you would like to join this enthusiastic local group as either a tutor or a student please contact our Cen-tral Office on 1800 018 802 or for more personal in-formation please 'phone Veronica on 0408 909 915

Bushfire Ready Feedback Workshop

It was great to see many from neighbouring regions attend a Feedback workshop, run by DFES Community and Engagement team, at the Bedfordale Hall on Thursday 18

th April 2013.

There were representatives from our own Bedfordale Volunteer Bushfire Brigade, Roleystone, Kalamunda and Gosnells Volunteer Fire Brigades, Emergency Services from the City of Armadale, Tony Buti, Facilitators and Street Coordinators (from these districts) in attendance. The DFES are developing a 5 year strategy and are consulting with all districts. Bushfire Ready Outcomes are to:

Increase awareness of bushfire risk

Increase level of preparedness

Increase resilience in the community

Groups were given the opportunity to speak on Benefits and Strengths and Weaknesses and Challenges of the programme. There then followed discussion on what support could be given to Facilitators and Street Coordinators and how to further develop communication and partnerships within the community. Our thanks go to Ian, Tina and Nola who organised the Hall and supper.

Street Coordinators are desperately needed in Bedfordale and anyone who may be interested is asked to contact Tina on 0417 871 810.

.

RAINDROPS KEEP FALLING ..............

Rainfall (mm) Bedfordale Bedfordale Bedfordale 2013 2012 2011

April 20 81 56

January to April 134 149 108

The long-term averages (means) recorded at the Wungong Dam are: -

1) 100 year average for April = 63mm.

2) 30 year average for April = 55mm.

3) 100 year average – January to April = 122mm

4) 30 year average – January to April = 113mm

For the month of April we were 35mm below the 30 year mean and we were 43mm below the 100 year average.

For the January to April 2013 period, we are 12mm above our 100 year aggregate and 21mm

the 30 year figure.

The exceptionally good rainfall in March has more than compensated for the below average for April. At the time

of writing this article, the forecast for rain at the beginning of May looks very promising. Let’s keep our fingers

crossed as the groundwater levels have not yet reached their normal levels.

Proudly printed by Southern Hills Christian College For the Bedfordale Community

For details of where to send your application please refer to the phone numbers on the front page.

Bedfordale Residents’ Association Membership Form

Cost: $10 per family per annum

Name: ____________________________________________________________________ Address: _________________________________________________________________ E-mail Address (for electronic Blurb): __________________________________________ Phone (optional): _______________________Mobile______________________________ The Bedfordale Residents’ Association operates to maintain and improve the quality of life in Bedfordale and provides an organised channel of information between the people of Bedfordale and the City of Armadale and other appropriate authorities. The Committee meet every second Tuesday of every second month.