Community Working Bee At Nerrina Wetlands

Members of the community were invited to assist club members in our continuing revegetation of the Nerrina Wetlands on Sunday 25th October, 2009.

The gentle southerly breeze drifting lazily across the wetlands was a strong motivator, encouraging some vigorous digging and planting to keep warm. It appears the trip to buy sunscreen on Saturday night could have been avoided.

Parents teachers and children from the Black Hill primary school joined us, and with willing hands we managed to plant around 400 trees before we ran out of stakes (and possibly motivation).

Thanks to my wife Clare and Cheryl Bromfield who guarded the BBQ and provided sustenance to the troops.

Thanks also to the Ballarat Light Car Club for the use of their BBQ trailer and to John Kerr from the City Of Ballarat. John arranged the trailer, trees, stakes, guards ,matting and tree planting tools as well as cleaning up and mowing the BBQ area for us so we weren’t knee deep in wet grass.

John is very keen for us to be involved in seed collection in late January for those who are interested. They harvest the seeds from the local species of trees, and propagate them so we can plant them again.

The day was very successful and it was great to get some of the local community involved and take some ownership of the wetlands.

Thanks to those Rotarians who attended the Nerrina Wetlands Project on such a busy Rotary day.

Article written by Rotarian Mark Bennett (pictured above), photos taken by Rotarian Sue Lewis.