Almanda Report 2016

After the Almanda Project got off to a flying start in 2014, its second year started as a year of consolidation, but ended up providing some terrific new developments and a good deal of on-ground work. Much effort took place behind the scenes in the first year, particularly with the planning that went into designing the project. We had to work out what we wanted to achieve through the project and how we would go about achieving it. It was decided that therefore, we needed to be able to measure the project’s success, and this meant introducing a robust monitoring component. Critically, funding had to be raised to enable the primary weed control work to be undertaken by contractors. At the time, the lack of funding available for on-park management was a major motivation for establishing the Almanda Project in the first place and, without a significant fund-raising effort, we would not be able to sustain previous restoration works in the park. We needed contractors who we were confident would be able to undertake the work to a high standard. In particular, they had to have good plant identification skills to ensure weed treatments did not damage the very native vegetation we are trying to protect. Many of the supporters of the Friends of Scott Creek Conservation Park are aware that we lost our inaugural president after a long battle with illness late last year. Tom Hands was our friend, leader and mentor, holding the position of president of our group for all of its preceding 25 years. Tom provided strong, knowledgeable, but unassuming leadership with his humble and light-hearted manner and was a driving force behind establishing the Almanda Project. This project is providing a remarkable and lasting legacy to Tom’s passion and dedication to Scott Creek Conservation Park. Much of the current Almanda Project was based on earlier work done by Tom and his close friend Tim Jury. Tim, who also coordinates the Nature Conservation Society of South Australia’s Threatened Plant Action Group, suggested that when sourcing grant funding it was better to develop projects that extended across multiple creek systems, rather than just one creekline at a time. In 2009, Tom and Tim had co-written a project profile “Restoring upland swamps of Scott Creek in the Southern Mount Lofty Ranges of South Australia”, which was judged a “highly commended entry” by the Society for Ecological Restoration International and Global Restoration Network in its 2009 search for Australasia’s top 25 restoration projects. John Wamsley, who had been focussing his own attention on restoring the Almanda Swamp and Almanda Creek area of Scott Creek CP, committed his energy and passion to driving the project forward as Tom’s health declined. Fund Raising During this second year of the Almanda Project, fund-raising efforts were more targeted towards undertaking specific actions, rather than utilising the broad crowd-funding initiative used to get the project up and running in 2014. These were highly successful, attracting in excess of $14,000 in donations from individuals. Of particular note were the funds raised at the Wirrapunga Open Garden event held last September at John Wamsley and Proo Geddes’s beautiful property at Aldgate. On top of the effort involved in holding such an event at which we had our own display, they generously donated proceeds from the gate takings and sales of books, artwork and other fundraising to the Almanda Project. We were also the recipient of additional funding support from the Friends of Parks Inc. Gift Fund. To showcase what had been achieved with the Almanda Project, instead of holding our usual Easter walk in the park on Good Friday, we changed it to an Autumn walk on Sunday April 17th. The format was an open day, where people could come anytime between 10am and 4pm and take either a guided or self-guided walk along Almanda Creek and Almanda Swamp, where restoration works have been taking place during the first two years of the Almanda Project. Over 70 tags were placed along the marked trail, which matched numbers in an eight page guide which identified and provided information about different native plants, including a number of rare and endangered species. John Wamsley was instrumental in this, ably supported by other members of the group who were also on hand with information about the park and the Friends’ activities for those wanting a little more detail. The event was well attended and donations, memberships and sales of maps and bird brochures from the day raised over $650. In addition to donations, this year’s funding was once again generated from grant applications, together with financial support from the Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources (DEWNR) and Natural Resources Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges (NR AMLR). New grants were approved under the City of Onkaparinga 2015 Environment Grants program and the Patagonia Environmental Grants Fund of Tides Foundation. The City of Onkaparinga is one of the two councils that Scott Creek Conservation Park spans. Being successful in obtaining this grant shows that our group’s activities are important in helping the Council achieve its objectives of fostering environmental stewardship and contributing to the key strategies and plans under the City of Onkaparinga Community Plan 20359, particularly under Sustainable Environments. Patagonia Inc. is a US based clothing company, with stores in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, that donates 1% of all sales to ”like-minded, grassroots environmental groups who are out there working to keep natural wonder in the world”. Patagonia Australia has told us they are “thrilled” to have the opportunity to support to our Almanda Project and, through their community funding, their goal is to “develop strong long lasting relationships” and they are looking forward to a “continued involvement with FOSCCP.” This augers very well for the future and shows the benefit of long-term projects such as ours. Like Patagonia Australia, we are keen for this to develop into a long lasting and productive relationship. Work for this grant will focus on the Mackereth Creek System.