Parks Victoria Shows Disrespect for Volunteers

Parks Victoria has decided recently to require ALL its volunteers to obtain a Working with Children Check (WWCC), regardless of whether they actually work with children.

The Victorian government, through its WWCC website states very clearly that the check does not apply to incidental contact with children. Parks Victoria has chosen to ignore that. It’s clear that this is purely an arse-covering exercise.

Our group has been removing weeds from the Dandenong Ranges National Park since 1990. In that time, we have worked co-operatively with Parks Victoria without incident, or the necessity for police checks. We do not work with children since the work we do is arduous and physically demanding. To require a blanket WWCC for all our members is therefore very disrespectful and egregious. We resent being regarded as potential child molesters.

The Victorian Environment Friends Network (VEFN) is actively trying to persuade Parks Victoria to reconsider this thoughtless directive. They have had no success to date.

I, and countless other volunteers, are debating whether we want to work with Parks Victoria in the future.

Sustainable Living – It Can Be Done

Sustainable City, Dubai. Image courtesy of ME Construction News.

Visit this link here. It’s an example of an integrated technological solution to climate change and sustainable living. It’s a glimmer of hope.

It can be difficult to reduce one’s carbon footprint (one’s contribution to global warming), but at least think about doing something. It can be done, and many people all over the world has managed it. Moderate your consumption of material goods, think about what you really need to be alive, and choose the things you buy wisely.

Celebrating 25 years of service to the community

The Chandlers Hill Parkcare Group’s 25th anniversary celebration with friends.

I belong to a group of dedicated people who goes out every Monday morning to remove environmental weeds from the nearby Dandenong Ranges National Park. Our working area covers about 1,000 hectares of the southern part of the park, bordering on the suburbs of Ferntree Gully, Boronia and The Basin.

Today we are celebrating the 25th anniversary of the formation of this group. Parks Victoria is organising a picnic in the national park for our group. We’ve invited former members of the group, friends and well-wishers to this event.

This part of the national park is looking good. After 25 years, and the removal of many thousands of weed plants, perhaps that shouldn’t be surprising. Our work is neverending, however, because weeds continue to invade the park from neighbouring suburban gardens, carried here by wind, animals, people and even vehicles. Plus the lingering remnant plants from former house sites now long gone.

Today the weather was good. Everyone had a good time, just enjoying the convivial company and the fresh air. A good time to be alive…

For more photos of this event, go here. An article about our anniversary in the November issue of the Victorian Environment Friends Network newsletter, here.

Here is a link to a video about the oldest surviving member of our group.

An echidna in my garden

It’s early summer now, and the birds and other animals are active in my garden. One of the nice things about living near a national park is that the local inhabitants sometimes come for a visit. Echidnas have been visiting my garden ever since I came to live here, in the eastern outer fringe of Melbourne.

This echidna was rather unafraid of my presence as I took its picture. Although its eyesight is poor, it definitely can hear and smell me. At one point it walked past my foot a few centimetres away, so close I could have reached out to pat it. I didn’t – do you see those spines?

I made a short movie of it as it ambled around my garden. See it here.

Eddie the echidna. I tend to call all echidnas that visit my garden Eddie… To see a larger image click on the picture.

The tail continues…

I have a couple of possums living on top of a wall under the eaves of my house. My first account of them was written a while back – you can read it here.

These are not noisy or messy animals, so I let them stay where they are unmolested. Most of the time I don’t even notice they are there. Occasionally, I hear them going off foraging in the early evening and sometimes I woke up before dawn to hear them returning to their nest.

The young possums have grown bigger. Today I noticed a tail hanging down the wall when I was taking in my laundry. I decided to investigate further and noticed one of the possums is sleeping “rough” between 2 bricks outside the nest. Evidently the nest is now too small for both of them. (The bricks are there to weigh down the rolled up plastic trellis so a strong wind doesn’t blow it off the wall.)

One of the possums has been “pushed” out of the nest and is sleeping between 2 bricks in a most uncomfortable position.

I’m wondering what to do next. Ringtail possums are known to have more than one nest within their home range, so I guess one of them will have to move out. I could move the brick to make more space for the nest. Hmm.

To see the latest pictures of these ringtail possums go here.

To be continued…