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Manager: Jennifer GardnerWaite Conservation Reserve Urrbrae House - Waite Campus The University of Adelaide SA 5064 AUSTRALIA Telephone: +61 8 8303 7405 |
Some of the Friends of Waite Conservation Reserve Committee L to R: Chris Kaczan (President), Peter Lang, Peter Bird, Joe Haslam (Secretary), Jennifer Gardner. Not present: Lynda Yates, Peter Barnes, Stephen Wait, Grant Joseph, Helen Pryor, Meg Byrt Meet the Friends of Waite Conservation Reserve CommitteePeter Barnes
Peter Bird Dr Jennifer Gardner Joe Haslam (Secretary) I had known about the reserve of course. My wife Barbara had worked at CSIRO on Hartley Grove for a number of years, and she introduced me and the kids to a pleasant walking trail in the hills behind the Waite campus. The steep bit up that gully, the lovely views from the top, initially to the gulf in the west, and later to the Belair ridge to the south, and then that difficult downhill bit past the big water tank, where the pebbles on the path were like ball bearings under your feet. Yes, I knew the reserve. But it was only a walking track to me, through some pleasant scrub. I could tell a wattle from a eucalypt, and I could recognise that prickly bush that you shouldn’t brush past, but that was about it. Fortunately, I saw a notice advertising the initial meeting called to form the Friends – exactly three years ago as I write this. I attended, and a whole new world of interest opened up to me. I discovered a world of native plant species and introduced weeds, of little pockets of remnant native vegetation which were all that remained after decades of intensive grazing, of dedicated scientists and amateur bush carers, and perhaps most of all, a sense of the long term, of the timelessness of nature. At about the same time I retired, and joined the Friends of Urrbrae Wetland too. Here I started to learn about a range of native trees, shrubs and grasses which had been specially selected as being typical of what would have existed prior to European settlement. They were all set out in relative isolation – easy to see and identify. So armed with this limited knowledge, beginner’s knowledge it is fair to say, it has been a real joy to me over the past three years to participate in working bees in the Waite Reserve and to come across many of those same species in the wild. And when you see them in the natural bush, it makes you realise how precious these remaining areas of woodland are. Sure, I’ve still got plenty to learn, but it adds a new dimension to my awareness of nature to now be able to see and identify a little yellow Hibbertia, a chocolate lily Arthropodium or a Dianella when previously I wouldn’t even have noticed them. I would have just enjoyed that nice walking track. It has also been good to get involved with weed eradication. I now know about the terrible spread of olives in the Adelaide Hills. But how is it that an intelligent person like me never previously recognised this as a major issue? I am mildly angry that my primary and secondary education taught me about the glorious British colonies marked pink in the atlas, made me remember and recite the names of the major European rivers from the Vistula to the Guadalquivir, and served up truckloads of English poetry and other literature, but didn’t give me any understanding of nature. Happily, that situation is changing significantly for the better. And even those darned olives have given me pleasure in the Waite Conservation Reserve. Why is that, you ask? Because of one of my happiest memories in recent times is of a working bee in April 2003. A majestic red gum on the track from the top of Wild Dog Glen to the Southern boundary was surrounded by a thicket of juvenile olives. Over the years birds had sat on the branches, and dropped olive seeds which then germinated. There were scores and scores of them, from small seedlings to specimens about 2 meters high. If they were not removed, the gum tree would have been starved of water and nutrients, and most probably would have died. We pulled out the littlies, and cut and dabbed the larger specimens, and killed the lot. On revisiting six months later, not one olive plant was to be seen. In their place, just as Waldo had predicted, was a carpet of bulbine lilies, rejoicing in the sunlight which had previously been blotted out by the olives. I felt a sense of renewal, and of satisfaction that I had contributed to something good that would last far beyond my lifetime. That’s why I am a Friend of the Reserve. Grant Joseph Chris Kaczan (President) Dr Peter Lang Lynda Yates (Treasurer) Stephen Wait
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© 2009 The University of Adelaide Last Modified 21/11/2009 Jennifer Gardner CRICOS Provider Number 00123M |