Revegetation update posted 21 October 2010
revegetation projects    
2014 update


Planting continued this year at my main three revegetation sites. For a welcome change there was good moisture in the ground when planting kicked off at the Gulpa Island site on 7 August.  It just got better and better after that with the greatest rain event for about twenty years happening on 14 and 15 October 2010.

By early September this year Steve Seymour and I had planted the majority of plants I’d grown over the previous summer. Being busy with tours in the interim, the remainder were planted on 20 October. 

In total, about 2,354 plants were put in the ground this season. The rough breakdown is 192 at the Gulpa Island site, 603 at the Monimail site and 1,560 at the Wanganella site.

So far, the plants are looking fantastic and very few have been lost. Rabbits have reared their ugly heads at all three sites and are causing some grief; however, with an ongoing rabbit control program and all the grass that is about, the rabbits are not as bad as they might be.

If the season continues in the vein that it started, we’ll have the best success rate since this planting program commenced at the Wanganella sandhill in 2001.

Below are the species planted this year, numbers are approximate.

Wanganella Monimail Gulpa Island
White cypress pine              310 White cypress pine    25 White cypress pine        40
Fringe myrtle                         100 Acacia ligulata           20 Myoporum deserti         10
Narrow-leafed hopbush      145 Acacia pendula        100 Eremophila longifolia     8
Acacia rigens                        185 Acacia rigens              25 Acacia rigens                 20
Acacia ligulata                      100 Acacia oswaldi           26 Acacia acinacea            40
Olearia pimeleoides            110 Myoporum deserti      50 Acacia brachybotrya     20
Clematis microphylla          130 Maireana spp.          100 Eremophila maculata     6
Acacia brachybotrya             65 Round-leaf pigface    20 Acacia oswaldi                 7
Acacia victoriae                     70 Curly Mitchell grass   30 Acacia hakeoides          12
Eremophila longifolia           50 Weeping pittosporum  6  
Acacia pendula                     40 Eremophila maculata  8
Yam daisy                               20
Weeping pittosporum            20
Acacia salicina                       80
Hakea tephrosperma            40
Hakea leaucoptera               14
Acacia loderi x melvillei       15
Quandong                              12
 

Update on revegetation projects          
Deniliquin district, posted 2 December 2009

 

This year we managed to plant approximately 2,360 plants, comprising thirty species, in the three main revegetation sites (Gulpa, Wanganella and Monimail).

Another 400 plants were grown for other revegetation sites around the district.

Species planted included Callitris gracilis, Eremophila longifolia, Dodonaea attenuata, Casuarina luehmanni, Melaleuca lanceolata, Hakea tephrosperma and leucoptera, Myoporum platycarpum, Geijera parviflora, Santalum acuminatum, Jasminum lineare and six acacias: brachybotrya, hakeoides, ligulata, rigens, victoriae and salicina.

In early July this year I had a metre-wide strip, several kilometres long, sprayed with herbicide at the Wanganella and Monimail sites. Planting started on 16 July after the first decent rain of the year fell in June. (Deniliquin recorded just over three inches of rain in the first half of the year and I was hoping for better things in the latter half).

With help from Steve Seymour we put in about 1440 plants, guarded with milk cartons, at the Wanganella site; 410 plants at the Monimail site on the Hay Road; and 370 at the Gulpa site. A couple of weeks later I planted another 135 plants at Wanganella. There was no time for watering-in the plants as the outback trip was about to start so without a shred of confidence it was left in the hands of Zeus.

It wasn’t just lack of precipitation that challenged us at Wanganella — we had weekend hooligans chasing kangaroos across the sandhill, smashing not only the recently planted trees but also established plants. A padlock on the gate put a stop to that caper. The kangaroos showed a distinct lack of gratitude by chewing the milk cartons, pulling them off and sometimes pulling out the plant. To counter this I made wire stakes bent at the top which hold the cartons down, then put two bamboo stakes in each carton. This helps but the problem is not entirely solved.

Only a small amount of rain fell in August, a bit over an inch in September and very little in October and early November. Add to this, purportedly the worst heatwave ever recorded for November. (Ten of the first twenty days of November were over 100 degrees on the old scale). So much for putting your faith in Greek gods.

All these factors brought about the demise of about half the new plants at the Wanganella site.

However, at least an inch and a half of rain fell on 22 November, with another two-thirds of an inch in the following week*, and at the time of writing (2 December 2009) the remaining plants looked good and were putting out new growth. (I don’t allow myself to be too excited by that as good rain fell in November and December 08, followed by a severe dry spell and a heatwave in February that killed nearly all of last year’s plantings — it is not easy saving the world).

Plants have fared much better at the Monimail site. This plot comprises sandy loam that has a wonderful capacity for holding moisture. New and older plantings are currently growing like mad here and the long-term survival rate is much higher than the Wang sandhill.

Contrary to ‘normal’ weather patterns, the Gulpa site south of town has not received as much rain as has fallen to the north of Deniliquin. About a third of this year’s plantings have been lost but the surviving plants should be okay

There’s been quite a few black honeyeaters at the Gulpa site feeding on flowering Eremophila longifolia. I had not recorded black honeyeaters south of Deniliquin prior to this year.

Superb parrots
have been feeding on the green seedpods of Acacia pycnantha and Acacia hakeoides. The motivation for  creating this plot was to provide a food source for the superbs so it’s particularly pleasing to see them using it.

* There were several thunderstorms north of Deniliquin in November so the actual rainfall was probably greater than that recorded by the Bureau of Meteorology in Deniliquin.

 

 
Sept  2010
Sept  2010
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Sept  2010
Sept  2010
Sept  2010
Sept  2010
28 July 2009   Wanganella sandhill
28 July 2009
black honeyeater on Eremophila longiflolia                                   PM
superb parrot 14 November 2009                                              PM