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Welcome to the first edition for 2012 of the WSN

Restoring Our Waterways Croaker Newsletter.

This year should be another busy year of

Environmental activities. December 2011 was not so

busy but it was very rewarding. Firstly WSN Restoring

Our Waterways were finally successful with a grant

from the Victorian Governments 25th Anniversary of

Landcare, so we will be getting our own Waterwatch &

Macroinverabrate Kit. Official handover of the

equipment took place on Monday 30th January.

Training on how to use the new equipment will

commence shortly with Emma and Vanessa from

NECMA Waterwatch. If you are interested in becoming

a Waterwatcher or want to learn all about the living

Macros and Native Fish

in our waterways please

contact me. Copies of

ROWs short film

competition entry have

been given to NECMA as

it was requested by management in order to see how

a group from the community views our waterways. A

copy was also given to the Rural City of Wangaratta

Environment Department to view. The film was made

because some members of the community dont think

about when they drop their rubbish on the ground in

town it ends up in our waterways through the towns

stormwater system or if they dump it in and on the

banks of our Rivers or Creeks it pollutes our

waterways. Water is our most precious resource,

without it all things die. In order to help keep rubbishfrom our stormwater system entering our waterways,

we need some drain catchers along One Mile Creek

and a large campaign on littering through the schools

and the community in order to make them understand

how important taking care of our waterways is. This is

not just for the water we drink but the well-being of

our Native Fish and the environment. A summary of

why the film was made and a copy of the film may

soon be on the WSN website. It might not be the most

polished film made but the point is very well made.

Dont drop it, bin it otherwise our waterways will endup a rubbish dump.

MORE GREAT NEWS AT THE END OF 2011

Wednesday 14th December at Bunnings Warehouse

Wangaratta.

Thanks to the great work of Karen

Brisbane the Victorian Governments

first corporate Landcare facilitator and Kerry from

Bunnings, ROW will be going ahead with building nest

boxes as part of our project for 2012 with WHS

Schools CLC students. Bunnings have

come on board supplying all the material,wood cut to size, nails, paint & brushes,

wire, drills, hammers and anything else

required for building the nest boxes plus 2

workers to help put them together with the students.

There will be 2 Fridays during the Semester to make

them and one day working with Andrew Snowdon

Bush Regeneration Officer RCoW placing them into

trees where they are needed. WHS will give us a room

at the school where they can be built and a couple of

members from WSN have volunteered to also help

with this great project. With the removal of Alien Fish(fishing for carp) from our waterways, water quality

and macroinvertebrate checking, the CLC students

who volunteer to work with WSN Restoring Our

Waterways will be busy in 2012 but will also have a

fun time which is the most important thing when you

volunteer. So the pressure is all on me now to make

sure my presentation to the CLC in 2012 is very

inviting, interesting and successful.

Diane Farmer, Coordinator, WSN Restoring Our Waterways

[email protected]

0439 020 448PO Box 772, Wangaratta VIC 3677

WSN ROW meet on the first Monday of the month at The Centre,

Chisholm St, Wangaratta at 5:30pm.Next meetings Monday 6th

February & 5thMarch.

Contents

International Volunteers Day 2

Presentation of NEWater Bottles to WareenaPark Bowls Club 2 - 3

A Walk Along Our Waterways 3

Upcoming Events 4 - 5

The Centre Community Skillsbank 6

February , 2012 Issue #8
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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The WSN Restoring Our WaterwaysCROAKERNewsletter Page 2

February 2012

INTERNATIONAL VOLUNTEERS DAYMonday 5thDecember 2011, Article by Diane Farmer

Sophie Mirabella (MHR, Indi), Esme Adams and Di Farmer

I received a letter from Sophie Mirabella MP inviting

me to morning tea at her office on Monday 5th

December, stating that I had been nominated for an

award by Linda Phillis manager from The Centres

Community Skillsbank and that I had been successful.I arrived at 10am and there were about 20 people,

some of which were also to receive an award and they

were from all over the Indi electorate. Sophie made a

very nice speech explaining that it was a special award

as it was the 10th Anniversary of the United Nations

International Year of Volunteering and only 100

Politicians took up the offer to hand out about 10

awards each all over Australia. Before presenting the

awards to each recipient Sophie told us what each

person was receiving the award for. Mine was for my

work with the environment. It was a very nicecertificate signed by The Hon Julia Gillard MP Prime

Minister of Australia, The Hon Tanya Plibersek MP

Minster for Human Services & Social Inclusion and

Sophie Mirabella MP as well as a beautiful

commemorative coin and stamp in a very nice folder.

We have some great volunteers doing great work for

their community from Benalla, Wodonga, Mansfield,

Springhurst and Wangaratta who were at the

presentation morning tea. Now mind you young

Joshua Newth was also nominated by Linda for all his

great work on Newsletters both Social and

Environmental and his IT work

as a volunteer with Skillsbank.

He was also successful but he

was nowhere to be seen at the

morning tea and presentation.

Why not you ask? Well you see

he received his letter but he

didnt open it because he

thought it was just junk mail from Sophie. He has now

learnt a very big lesson which is - that when youreceive a letter from a Member of Parliament in an

official Australian Government envelope to make sure

you open it. You just have to love Josh as he is one of

the nicest young men I have ever met. Both Josh and

I are volunteers for both Skillsbank and Wangaratta

Sustainability Networks Restoring Our Waterways so

we make a good pair.

PRESENTATION OF NEWATER WATER

BOTTLES TO WAREENA PARK BOWLS CLUBSaturday 17thDecember 2011, Article by Diane Farmer

What a great day. Rowan OHagan committee member

for NEWATER and I representing WSN Restoring Our

Waterways met at the bowls club at 11.30am. Walking

into the grounds it was great to see all the bowlers on

the greens having a game of bowls. We were greeted

by some of the members who were so friendly. The

setting of the club is magnificent, all nice and greenwith lovely gardens neatly kept

and right next to One Mile

Creek and the Wareena

Wetlands. Two of the members

took Rowan and I onto the

green to give us a little lesson

on how to play bowls. This was

extremely fun, mostly wayward

bowls by Rowan and I but it was our inability not the

fault of our instructors. Cheryl from the Chronicle

arrived and I knew we were in trouble when she saidI would like to take a different sort of shot other than

just handing over the water bottles. Well now Rowan

and I had a bottle full of

water in hand and then

two of the members were

to be the receivers of the

water. We were to squirt

the water into the ladies

mouths first (have you

ever had to do that sort of

thing and looking at the camera?), then we had to

squirt it onto their head looking at the camera.

Those poor ladies, they were just great laughing andgetting soaked. Thank goodness it was a hot day.

After that fun we went into the club house for the


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February 2012

presentation. Rowan did NEWater proud with her

speech talking about water, then presenting the

bottles to Marlene Thompson President of the club and

thanking WSN Restoring Our Waterways for organising

the water bottles presentation. Cheryl took some great

shots of us with the drink bottles (this time empty

thank goodness). A photo to mark the occasion will be

framed and given to the members of Wareena Park

Bowls Club and NEWATER from ROW. Any promotion

encouraging people to drink water while playing sport,

so they dont get dehydrated, and using the same

water bottle, so you dont have to keep buying bottled

water, can only help the environment. Thanks Graeme

for your phone call requesting the bottles after seeing

the ad in the Chronicle about WSN Restoring Our

Waterways Mini Expo called All Things Water.

L-R: Rowan O'Hagan, Marlene Thompson, Ellie Black,

Shirley Hintz, Di Farmer, Faye Rowe

I am thinking of catching up with Marie who offered to

give me a few lessons as it was fun and seems rather

a social game and it sure is much easier than being

thrashed on a racquet ball court which was my last

sporting experience a couple of years ago. Winter

might be a good time to follow that up as the sun is

not a friend of mine.

A WALK ALONG OUR WATERWAYSWednesday 28thDecember 2011, Article by Diane Farmer

DISAPPOINTED AND NO HOPE NOW

This morning I took off for my early

morning walk and headed down to

Frank Garth Reserve. The first thing

that got me was the rotten smell of dead carp, firstly

on the beach and under the bridge near the river bank

it even got worse, at least 5 dead carp in all sizes. I

was really disappointed and this really turned me right

off and it sure was not a very good way to start your

day. So I turned around to head home walking beside

my beloved Ovens River. I then noticed all the debris

across the river (see photo) and my disappointment

turned to "No Hope Now". My long-time dream for the

Ovens River is starting at

Sydney Beach and going all

the way to the Ovens

Billabong for people to be

able to row a boat or have

a little boat trip for tourists

to enjoy one of our

beautiful waterways. This

just might be a way to get

someone down to our up

and coming Faithful St

Riverside walk, as there is

nothing to attract them there at the moment. I believe

in habitat for our native fish but when the habitat is

completely across the river it stops the members ofour community and

tourists being able to

enjoy our waterways as

well. The King River to

Kaluna would also be a

nice little trip but

differently "No Hope There" either.

Still dreaming and living in hope of a way to enjoy our

beautiful Ovens and King Rivers.

EXTRA NEWS FLASHUPDATE ON RUBBISH AT 15 MILE CREEK

Tuesday 24thJanuary 2012, Article by Diane Farmer

I emailed Council saying that I would be at the Council

Meeting and asking questions about the rubbish on

Vicroads land next to

15 Mile Creek, as it

had been 4 months

and I have had no

reply from Vicroads.

At question time I asked Council for help to find out

what was happening and could they suggest that a

gate or bollard be put in out there. Adrian Gasperoni(who is sitting in for Mr. Close) said he had received

Ovens River blockage

King River blockage


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February 2012

my email and 2 Law enforcement officers went out to

the area today and he would follow it up.

On Friday 27th January I

received a call from Vicroads

talking about the mess outthere and they were very

unhappy about it. There is

gravel out there ready for

road works and about the

middle of March that should

be finished and they will clean up the area and put in a

gate or something to deter some members of the

community from using this area as a rubbish tip. It

may have taken 4 months but thanks to Councils help

there will be one less area for ROW to worry about.

WHATS HAPPENING WITH THE ALIEN

FISH IN ONE MILE CREEKArticle by Diane Farmer

Near the footbridge at Melba Street I noticed a lot of

fish, Carp, and I remember Sally had mentioned them

earlier this month but I didnt realize there were so

many of them. You can see some of them are gulping

for oxygen in the photo.

On the other side of the

Roy Street bridge in thedeep area just before

the little rock pile across

the creek, there was

another large number of

fish swimming around,

Carp, and some of them

rather large. They were

all gulping for oxygen at the surface of the water. The

water must be declining in oxygen, as you can see

from the photo.

UPCOMING EVENTS

WSN Restoring Our Waterways & the Rural City

of Wangaratta invite you to come & join us at our

Clean Up Australia Day Events

Sunday 4th March

WSN Restoring Our Waterways

Along One Mile Creek

8am at Rowan St Bridge

9am at Batchelors Green on Tone Rd

Free BBQ at 11am afterwards

Prizes for most unusual item collected,

Most family members,

Oldest and youngest volunteer

Enquiries Ph. 03 5722 3823

North Wangaratta

9am opposite North Cedars Tourist Park

To register call (03) 5722 2718

HELP NEEDED on the morning!

Tuesday 6th March

Rural City of WangarattaCommunity Nature Walk at North Beaches

Meeting at 6:00pm 8:00pm at the

Scouts Hall, near North Beaches

Whilst cleaning up the natural surrounds of North Beaches,

community members will receive a guided nature walk to

learn more about our local wildlife and waterways. The

evening will then conclude with kids activities and Free BBQ.

For further information phone Council on 5722 0888

REMEMBER TO SUPPLY YOUR OWNHATS, SUNBLOCK, GLOVES

AND OTHER PROTECTIVE GEAR!


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February 2012

Do you have gardening skills to pass onto others?

Want to be involved in developing a display food garden in

Wangaratta?

As a part of the Rural City of

Wangaratta Eco Living Project, a display

food garden will be developed at the

Eco Living Centre. This garden will be

used to display and communicate

gardening practices applicable for the

Wangaratta region.

The garden will involve aspects of:

Displays of what to grow in

what seasons of the year

Different ways to manage a

garden

Sustainable gardening practices

We are looking for community members interested in the establishment,

development and ongoing use of this garden. The food garden will be

solely used for education, demonstration and display.

Come and contribute to the discussion and planning of this exciting project!

A planning information session will be

held

Wednesday 22 February,

10am 2:30pm

Lunch provided

Eco Living Centre HP Barr Reserve

Community Centre, Shilling Drive,

Wangaratta.

RSVP is essential by 16 February,

2012

Contact Councils Sustainability

Education Officer on (03) 5722 0755 or

[email protected] to

RSVP and to obtain further information

on the Eco Living

display garden and

background on the

Eco Living Project.

Emma Fuchsen

29 Feb 02 Mar 2012

Australia's first energy efficiency

summer study

28 Feb02 Mar 2012


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February 2012

ROW would like to thank The Centre for all their great support with the printing of the hard copies of the Croaker and

Skillsbank volunteers who give advice and proof read. Without this support WSN Restoring Our Waterways Croaker

Newsletter would not be so well known and gaining the support of the Community. Thank you to all our readers who

phoned and emailed me regarding the December Croaker saying such great things like

Great story about the cubs, my lot thought it was great. Love the passion you bring to your storiesThis is such an informative Newsletter. Well done to all concerned

WOW what a terrific newsletter

Di youre amazing what a bumper issueHappy Volunteers Dayyoure a champion for sure

Im getting some complimentary emails re your newsletter

Thanks for the newsletter coverage Di. Hope to do some more work with you in the future to help your cause

You did a great job with the Croaker. It was jam packed with lots of interesting enviro news. Well done! Its a

great publication for the community

Always a great read. Very professionally arranged and thanks for the positive comments about our works

Well I have read it all the way through, what a civic minded person you are, very proud of you(this was from my cousin Jeanette in Queensland, she may be a little prejudiced)

Josh Newth and I volunteer for The Centre, Community Skillsbank and we put a lot of hard work into the Croaker. With each issue it seems to get

better and better, from all the great comments and all the great environmental events that ROW, council and other government agencies have

planned, 2012 issues should be a very informative and jam packed. Josh (the boss) and I might decide to go global.

Are you looking to take on

a new challenge, give

back to the community,

socialize, help others?

Then we may have thevolunteering opportunity

you are looking for.

At Skillsbank we match volunteers to roles with not-for-profit

organisations and you would be amazed at how many and varied the

roles are that we have to offer.

Are you interested in the environment, sports, history, aged care,

education, emergency services or animal welfare? We have

organisations in all of these areas and much, much more.

Or you may be a not-for-profit organisation that is looking for volunteers

interested in what you do. Then we can help.

Just look on the web, drop us an e-mail or give us a

call and we can open up a world of opportunities you

never knew were out there.

Go ahead make your life richer while you enrich the

lives of others.

Contacts

www.nevictoria.skillsbank.com.au

[email protected]

Phone: 03 5721 0258

Fax: 03 5721 9994

Linda Phillis Volunteer Management Program /

Community Skillsbank Coordinator

Phone: 03 5721 0256

WSN INFORMATION

Publicity/Advocacy Food Sustainability Home Energy Waste Action Group (WAGS)

For more information contact:

Dr Rowan OHagan- Secretary/Treasurer Email: [email protected]

12 Deakin Court, Wangaratta VIC 3677 Website: www.wangarattasustainability.org

Ph. (03) 5721 8231

Under the umbrella of the

Wangaratta Urban

Landcare Group

This Newsletter designed by the Volunteers at Community Skillsbank, Wangaratta.

Family/Household/Organisation $10 per year Single $5 per year Student $2 per year
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.wangarattasustainability.org/http://www.wangarattasustainability.org/http://www.wangarattasustainability.org/mailto:[email protected]