It was great to have our friends from ANZ’s Mobile Mortgage group and the Albany branch join us for some late summer maintenance work.  This was the sixth time several members of the group have spent their volunteer day at CUE Haven.

The group arrived first thing in the morning and included Andy, Anita, Eric, James, Janice, Jason, Jeff, Jia, Jin, Josh, Kelly, Maria and Mike.

Most everyone in the group had been to CUE Haven previously, so after catching up over morning tea, Mahrukh gave a brief overview of the current activities and future plans.  Thomas gave a safety briefing and described the work planned for the day.

The plan for the day was to continue to work on controlling muehlenbeckia australis that was growing over trees.  The meulenbeckia is a native vine that grows up along the edges of regenerating forests and unfortunately it will completely cover and kill small trees unless it is controlled.  We also wanted to work on repairing a boardwalk on the walking track that had moved out of alignment.

We split into to two teams to tackle each project and Thomas drove the groups up to the work sites and we went to work.

Trimming

The team started near the top of the property and worked their way down.

Thomas showed the group how to identify the meuelenbeckia vines and the technique for cutting them back.  The team quickly became adept at identifying the plant and going after it with loppers

One of the big challenges with controlling the plant is that where you see it growing and where it actually comes from can be two different things.  Rather than just trimming the edges, we wanted to find where the source and cut it off as close to ground level as possible.  The team wasn’t shy about following the vines into the bush and cutting and pulling them out.

They also got a chance to check out a family of weta in one of the weta hotels.

The team spent most of the morning working down along the roads and tracks and shortly before lunch they moved into the wetlands.  The vines aren’t an issue there but lots of good growth over the summer resulted in parts of the boardwalk being overgrown by flax and Cyperus.  The team went to work clearing the boardwalk and managed to finish it off by lunch time.

Boardwalk Repair

The second team worked on a challenging walking track task.  There is a waterfall on the CUE Haven stream with an interesting grotto that is home to weta and glow worms.  At the bottom of the waterfall, the stream flows under a land bridge that we built the original walking track over.

After the 2023 rain events, the volume of water coming down the fall eroded part of the land bridge and we built a railing along one side of the walking track to keep visitors away from the area.

Additional erosion last winter raised concerns about the resiliency of our walking track network and we decided that the worst case scenario could be further erosion of the land bridge due to future heavy rain storms.  As a result, we built a small boardwalk over the land bridge to protect the track in the event of future erosion.

Unfortunately, further ground movement in the area had moved the boardwalk out of alignment.  The original plan for the way was to build a railing along the other side of the boardwalk to make it easier for visitors to cross.

We drove up to the work area and the first task was to bring all the timber and gear down to the boardwalk site.

The team took time studying the situation in order to come up with the optimum solution.

After studying the issues associated with the site and considering future issues that might arise, the team rejected the idea of a railing and decided to reconstruct the boardwalk using a different approach.

They started out by removing the old boardwalk and dismantling it with the objective of reusing as much of the old timber as possible.

They then worked on repairing the underlying track which had moved out of alignment.

Once the area was prepared they took measurements for their new boardwalk and cut timber for the framework.

They took some time to ensure that the framework would be level and fit properly with the existing track.

Once all the timber was cut, they assembled the frame and got the area ready for installing it.

The frame was secured in place with pegs and nogs and once again each of the team took turns.

Once the frame was securely in place, they could measure and cut the top boards.

The last step was joining up the new boardwalk to the existing track walls.

And testing out the new boardwalk.

This was a fantastic example of team working together to come up with a creative solution to a problem.  Every member of the team made a major contribution to the design and building of the new boardwalk and the end result will last a long time.

Future teams will finish off the boardwalk and approach with gravel and a layer of mesh.

Both groups today accomplished an amazing amount of work and took on some unusual challenges and showed a lot of teamwork, energy and creativity in coming up with solutions.  We really enjoyed working with all of you and really appreciate your efforts.

Our many thanks to Jim for organising the day and for championing CUE Haven within ANZ.  Sorry you couldn’t join us today.  James, thank you for helping out with the organization and managing work in the field.

And a huge THANK YOU to the entire team.  We really enjoyed seeing old friends and meeting you all and working with you. You have all made a wonderful contribution to CUE Haven and all your hard work and efforts are very much appreciated.

We look forward to having you back out with your family and friends for a leisurely visit to explore of your community reserve–CUE Haven, and, also returning next year for another fun and productive volunteer day.

Thank You!! Thank You!!