Bega River and Wetlands Landcare Group - BRAWL

December 2024 working bee
2024-12-02 09:30 - 12:30 (Australia/Sydney) | Bega River Reserve, Bega River Reserve, Bega, NSW, 2550, Australia
It’s almost time for our December working bee and our Christmas morning tea. And what a year it’s been! We have completed our three-year project, funded by the NSW Government through their environmental trust. We have launched our website (though somewhat still in development – but we’ve already had a couple of enquiries through it).
We also have a new promo video filmed and edited by Raymond Toms from Pi Productions. I’ll send the link to you in a separate email, as there are just a couple of final edits to be made but we didn’t get them to him in time before his big trip to Antarctica.
So our next working bee will be around the main reserve picnic area, where woody weeds have made an escape for it amongst the gardens. For our Christmas morning tea, we will stop slightly later than usual, at 11.30am and down tools for the rest of the bee, in order to celebrate together and share some stories about the year. I’ll bring some of the older photos of the Bega River showing BRAWLs achievements over the last 18 years.
When: Monday 2nd December, 9.30-12.30pm
What: Weeding. Cut and paste of woody weeds and weedy vine control.
Where: Main picnic reserve, corner of Auckland Street and Jacksonia Gove (still Bridge St in Google Maps).
Bring: Drink bottle, garden gloves, weed bags, secutears, pruning knife (some tools will be provided)
Wear: Enclosed sturdy footwear, sun hat and sun-smart clothing.
Morning tea: is at 11.30am, please bring something to share or to enjoy yourself.

November 2024 working bee
2024-11-04 09:30 - 12:30
Details TBC

October 2024 working bee
2024-10-14 09:30 - 12:30
October Working Bee: Our next working bee falls on the October public holiday, so we are postponing the bee to the following week, Monday 14th October, 9.30-12.30pm.
There is plenty to do this working bee to help our new plantings get the best start in life and to reduce the weedy spring growth. Here are the details:
When: Monday 14 October, 9.30-12.30pm
What: Planting maintenance, weeding, watering smaller seedlings.
Where: Meet at the Old Bega Racecourse car park (corner East Street and Jacksonia Grove)
Bring: Drink bottle, garden gloves, weeding tool and weed bags (some tools will be provided)
Wear: Enclosed sturdy footwear, sun hat and sun-smart clothing.
Morning tea: is at 11am, please bring something to share or to enjoy yourself.
Wildlife Surveys: This October and November, BRAWL has engaged local ecologist Tony Hastings to lead a series of wildlife surveys with our volunteers. We are in the process of updating our Baseline Fauna Report, originally prepared by EnviroKey, in 2016.
As a volunteer, you’ll have the opportunity to:

Learn how to survey for microbats
Participate in playback surveys for owls
Engage in bird transect surveys

The data collected from these surveys will be used to update our records and to monitor the impact of our rehabilitation works. We are still finalising the dates for these surveys, so please stay tuned for more details.
Please let me know if you would like a copy of the EnviroKey report – Steve Sass has kindly offered for this to be shared with members.
I hope to see you there!

September 2024 working bee
2024-09-09 09:30 - 12:30
Spring is upon us, and with it comes our Spring Tree Planting Working Bee during next week’s monthly Monday gathering!
This marks our final planting under our current Environmental Trust grant concluding in October. Our accomplishments over this three-year grant are substantial, including the addition of 4000 plants along the riverbank. This includes planting at our monthly working bees, school events with Bega Public and Mumbulla Schools, visitor organisations such as the ANU and Grow the Future, partnered events with the Far South Coast Landcare Association, Bega Rotary, ParkRun, support from Bega Valley Shire Council and our amazing contractors, and who can forget dressing up with the fabulous Princesses of Planting! This is a remarkable milestone that reflects the dedication and effort of our numerous volunteers.
Please remember that our working bees are open to all. You’re free to participate in as many or as few as you wish, without any obligation to stay for the entire event. Our Landcare group thrives thanks to the diverse array of volunteers who contribute to our working bees, whether occasionally or on a regular basis. The adage “Many hands make light work” truly resonates, as it’s remarkable what we can accomplish together in a single session.
So, if you are available and eager to come to next week’s bee, here are the details:
When: Monday 9th September, 9.30-12.30pm
What: Planting maintenance, weeding, watering smaller seedlings.
Where: Meet at the main river reserve picnic area, near the corner of Auckland Street and Jacksonia Grove (look for the flag).
Bring: Drink bottle, Garden gloves, trowel and watering buckets (some tools and buckets will be provided)
Wear: Enclosed sturdy footwear, sun hat and sun-smart clothing.
Morning tea: is at 11am, please bring something to share or to enjoy yourself.
I hope to see you there!

August 2024 working bee
2024-08-05 09:30 - 12:30
We have one last winter working bee until Spring will (hopefully) be in the air! This is a great chance to get in there and give our plantings a head-start before the flush of weedy spring growth. Many of the weedy annuals have now died back, making it much easier to get to our plantings (which are looking great). Also revealed are the privet seedlings that were hiding and making galliant attempts to grow quickly while we can’t see them. This is a great time to get to them while they are easy to see and accessible. So here are the details:
When: Monday, 5th August, 9.30-12.30pm
What: Planting maintenance and weeding.
Where: Meet at the Anabranch picnic area (at the causeway along Jacksonia Grove)
Bring: Drink bottle, Garden gloves, weed bags, weeding tool and watering buckets (some tools will be provided)
Wear: Enclosed sturdy footwear, sun hat and sun-smart clothing.
Morning tea: is at 11am, please bring something to share or to enjoy yourself.
Coordinators Report: Last Monday, the BRAWL executive committee held our recent quarterly meeting. At these meetings, I provide a quarterly report to the executive, reporting on the activities that have occured during that quarter. The committee suggested that this report may be of interest to the BRAWL membership. Please find the Community Coordinator’s report attached for your interest.
I hope to see you on Monday!

July 2024 working bee
2024-07-01 12:30
Don’t let the cool weather trick you into thinking things may have slowed down at the river. If anything, this is the time to ramp up and get a head-start on the weeds before the flush of weedy spring growth!
We have been working hard in the “newly mulched” area recently (Sites 4 and 5). When a site is newly opened, extra effort is required to control weeds which tend to take advantage of the increased light and available water, until our new plantings are established and able to claim dominance. We are only 2.5 years into this new area and many of our plantings are above head height. In another 2 years, we will be able to decrease the number of visits to this site.
So July’s working bee will be held at Site 5 – Old Bega Racecourse end – working upstream from the most eastern end. Our focus once again will be privet (cut and paste), Vines (Turkey rhubarb, Madeira Vine and Cape Ivy), cutting down tall weeds overshadowing plantings and overall, tidying up our plantings – weeding inside guards and clearing at least 50cm around base – especially moving trad away.
Remember – if you know any of these weeds or if everything sounds like another language, please don’t be scared off, we always love new volunteers and are happy to ID weeds or demonstrate techniques.
After morning tea, we will have the chance to return to the small garden area we gave a facelift to last year (as you enter the racecourse). Our plants are growing superbly well, but there are a few weeds and blackberries returning. With a group of us, we could have it tidied and guards removed in 10 mins!
When: Monday, 1st July, 9.30-12.30pm
What: Planting maintenance, targeted weeding including privet, pulling off guards, knocking down tall weeds.
Where: Site 5. Meet at the Old Bega Racecourse (corner of Jacksonia Grove and East St)
Bring: Drink bottle, garden gloves, weed bags, weeding tool and secuatears (some tools will be provided)
Wear: Enclosed sturdy footwear, sun hat and sun-smart clothing.
Morning tea: is at 11am, please bring something to share or to enjoy yourself.

June 2024 working bee
2024-06-03 09:30 - 12:30

November 2023 working bee
2023-11-06 09:30 - 12:30
Details TBC.

October 2023 working bee
2023-10-09 09:30 - 12:30
The October working bee falls on the public holiday. We will postpone this working bee to the following Monday 9th October, 9.30-12.30pm.

We will be planting out the newly created erosion control area at the Bega River Junction Crossing with lomandras (see photos below). We installed bollards at this site on Thursday to restrict the movements of 4WD vehicles damaging the roots of ancient river oaks and causing deep incisions in the river banks. By following up with the lomandras, we will help to stabilise the banks and rehabilitate the area.
This was a huge job and required special excavated holes by vacuum suction instead of digging/augering due to the amount of underground utilities at this location. It was fascinating! Thanks also to Paddy and Premjody for a massive job installing the bollards. We are very lucky to have our contractors who help to turn BRAWL’s ambitious rehabilitation plans into reality.

When: Monday 9th October, 9.30-12.30pm
Where: Main river reserve picnic area, most western table (look for the BRAWL flag)
Bring: Water bottle, garden gloves, watering buckets and small trowel (some tools will be provided)
Morning tea is at 11am. Please bring something to share or to just enjoy yourself.

September 2023 working bee
2023-09-04 09:30 - 12:30
Our next working bee is upon us and we are spoilt for choice for activities to do!
The good news is that we are on track with our annual maintenance schedule. A targeted sweep for priority weeds was undertaken in late winter across all river sites. We also completed planting out 2.4 ha of the “new mulched” area between the Anabranch picnic area and the Racecourse last Saturday with students from the ANU and community members.
So we’ve decided to turn our minds to mitigating potential fire loads by reducing the growth of hemlock. This is particularly prevalent in the old bamboo site and can grow up to a couple meters in height. Hemlock tends to dry out over summer, creating a dense mid-story of dry vegetation. The aim will be to chip this down to ground level.
After morning tea, we have a special activity to remove a washed down large tree branch that has gotten lodged in the toe of the river bank, down from “AnnaBench”. The way the branch is lodged is causing a swirling vortex during times of higher flow, causing the river bank to erode. Some of us will get down in the water to move this branch and others will plant out the eroded slope to help stabilise the bank.
It will be a fun working bee with a bit of diversity to keep it interesting! The details are:
When: Monday 4th September, 9.30-12.30pm
Meet: Anabranch picnic area (mid-way along Jacksonia Gr at the causeway)
Bring: Garden gloves, weed chipper or mattock, water bottle and change of clothes if you plan to stand in the water to move the tree branch (mid-thigh deep) – some tools will be provided, so don’t worry if you don’t have anything to bring.
Wear: Sun safe clothes, hat and sturdy shoes or boots.
Morning tea is at 11. Please bring something to share or to enjoy for yourself.

Bega River Wildlife Walk
2023-08-13 11:00 - 13:30
Bega River Wildlife Walk – this Science week – with Botanist Jackie Miles & iNaturalist support

The Atlas of Life and the Bega River and Wetlands Landcare group (BRAWL) will run a botanist led “walk, record and ID” session at the Bega River Reserve. We will have the expert knowledge of Jackie Miles to guide us on plant ID and Patricia Daly and other Atlas members on hand to provide a beginner’s guide on how to use the iNaturalist app.
You will have the opportunity to practice your new learnt skills with help readily at hand.
Additional details
Bring: Smart phone with iNaturalist app downloaded or camera and drink bottle
Wear: Sturdy shoes, sun hat, warm jumper
Light lunch will be included.
Suitable for everyone
Well behaved dogs on leads are welcome.
This is a Bega River and Wetlands Landcare (BRAWL) and Atlas of Life partnership event.
Meet: Bega River Reserve picnic area (corner Auckland St and Jacksonia Gr)
