Community Noticeboard
The Society's Blue Mountains Community Noticeboard promotes local events related to the conservation of the natural environment of the Greater Blue Mountains area or nature conservation generally.
The events displayed below first appeared in the Society's regular eBlasts. To have events considered for inclusion please email our membership secretary - membership@bluemountains.org.au.
The Society reserves the right to not include notices of events and actions.
Current events, actions and information
- Saturday 2 September - Springwood Festival - volunteers for the Society's stall
- Thursday 14 September - Stop Coal Seam Gas Rally - Circular Quay
- Platypus Project - Citizen Science
- Ecology of Sublime Point Reserve, Leura - New Book!
- Energy and Water Saver - Kits Available to Borrow
- Western Sydney Airport - Preliminary Flight Paths Released
- Save The Snowies - Aerial Culling of Feral Horses
- Regent Honeyeater - Report Your Sightings
- Great Koala National Park - Write to the Premier
- Presentation Online - Nest Boxes For Wildlife
volunteers for the Society's stall
- A relatively fit and agile person to come early (7:45am) and help set up (offloading and erecting stall structure and cover, tables, banners, plants etc)
- A few people for each of three shifts between 9 and 4 (morning, lunch and afternoon); some selling our own native plants, others taking signatures for various petitions and all generally letting people know about the Society and its activities and campaigns.
- A relatively fit and agile person to help pack up at 3:45pm.
If you will be available on Saturday 2 September and willing to help please email Andrew ASAP advising which shift you can do. Please include your mobile number. Email: events@bluemountains.org.au
Save the Pilliga and Liverpool Plains
Circular Quay
March from Customs House to the NSW Parliament
Santos’ coal seam gas (CSG) plans for north-west NSW, including the proposed Narrabri Gas Project, are opposed by Gomeroi Traditional Owners, farmers, the union movement and civil society.
There are significant concerns these plans will have a detrimental impact on the Pilliga Forest and groundwater as well as threatening highly productive agriculture on the Liverpool Plains.
The Pilliga Project
The Pilliga Project documentary is a film about a magnificently beautiful and huge forest in North West NSW, in Australia. The forest is crucial to life across a vast region. Millions of Australians rely on the Pilliga forest for drinking water and to grow our food, that includes the people of Sydney.
It seems mad that such an important place would be under threat. But it is. And this film shows the forest, its threats and how it will impact you.
Watch it here (or Google “The Pilliga Project”).
You’ll never forget your first platypus encounter. It’s a magical moment when this strange and adorable creature emerges from ripples in the water.
This September, the Australian Conservation Foundation is asking people like you to head down to their local creek or river, find a quiet place on the bank, try to spot a platypus and record what you see.
You might be surprised by the places the elusive platypus calls home. In urban rivers, suburban creeks, farm dams, and local reservoirs – a platypus probably lives closer than you think.
By taking part in the platy-project, you’ll help researchers understand more about this elusive animal and how we can better protect it.
Enter your details to get all the information and resources you need to spot a weird and wonderful platypus this September.
The book addresses a multitude of topics, but there are three special sections which discuss:
- two colour forms of a large population of several thousand Lepyrodia cryptica, a scale rush,
- the amazing 1200 specimens of the 2-3 m Logania albiflora crammed into an area only 14 m in diameter, and
- the declining population of Vulnerable Persoonia acerosa, Needle Geebung or Mossy Geebung
There is a three-page discussion of climate in the Blue Mountains
A5, 58 pages plus covers, all in full colour
$30 a copy, plus $4 P+P
Email your name and address to davidcoleby@bigpond.com for a return email about payment
Energy and water saving kits are now available for you to borrow.
Blue Mountains City Council has made these kits available for residents to use free of charge. These kits will allow you to measure the energy, water use, and waste output of your home, community building or business.
The tests and equipment included in the kits can help you check for water leaks, high energy items, costly behaviours and other building design flaws that could be contributed to your water and energy bills.
Using these kits will help you to take actions that could save you money and reduce your emissions.
There are kits available which can be borrowed through the Blue Mountains City Council Library network. The loan period is for one week.
Each kit contains:
- Thermal Imaging Camera
- Power Meter
- Stopwatch
- Thermometer
- Instruction Guide
courtesy of Western Sydney Airport(click image to see a larger version)
Flight paths for new Western Sydney Airport revealed (ABC)
Western Sydney Airport flight paths spread the impact in Blue Mountains (Blue Mountains Gazette)
Western Sydney Airport website
Community information and feedback sessions
Katoomba: Sat. 19 August, 11am – 3pm, Katoomba Leura Community Centre, book here
Residents Against Western Sydney Airport - Update No.36, 5 July 2023
Susan Templeman MP Media Release - includes the Online Tool and What's Next
These are not the same flight paths that were included in the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) of 2015, which had every incoming flight pass over Blaxland. While some people may feel relief, others will be surprised and concerned to see their area impacted.
Since coming to Government, I have advocated for greater transparency and better consultation than has occurred over the last decade.
Over the past year I have secured baseline noise monitoring, ongoing and accessible community consultation and now the release of an online interactive tool that shows proposed flight paths and potential noise impacts.
In releasing these flight paths, I have demanded that accurate and detailed information be available to us all.
You can access the information and register for updates at www.wsiflightpaths.gov.au
I have included more information on the online tool below, and I urge you to use this to understand exactly what is being put forward in these preliminary flight paths. For people who do not have internet access, I expect that hard copy information will be available from the Department shortly. Please contact my office so we know who needs this.
As we digest the impact of the preliminary flight paths, I know people will feel angry. I know people will be upset. I also know we need to work together as a community to have effective input into this process.
Since 2014, when the then Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced WSI as a 24/7 airport, I have been relentless in working alongside many of you to highlight the potential impacts on our community.
I don't intend to stop doing that, and I will need your detailed feedback on these flight paths to do it. Feel free to email me at susan.templeman.mp@aph.gov.au or call my office on 4573-8222.
Yours sincerely,
Susan Templeman
Federal Member for Macquarie
27 June 2023
www.wsiflightpaths.gov.au
You will be able to type in an address and choose two forms of information to look at: the flight path simulator and the noise map.
The interactive Flight Path Simulator shows the proposed paths that flights will be required to take when arriving or departing WSI in the three operating modes:
- Runway 05: In this operational mode flights arrive from the south-west and depart to the north east.
- Runway 23: In this operational mode flights arrive from the north-east and depart to the south west.
- Reciprocal Runway Operations: The effective nighttime operations mode that is only able to be used between 11:00PM and 5:30AM, will see flights arrive and depart from the south-west.
The Noise Map allows you to see how loud a single flight over any location may be, as well as the number of flights above a specified level of noise in a twenty-four-hour period.
The online tool also allows you to view a simulated take-off or landing that demonstrates the height over ground of an aircraft and how loud this will be on the ground. To see this feature, click on a flight path and select the 3D visualisation option in the top left-hand corner of the map.
Preliminary flightpaths and noise tool released. Feedback can be provided to the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and the Arts, by phone, email or at community information sessions in July and August.
The draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) will be released for formal public exhibition and submissions. The draft EIS will examine the noise, social and environmental impacts of the proposed flight paths.
Following the exhibition period, submissions received will be considered in the determination process by the Federal Minister for the Environment and Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government.
Photo courtesy of the Invasive Species Council
Today, the NSW government announced they’re one step away from allowing aerial control of feral horses in Kosciuszko National Park. Unlocking this vital tool will reduce feral horse numbers and protect the Australian Alps.
This is huge news! Together we’ve worked hard for this outcome. But it’s not yet a reality.
The NSW government just opened a month-long public consultation and anyone in Australia can take part. That means we have just 30 days to ensure everyone who cares about Kosci and its wildlife helps get these vital changes over the line by making a submission.
You can bet there will be a small but vocal opposition to these critical changes. That’s why it’s crucial the NSW government hears from you! Tell them you support aerial control to protect Kosci’s native wildlife and ecosystems from the impacts of feral horses today.
Day after day, thousands of feral horses are trashing and trampling sensitive alpine ecosystems and streams, causing the decline and extinction of native animals like the critically endangered southern corroboree frog. The federal government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee states feral horses ‘may be the crucial factor that causes final extinction’ for 12 alpine species.
Without aerial control as an option for feral horses, park rangers are powerless to protect our wildlife. With the feral horse population so high, thousands need to be removed annually to reduce numbers and stop our national park becoming a horse paddock. Aerial shooting, undertaken humanely and safely by professionals using standard protocols, is the only way this can happen.
This humane and effective practice is already used across Australia to manage hundreds of thousands of feral animals like horses, deer, pigs and goats.
The only reason it’s been off the cards for horses in Kosci has been political – not science-based. It’s a hazardous, politically-motivated hangover of former deputy premier John Barilaro’s damaging “brumby bill”.
Today’s announcement shows governments can put science above vested interests – and our collective actions have played a huge role in this progress. Now, we must get these necessary changes over the line.
Please make a submission today
and share this with your friends.
It doesn’t need to be long and you don’t need to be an expert – just tell the NSW government you want our native wildlife protected and support national parks staff having all the tools to do this.
Urgent and humane measures are necessary to reduce horse numbers in Kosciuszko National Park or they will destroy the Snowies and the native wildlife that call the mountains home.
Let’s ensure Kosciuszko National Park is a thriving national park, not a growing herd of feral horses.
Thank you for taking action!
Yours for nature,
Andrew Cox – CEO,
Invasive Species Council.
One of Australia's rarest species of bird, the Regent Honeyeater, has been making an appearance in several locations along the New South Wales east coast.
Conservationists say it's "heartening" news, as last breeding season they were unable to find any Regent Honeyeater nests.
"The current Regent Honeyeater population estimate is around 250 to 300 birds in the wild, and with not seeing a single nest last year, you would err towards the lower end of that estimate," Birdlife Australia's NSW Woodland Bird Program manager Mick Roderick said.
This week there have been sightings of the distinctive honeyeater near Coffs Harbour on the state's Mid North Coast, and a flock has been seen further south at Lake Macquarie in the Hunter region.
There’s a plan to save koalas from extinction – and you can be a part of it.
YOU CAN HELP, RIGHT NOW.
The NSW government has promised to create “an iconic Great Koala National Park” but there is a big problem ... they’re still logging it! If we’re going save koalas from extinction, this must stop!
Please write to NSW Premier Minns and ask for the logging to stop.
Tell him that current logging is destroying koala habitat in the GKNP and ask him to stop the logging NOW
It can be as short as one sentence but use your own words and ask for a response.
Key points to consider:
- Habitat loss is the key threat to koala survival.
- The NSW Government is refusing to stop intensively logging critical koala habitat in the Great Koala National Park while planning is underway.
- Koalas will become extinct in NSW by 2050 if habitat loss continues.
- Forest Corp is logging in the proposed GKNP faster than ever before and appears to be targeting critical koala habitat.
- Forest Corp is a NSW Government owned company.
- Forest Corp's 12 month logging plan (from March '23) targets 30,297ha (14%) of native forest within the GKNP. This area includes 518 koala records.
- Public native forest logging in NSW makes an annual $10-20 million LOSS and is propped up by NSW taxpayers each year.
- The NSW public plantation sector is strong and profitable and can meet timber needs.
- The GKNP will create 9,800 regional jobs generating $330m in wages and $273m in capital and operating expenditure plus generate $412m in tourism spending.
Here is the premier's contact form.
Photo by Peter Ridgeway
His presentation is now available on our web site.
What’s the problem? And why does it matter?
Like much of Australia, the Blue Mountains has a shortage of tree hollows. Many native wildlife species require hollows to survive. This includes not only well-known species like Possums and Parrots but also many of our rarer or less well known wildlife such as microbats (tiny moth-sized insect-eating bats) and Pardalotes.
What are the main factors contributing to the problem?
The main causes of our hollow shortage are:
- Historic clearing – much of our vegetation is young regrowth and it will take many decades before hollows form
- Human safety needs and arboriculture works frequently remove old trees or their hollows, especially from suburban areas
- Increasingly severe bushfires are also reducing hollows in our natural areas
Why did you feel inclined to volunteer your time to speak at the event?
My partner and I live at Wentworth Falls and enjoy watching the local wildlife in our garden. One winter we noticed a tree with a small hollow outside our kitchen window. The tree was quite young, and its hollow was only about 5 centimetres deep. But each morning a pair of Crimson Rosellas would visit and try to expand the hollow deeper to make themselves a nest to raise their young. They kept at this almost every day for nearly two months before finally giving up. We were very moved by the experience, and often wonder if they ever found a place to raise their chicks. It brought home to me how desperately short hollows are, and the impact this has on our wildlife.
What happens if we sit back and do nothing?
Our local wildlife will never thrive unless we take action to increase the hollows available for them. The shortage of hollows is a problem created by our modern lifestyles and decisions, but we also have the opportunity to be the solution.
Why is it not simply a matter of planting more trees?
Trees take a very long time to form hollows, in some cases more than a hundred years, and our wildlife can’t afford to wait this long. Not all tree species form hollows, and even in the native Eucalyptus only specific species form the hollows needed for particular wildlife species.
There is a wealth of information on nest boxes online, but watch out as the quality of advice varies. If you want to build your own box I recommend the NSW government guide here.
For a wider range of species, this guide is also good.
Some ready-made nest boxes are available from the Society.
Some local volunteer sheds also build boxes (e.g. Richmond Men's Shed), and it’s worth a chat with a local shed to see what they can supply.
There are many online suppliers – although some boxes which are sold are quite unsuitable for their target species. Look for a box which is made of natural materials, is durable, and very well insulated. Hardwood or thick (>12 mm) hardwood ply are the best options. Avoid purchasing ‘recycled’ hollows, as these are harvested from the wild where the existing wildlife needs these hollows as homes!
– the Darug and Gundungurra people –
and pay respect to their Elders past, present and emerging.