rudi

On the fateful day of 14 March 2018 Neil came to help us to put the front corner posts in. When we started it looked like this: It all went very well, posts were put in and even some railings. Neil left and we prepared to put in the final front brace when the whole […]

2018.02.21 One of the more difficult parts of the whole exercise was the transport of the poles from the shed to the site. As usual (we never learn) we tried to get the tractor but in the end we overloaded our trailer and transported them low range first gear to the parking and carried them

2018.02.28 We intended to use reclaimed fence poles and power line poles scorched and replaced after the fire. We even did try to retrieve some from along the N2 but in the end decided that with just the two of us it would take too long and our other work in the nursery and arboretum

We had a good start to 2018, the reserve is recovering very well after the fire with many unusual plants and flowers to be discovered and admired.There is now a spiffy new welcoming sign at the entrance circle and the ranch poles had a fresh coat of paint, looking great!We asked for a long time

It has taken a while to come up with a new type of signs which don’t cost an arm and a leg and finally I used some old sprinkler pipe from the nursery and some sheeting from an old air conditioning duct and came up with something acceptable. Here are some others: The pebbles on

2017.07.26 Another walk and talk for the Woodridge students. Very well organized this time with the students split in three groups each doing a specific activity in turn. Ellie explaining our work in the reserve. Another lady talking about the wildlife and a group led by Rob tackling Podalyrias Afterwards all students got lunch by

2017.09.17 Today we did a walkabout just to see how our various trail signs had fared and truth be told, not too good. Most have burnt. On a positive note though we found the borehole and one of the property pegs at last. The signs definitely have seen better days Walking through the forest we

2017.07.12 Some more post-burn pictures today. Since the burn we have walked the trail quite a few times, first the recce the day after the fire, then armed with some tools to clear away the burnt sticks and then also to show the Wednesday walkers. As we have led the end of the trail up

Even though we had said ‘Never again’ it didn’t take long before we got to think about a new bird hide and this time with a twist. To give it some protection from the inevitable fire we would put in in the water! This of course gave raise to a whole new set of challenges.

  The first hide constructed by the Friends was in the Arboretum, design and execution by Neil. It was put up in March 2015 and well liked but it suffered from lack of birds and view. Here some Woodridge students have fun during an excursion. In March 2016 a fire swept through part of the