Please be aware there will NOT be another working bee along McKay Brook this month – the next working bee is scheduled for Saturday 9th November.

More information from Bryan Hacker in early November.

Hope to see you on 9th November.

Entries are due THIS WEEK for our Photographic Competition!

Anyone can enter!  We cater for the young and the not-so-young with an open category for adults and a **NEW** Digital Young Persons (grade 1 – 6) category for school students.

This is an opportunity to showcase your photographic prowess by capturing the natural wonders of our beautiful catchment! 

Adults must submit their photos, completed application form and labels in person at the Brookfield Showgrounds, between 10.00am and 2.00pm NEXT Saturday 19 October.

If you’re entering the Digital Young Persons category, you’ll need to email your photo by Friday 18 October.

For all the information and to download an entry form, please head to our Photography Competition page.

Get snapping and good luck! 

Everyone’s a winner really, with lots of prizes up for grabs and a display of entries at Kenmore Village from 21 October.

Test your skills each month with  Jim Butler’s Wildlife Identification Quiz!

You’ll find Know Your Wildlife towards the back of every month’s The Local Bulletin.

We will provide the answers to each quiz right here in the first or second week of every month!

So, do you have your answers ready for the November quiz?  The correct answers are:

   Butterfly: Caper Gull  

   Bird: Bell Miner

   Mammal: Fox

ps: If you need some help, we’d recommend searching our digital field guides! Open them from the side menu:

These alphabetical lists provide a wealth of local information about wildlife. They feature thumb-nail images which expand to a larger view when you click upon them.

Keep an eye out for next month’s quiz! 

WHERE: Brookfield Showgrounds!!!

WHEN: Saturday 5th October 9am-4pm and Sunday 6th October 9am-2pm

COST: $10 per adult / $8 concession (card holder) per day / children under 15 free

HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:

• Interstate and local guest speakers – expert horticulturists
• Over 100 stalls of dedicated plant sellers and related garden products
• Organic and edible gardening
• Native and non-native plants
• Plant creche and variety of food stalls
• Entertainment for both adults and children
• FREE parking

For more info and to purchase tickets online, head to the Expo website.

… and so much more!

Our Spring Newsletter is now available online by clicking “Download our Latest Newsletter”.

It features an article by platypus ecologist Tamielle Blunt, supported by many other noteworthy contributions from MCCG members.

Bryan Hacker has nominated a significant tree in our catchment, with a description and photo. Take a look – perhaps you know this very tree!

We strongly recommend you spend a happy half hour browsing through the articles and pictures.

You should also read an online story about platypus tracking related to Tamielle’s, which was written by Beck Bain. Click here to enjoy!

We extend our very special thanks to our editor Cathi Lawrence, and to Jim Pope, Bryan Hacker, Ed Frazer, Phil Bird, James Butler, Beck and all those who contributed to this issue.

Back by popular demand! Join all the SPOOOOKY action on Wildlife Queensland’s fun-filled Batty Boat Halloween Cruise on Sunday, 27 October!

Cruise the beautiful Brisbane River and watch the bats fly out at sunset. 
Meet adorable orphaned baby bats on board.
Learn fascinating wildlife facts.  

Come dressed for Halloween – prizes for best costumes – young and old!   

 
© Jim Pope 

Queensland Conservation Council is holding a community  forum on Saturday 12 October.

This is the final forum in the Greater Brisbane Project which has been running for the past 10 months. 

Here QCC will share a proposal for Greater Brisbane Environment Advocacy Network (Greater BEAN) initiatives planned for funding in 2020. Your input will help shape the vision!

Their aim is to make the Greater BEAN strong enough to tackle the big issues facing the wildlife and places we love.

For more information, about the event please head to the QCC website. (Registration required).

Many of us are intrigued and delighted by seeing  platypus in the wild. Sadly, current research indicates that platypus numbers in the greater Brisbane area are in sharp decline.

Tamielle Blunt is a renowned ecologist who specialises in studying platypus populations in south-east Queensland.  Tamielle is working to understand why the distribution of platypus in our region is diminishing so rapidly.  As well as leading platypus counts for the MCCG and across the region, Tamielle also performs “catch-and-release” surveys to support her research.

Rebecca Bain is an MCCG member and talented photographer who has a passion for wildlife. Like Tamielle, Beck is intrigued by platypus and religiously attends our annual surveys. So for Beck, it was a match made in heaven when Tamielle invited her along to a trapping night.

Beck has shared this unique experience. We hope you enjoy this very entertaining read! 

I have crossed paths with Tamielle several times over the last few years thanks to our shared interest in platypuses, amongst other wildlife interests. I finally got a chance to assist her (in a volunteer capacity) at one of her trapping nights in July and it was a great experience.

We began around lunchtime, with the plan to set up fyke nets at between 4 to 8 sites within the Kenmore/Kenmore Hills area of the Moggill Creek Catchment.

As we arrived at our first site I got to change into a pair of waders and, armed with our nets (plus wooden stakes and a mallet to anchor the nets down) we then proceeded to trek about 100 metres to our first sight.

It’s a strange sensation walking into a creek for the first time – you’re relieved to find that the waders do their job and keep you dry, while at the same time you feel the coldness of the water through the fabric.

Tamielle found an ideal spot that allowed 2 nets (one upstream and one downstream) to be set up in a spot in the creek no wider than 10 metres (the length of the nets) and no deeper than 1 metre.  We then had to search for suitably-sized rocks (which often meant plunging your arm into the cold water) to place along the base of the nets (once again plunging your arm/s into cold water) to prevent any platypuses from swimming underneath.

With the first site set up, we proceeded to the second site. This site, however, ended up being unsuitable. Tamielle had scouted for locations a few weeks earlier but sometimes areas can become too shallow due to lack of rain, and unfortunately the surrounding areas of this shallow site were either too wide (>10 m) or had a deep channel running through.

We ended up with 4 sites in total, that we would monitor throughout the night/early morning.  We conducted checks at 7pm, 11pm (snuck in a few hours sleep from 12.45am to 4.00am) and 4.30am. Our checks consisted not only of looking for trapped platypuses but also checking for other species that may have found themselves trapped, as well as repairing any damaged nets.

Unfortunately, the only mammals we found throughout the night were Red-necked Wallabies, Brushtail and Ringtail Possums… We did liberate 2 Eel-tailed Catfish from the nets, and two native water rats liberated themselves from nets before we got the chance to. The little buggers chewed through the net once caught, leaving us with net repairs to carry out by the light of our head torches – check out the picture below!

While it was disappointing to have not caught a single platypus for all our efforts, I enjoyed being out in the field and seeing for myself how the process works. 

I’ll just have to hope that next time (yep, I’m going to wander around in creeks in the middle of winter at all hours of the night, again) I’ll be lucky enough to help catch at least one of these so far elusive platypuses.

But wait, there’s more!

THANK YOU BECK AND TAMIELLE!

Do you know an outstanding young person who deserves to be recognised?

Why not enter them into the 7NEWS Young Achiever Awards?

These awards aim to acknowledge, encourage and most importantly promote the positive achievements of all young people in Queensland up to and including 29 years of age.

It’s free to nominate a young achiever, and entries must be submitted by Thursday 12th December 2019.

For more info, head to the Young Achiever website.  No achievement is too small (or big!)

 

There’s always something to attend in Brisbane when it  comes to caring for and enjoying our local environment!

The Brisbane Catchments Network has a new events page on their website to help plan your activities. 

It will list events that Brisbane’s catchment groups are running, as well as other events that may interest you. 

More is still being added to this page. It’s definitely worth bookmarking!