BURKE RD. BILLABONG RESERVE NEWS - MAY 2013

SHIPPING CONTAINER

The shipping container was delivered in March which means that our wheelie bins, tools and marquee can be stored on site. We have purchased second hand shelving and it is making life much easier.

MICROBATS

Towards winter the numbers in the microbat colony normally decreases. Where they go, nobody knows, but they tend to return in spring. So in April, there were only 10 microbats, with 9 in one tube and 1 in the tube next to it.

PLANT NAME OF THE MONTH

Kangaroo apple (Solanum laciniatum)
Solanum (Latin) - nightshade
Lacinia (Latin) - flap of garment (lobed leaves of laciniatum are similar)


Solanum aviculare, commonly called Poroporo (New Zealand) or Kangaroo Apple (Australia), is a soft-wooded shrub native to New Zealand and the east coast of Australia.

It can grow up to 12 feet tall (4 metres). The leaves are, 8-30 cm long, lobed or entire, with any lobes being 1-10 cm long.

There is some uncertainty whether S. aviculare and S. laciniatum are one or two species. S. aviculare has lighter flowers.

The leaves and unripe fruit of S. aviculare contain the toxic alkaloid solasodine. S. aviculare is cultivated in Russia and Hungary for the solasidine, which is extracted and used as a base material for the production of steroid contraceptives.

(Australian Plant names (Don Perrin) & Wikipedia)

FUNDING.

We received funding from BPay View (reported in the Boroondara Leader of 12 March) for tools and protective clothing, and have so far purchased a new and more powerful brush-cutter, 'dutch hoes', brush-cutter blade, rakes, and protective helmet with ear muffs.

We have also received advice that another grant has been approved, this for a slasher. We are working through the requirements listed in the substantial "common funding agreement short form".

The City of Boroondara is providing 1700 plants this financial year and these have been ordered. They will be collected when we get some decent rain!

OTHER WORK

RMIT students visited the reserve as the first part of their 'River restoration' studies. Kikuyu grass has reasserted itself in parts of the 2012 RMIT planting area, so I have slashed this, as well as the picnic area and the path verge.

COMMUNITY WORK DAYS

In my absence, David and volunteers cleared along the golf course fence, making access to this area easier for future work.

Eight Camberwell Grammar boys and their teacher joined us on our Sunday workday in April. Thanks to all the boys who did a very good morning's work, moving large logs further back from the path and weeding in the RMIT 2011 area!

THE NEXT COMMUNITY WORK DAYS

FRIDAY 10 MAY 2013
9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

&

SUNDAY 26 MAY 2013
10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Stanley Barker,
Burke Rd. Billabong Committee of Management.
www.vicnet.net.au/~fobrb