Waterway fenced and revegetated at Lismore with assistance from Bundy Bush Fund and Lismore Angling Club volunteers


Bundaberg Rum, the Lismore Land Protection Group, the Lismore Angling Club and Tony Street a local landholder joined forces to fence and revegetate nearly a kilometre of stream along Browns Waterholes.
 
The project began when Karen O’Keefe, a coordinator at the Lismore Land Protection Group wrote the application for funding and was successful in receiving nearly $5,500 from the Bundaberg Rum Bush fund. Karen said “she was ecstatic when she received news that the funding had come through as this was the first time Lismore had received funds from this source. Generally the group gets money from government grants so it was good to receive corporate funding for a change.”
 
Craig Skene who manages Tony Streets property organised the project and he arranged for the Lismore angling club to come and plant the trees as a fund raising event. All up over 20 people attended the day and planted over 3200 trees on this site and another 1500 trees on other sites on the day. Craig said that “you have to get the trees in early and we set a date for the last weekend in August each year and we plant regardless of the weather on the day. This way the trees have the best chance of getting follow up rain and getting their roots down before the season dries up”.
 
Craig said that “the Angling Club members have always been keen to help plant trees on Tony’s property and it is a great opportunity for the local angling club to raise funds. It is always hard to get funding and often the grants need matching dollars so this puts money in our bank so that we can continue to do works at Lake Tooliorook and elsewhere”. Craig also said that it was great to get the creek fenced off as it was a nuisance as the banks were eroding, sheep would get trapped in the creek and die and it was always hard to round them up when the sheep could drop into the creek and get away. This is great and it will look fantastic in the next few years”
 
Karen said “the trees are doing really well this year due to the good late rains in November and again over Christmas. This really helps the trees to get established.” Karen also said that “fencing off the creek gives the native plants that are surviving in the creek like Phragmities and rushes a chance to recover. These remnant plants are important in reducing erosion as they form a physical barrier between the soil and the water, act as water filters and also provide essential habitat for frogs, macro-invertebrates and native fish.