The Society has been active in local conservation issues since 1966 and is well networked with the broader conservation movement across NSW.
In addition to conservation issues, the Society staffs a visitor centre on weekends at the Field of Mars Wildlife Refuge. All welcome.
Sunday 19 November 2023 – BIRD WALKS
Walks will depart from the Visitor Centre at 8.30am and 10.30am, led by our resident expert Cathy Goswell of the Cumberland Bird Observers Club. Bookings are essential as numbers are limited. Contact Alfred Vincent: 98796067 / alfred.vincent@bigpond.com
Sunday 3 December 2023 from 12pm – MEMBERS’ END-OF-YEAR GATHERING
Members, with family and friends, are invited to join us from midday at the Visitor Centre, when we light the gas for a barbecue + salad lunch and chat. We may reminisce about an eventful year!
We welcome members’ suggestions for events we may hold. If you have any great ideas for things you’d like to do, please let us know! Email rhhffps@gmail.com
City of Ryde National Tree Day Scheduled for 30 July at ELS Hall Park, North Ryde, supplies were delayed so the event was held two weeks later.
Sunday Sept 7 2023 - Music on Mars
An estimated 200 people took part in the event to improve a wildlife corridor along Shrimptons Creek. Ryde Council provided a free BBQ, managed by East Ryde Scouts.
We thank Lindsay Mar for the photos of the Music on Mars event, above and on the next page.
It was a wonderful afternoon! Our day’s activities began with a bird walk led by our knowledgeable guide, Cathy Goswell. We then had a barbecue-and-salad lunch before the music began. Approximately 70 people attended in the cool riparian environment of the Reserve where our Visitor Centre veranda formed the stage, and the large Casuarinas formed a well-ventilated roof for the audience… while the rest of Sydney sweltered with temperatures above 30oC.
We thank the entertainers and all who contributed to the event, especially Suzanne Maslen who provided keyboard accompaniment for two singers, and our Coordinator Alfred Vincent, who was the inspiration and driving force for day’s success… but you had to be there to enjoy the music!
SydneySiders Express Harmony Chorus
Jennifer Eriksson, artistic director of the Marais Project, on viola da gamba.
Kirsten Busby, soprano
Peter Hogg, baritone
Suzanne Maslen, accompanist
Tickets $2 each / 3 for $5 available at the Field of Mars Visitor Centre (when opened), or pay to Bendigo Bank account:
RYDE HUNTERS HILL FLORA AND FAUNA PRESERVATION SOCIETY, BSB 633-000, Account number 190716589.
Put “Raffle” + your name and phone number in the comment, and we will then make the tickets for you.
Proceeds support the work of our Society.
The winning ticket will be drawn at our Society’s next Annual General Meeting.
* Hand knitted and kindly donated by members of the Holy Spirit Yarnknit Group.
The independent review of the Biodiversity Conservation Act NSW (2016) led by Ken Henry AO was published in August this year and has made 57 recommendations. Some of these are for improvements to the biodiversity offsets scheme which would improve the performance of that scheme, for example Recommendation 12: Amend the Act to require a net gain for biodiversity by setting credit obligations for all development and clearing assessed through the Biodiversity Offsets Scheme at, say, 120% of calculated biodiversity loss.
While the recommendations to improve the biodiversity offset scheme have merit there is the underlying question of why an offset scheme is necessary.
The recommendations generally address the need for a new nature positive architecture for NSW. The most interesting is recommendation 55 in respect of intersections with other Acts. Consider whether the current institutional arrangements could be improved to ensure environmental considerations have the primacy required for achieving a nature positive outcome.
At the moment development considerations are given far more weight in planning decisions and if adopted, giving primacy to environmental considerations could have a profound impact. This raises the question as to what are environmental considerations with particular reference to biodiversity.
For example the review states (page23) that Outcomes achieved through the Biodiversity Offsets Scheme must be strengthened by identifying upfront ‘no-go’ areas where development cannot occur.
But this would be limited to development impacts that present, or contribute to, a risk of species extinction or ecosystem collapse.
Again, while the recommendations of the review have merit, the focus is on areas that currently have high biodiversity value. Although this is essential, it is not clear where native vegetation more generally would receive a higher priority in development applications.
Frank Breen, President
The Society has been active in local conservation issues since 1966 and is well networked with the broader conservation movement across NSW.
The Society's Constitution states its Aims and Objectives as:
a. The education of the members and the community, particularly in the local area, in nature conservation and protection of the environment;
b. To promote ecologically sustainable land use and development;
c. To promote nature conservation including an adequate system of national parks, wilderness areas, nature reserves, wildlife refuges and corridors and urban bushland reserves; adequate protection measures for native wildlife;
d. Achieving satisfactory measures to safeguard the environment from all forms of pollution to ensure clean air, clean water and a healthy environment;
e. To work for the permanent retention and conservation of all natural areas in the local district and an increase in the area set aside for nature conservation and
f. To undertake the management of the Field of Mars Reserve with Ryde City Council as a major conservation project
We have a regular newsletter Wallumetta which is issued six times a year which attempts to update members on both local environmental issues and issues of wider impact. Our volunteer members keep the Visitors Centre open each weekend. Please contact us if you have concerns about threats to our local natural areas and the precious native fauna which depend on our sensitive bushland areas and waterways.
In the mid 1960s, with an increasing amount of waste needing disposal, Ryde Council looked to an expansion of the small tip in the Field of Mars Reserve. Council proposed to pipe Buffalo and Stranger's Creeks to facilitate a landfill area to a depth of up to 15m feet which could then be re-developed into playing fields. Local residents united to form the Anti-tip Action Group and lobbied to reverse Council's plans for a tip at the Field of Mars. The tip was moved to Porter's Creek which to this day still requires substantial funds to control the environmental damage arising from past use as a tipsite. With the Field of Mars saved the Society was established in January 1966.
In September 1966, Ryde Council advised the Society that it agreed to their proposal to development of the Field of Mars Reserve as a flora and fauna sanctuary. Hard work over following decades has seen restoration of old degraded areas of the Field of Mars and protection of the area as a Wildlife Refuge. A Visitors Centre was built and then the Environmental Education Centre which is visited by about 10,000 students each year.
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