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.
RHHFFPS Members’ End-Of-Year Get-together – Sunday 3 December
We look forward to seeing you anytime on the afternoon of Sunday 3 December. Around 12.30pm we will serve a barbecue + salad lunch, and you will be able to help yourself to afternoon tea at any time. Enjoy the cool environment around the Visitor Centre, with lots of wildlife nearby!
Boomerang Alliance - Total Environment Centre (TEC) Film Screening – Friday 8 December
Due for public release early next year, "Fighting For A Green Future" celebrates over 50 years of
environmental action. Venue is Tom Mann Theatre, Chalmers St, Surry Hills – 6.00pm
The 7-part series, produced by TEC, answers critical questions:
- How did the Australian environmental movement begin?
- How have campaigns influenced society, economics, science, technology, law, media, and politics?
- What does the future hold for us, and is there hope?
You will hear from renowned campaigners, political figures, scientists, journalists and legal experts, including interviews with Tim Flannery, Bob Carr, Zali Steggall, and many more!
During the evening, TEC will also be hosting a Q&A panel with campaigners
Places are limited; register here.
Aliens Among Us: Invasive Species Council Webinar - Monday 11 December, 12-1pm
Organised by the Invasive Species Council, this webinar will be held online on Zoom – click here to register for the link to join (plus calendar and email reminders). Special guest Dr Isa Menzies will help answer burning questions about the feral horse debate:
- How did they become bound up in the identity of a small but vocal minority?
- Why did the NSW government change laws to protect feral horses in a national park?
- Is there a connection between this and the voice referendum?
- What action is needed to save the 12 species threatened with extinction by feral horses?
City of Ryde Christmas Craft Walk - Saturday 16 December
City of Ryde Council plans to hold this event in the Field of Mars Reserve. Without damaging live flora and fauna, you will collect natural materials and use them to make Christmas Craft items.
Details, and how to register, will be posted on https://www.ryde.nsw.gov.au/Events/Listing.
City of Ryde Spring Garden Competition Awards
No bushcare groups within the Field of Mars Reserve were entered in this year’s competition, but we are pleased to congratulate several RHHFFPS members whose efforts were recognised:
- Native and Habitat Garden Winner - 1st Place: Fran Reddacliff
- Community Garden Winners - 1st Place: The Habitat
- Bushcare Regeneration Winners - 1st Place: Kitty's Creek; 2nd Place: Martin Reserve
At the awards presentation ceremony, long-standing Society member and environmental campaigner Jimmy Shaw also received recognition for his gardening. To view official details and photographs: see https://www.ryde.nsw.gov.au/Events/Spring-Garden-Competition
Birdwalks
Our tireless expert Cathy Goswell led two more walks on 19 November. There was a wide range of ages among attendees, and all were appreciative. One had written and shared this poem:
The Butcherbird
You come with a flock of rainbow lorikeets
their feathers bright blue, green, yellow and orange,
shiny and soft
like velvet and silk
small red eyes and red beak
friendly and noisy
they eat from my palm sunflower seeds
Your feathers are dark brown
around your head a shawl
your chest of beige
you can’t compete with those rainbow lorikeets
butcherbird, you are so shy
you won’t eat from my hand
you perch on the kitchen window and sing
you think you have found someone to love
you have only seen your own reflection
and sing your song of desire
but on the other side of the window
there is no one but me
I hear your song in my heart
A sweet melody of longing
sung but not for me
your song is as beautiful as the blackbirds
of my homeland
you heal all homesickness
I feel at peace.
- Emilija Debevec
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.
Currently the NSW Parliament is conducting an inquiry into the planning system and the impacts of climate change on the environment and communities. Climate change will have a big impact on biodiversity and the Society has made a submission to the inquiry.
We submitted that a new instrument be introduced to the planning system that ensures areas are set aside that will support
the biodiversity impacted by climate change.
For example salt marsh is a critically endangered ecological community that will be impacted by sea level rises caused by climate change. Current areas of salt marsh will be inundated by the rising water levels and lost unless there are areas where that ecological community can establish itself in the changed water levels critical for its survival.
We have a particular interest in the Field of Mars Reserve where salt marsh is currently under threat from various factors including sea level rises. Appropriate intervention to preserve the salt marsh is a difficult proposition but it will be lost unless this ecological community can establish itself in new areas in the Reserve.
This is an example of what will occur on a larger scale unless areas are set aside for ecological communities to survive in the changed climate.
Not all critically endangered ecological communities are protected by relevant environmental zones and more generally biodiversity is subject to development pressure. Biodiversity will be lost unless provision is made on a state-wide basis for setting aside areas for biodiversity to establish itself following the rise in average temperatures.
This requires a new environmental instrument to zone appropriate areas for the future needs of biodiversity. The National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974 and the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 currently do not include relevant provisions. A relevant instrument may be a State Environmental Planning Policy (SEPP) that provides for C2 Environmental Conservation zoning for the areas identified and set aside for the future needs of biodiversity.
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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