Last Sunday we took part in a nature conservation project organised by 'Greening Australia' and DFAT.
We drove over to a beautiful spot just west of Cotter Dam, a lovely area about 30 mins drive from Canberra. The plan was to plant 1,000 or so local trees and shrubs. The area had been destroyed by the bush fires which had devastated large areas of Canberra in 2003. Previously the hillside had been planted with pine trees (there were still plenty of charred remains) and the plan was to encourage the re-growth of indigenous plants and trees - thereby stopping the topsoil from washing into the Dam!
There was a great turnout of probably 50 cars. Everyone was equipped with a bucket of plants and a pick or shovel (nobody really got my 'take your pick' jokes - I blame cultural differences) and we headed off to the hillside.
The lady from Greening Australia showed us how deep to dig our holes, how to water our foliage etc and during her demonstration a HUGE spider hopped out of the hole she had started to work on. I was ready to get straight back in the car and drive off, but Amy persuaded me to stay - I think we were probably only a couple of hours drive to the nearest hospital!
We planted and watered our bucket of plants. It was great fun - we had predicted that Audrey would get tired of it all after a while, but she loved playing in the dirt(!) and fortunately didn't encounter any more spiders.
We had a sausage sizzle for lunch (v.popular!) and they even laid on veg-burgers for me which was great. It was a lovely day out!
We drove over to a beautiful spot just west of Cotter Dam, a lovely area about 30 mins drive from Canberra. The plan was to plant 1,000 or so local trees and shrubs. The area had been destroyed by the bush fires which had devastated large areas of Canberra in 2003. Previously the hillside had been planted with pine trees (there were still plenty of charred remains) and the plan was to encourage the re-growth of indigenous plants and trees - thereby stopping the topsoil from washing into the Dam!
There was a great turnout of probably 50 cars. Everyone was equipped with a bucket of plants and a pick or shovel (nobody really got my 'take your pick' jokes - I blame cultural differences) and we headed off to the hillside.
The lady from Greening Australia showed us how deep to dig our holes, how to water our foliage etc and during her demonstration a HUGE spider hopped out of the hole she had started to work on. I was ready to get straight back in the car and drive off, but Amy persuaded me to stay - I think we were probably only a couple of hours drive to the nearest hospital!
We planted and watered our bucket of plants. It was great fun - we had predicted that Audrey would get tired of it all after a while, but she loved playing in the dirt(!) and fortunately didn't encounter any more spiders.
We had a sausage sizzle for lunch (v.popular!) and they even laid on veg-burgers for me which was great. It was a lovely day out!
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