By Tyler Wright
Friends of Sassafras Creek (FOSC) is calling for volunteers to help build a wildlife corridor at the Perrins Creek headwaters in a working bee on Sunday 27 November.
Attendees will be able to get advice on how to effectively get rid of weeds including English Ivy, Holly and aliminium weeds, while also learning how to spot Indigenous plants common to the area.
FOSC president Jane Hollands said the group has already began works within the ‘secret garden’ after receiving a state government and DELWP, planting native vegetation and mother shield ferns to support a wildlife habitation area for local fauna such as the lyrebird, the powerful owl and the burrowing crayfish.
“The big thing with this area is it provides an important corridor for animals; we see lyrebirds that have been banded in Sherbrooke Forest in the secret garden, and that’s because the birds have moved through,” Ms Hollands said.
“We need these wildlife corridors for the birds and animals so they can move, and this wildlife corridor starts to link up towards Olinda… it’s a very important area to get back healthy with native plants.”
And the environment is seemingly already reaping the benefits of the growing amount of native shrubbery like mother shield fern, mutton wood and musk daisies, with FOSC recently finding new bird nests in the secret garden.
“That was stuff that was planted two or three years ago (2018, 2019), and the birds are already using the vegetation that we’ve put there, which is significant,” Ms Hollands said.
A feat all the more important after a challenging period of storms and lockdown in 2021.
“We had a big branch of Mountain Ash come down and just smash the whole area in the storm,” Ms Hollands said.
“It’s a significant area and it’s very challenged, so [the secret garden] is an ongoing project.”
FOSC’s working bee will take place from 9.30am to 12.30pm, with those involved encouraged to bring sturdy gloves, shoes and a water bottle.
Car parking is available opposite 13 Perrins Creek Road, Olinda.
Those interested are advised to RSVP to foscreek@gmail.com by Friday 25 November.
Morning tea will be provided.
