Stu and Enmoore had organised a weekend at Barrenjoey to do some bush regeneration. This is part of an ongoing program. The party was Stu, Enmoore, Chuin Nee, John, Jasper, Martin, Steffy, Su Li, Brent, Wendy, Don, Ian and NPWS ranger Jude.
Most of the party have been to Barrenjoey previously for other bush regeneration activities. These other activities had been single days. This time – we would be staying overnight in the Lighthouse Keepers Cottage, next to the lighthouse.
Barrenjoey is a land tied island. It is connected to palm Beach by a sand spit (or trombolo). On previous visits, we had weeded around the coastline on the north east side of Barrenjoey and at the climbing area under the cliffs on the south east side. This time we were weeding on top of the island.
The weeds we removed were blackberry nightshade, asparagus bitou bush and lantana. We worked most of the saturday on this. Later in the afternoon, some of the party did some planting of natives near the Keepers Cottage.
I think, on the whole, good progress has been made. The bush seems to looking a lot better now. Lower down however, near where the spit joins, there are lots and lots of weeds that will need a major effort to remove.
On the saturday night, we had a very nice BBQ. Chuin Nee had organised the food and money from the Sydney Rockclimbing Club had helped pay for it. Thanks!
On Sunday it was stormy. Too stormy for any more weeding or for some rock climbing. So we headed home early.
More photos from the weekend are on my website here.
Thanks for sharing your experience in bush regeneration. I think that efforts like these are so great, especially since they help preserve our environments. It sounds like Barrenjoey still needs a bit of work, but it is good to see the consistent work on it. It would be awesome to see a before and after shot of the island too.