NAB Corporate Volunteers enjoying a break.
Eighteen National Australia Bank Corporate Volunteers arrived at the Hubbard shearing shed for a morning cuppa. This was the second Corporate Volunteer planting day in Hidden Valley this season. And it appears to be the Battle of the Banks; a small group of ANZ volunteers planted 230 seedlings at this site a month ago and now it was time to see what the NAB volunteers could achieve.
The plan was to take the group all the way to the top of the hill and plant some of the higher ripped areas in this project site, but the previous day’s rainfall was enough to make it too risky to drive in this hill country; one of the volunteers even bogged his own vehicle before the day even got underway. So, after a cuppa with Landholders Terry and Janet, we formed a convoy and entered the lower end of the project site via Watson’s property. Chris Cobern and Steve Joblin had earlier set up lunch HQ 400 meters along the track into Hubbard’s (and the portaloo too!).
This energetic group were required to carry all tools and materials uphill to the work site where they set about planting and guarding a range of ground covers, shrubs and trees local to the area. By lunch, 2-and-a-half hours later, 450 seedlings had been successfully planted. This clearly beat the ANZ’s tally, though there were twice the number of helpers. The ripping in Hidden Valley described in a previous post is visible in the image below and certainly made planting a lot easier. While the volunteers enjoyed a BBQ supplied by the Hubbard’s and cooked up by Chris, Steve whipped off to bring back more seedlings. A further 200 were planted after lunch and the result looks spectacular!
Fruits of their labour on the hill behind – quite an effort!
The day was accompanied by light rain, with 10mm falling. Great for planting! But the vehicles needed assistance to get them safely out of the paddock – thanks Terry!
Strath Creek Landcare Group members will undertake more project plantings on 23/6/13, with another 2 Sunday plantings in July. I wonder whether the locals can out-plant our city visitors? With a bit of luck, we’ll have had more rain by then.
All images by Steve Joblin. Story by Steve & Bertram Lobert.
Strath Creek Biodiversity Project 