We’re changing the face of Tomaree ~ one step at a time!
By Sue Olsson, Coordinator
Friends of Tomaree National Park
November 2024
While Tomaree National Park celebrated its 40 year anniversary in October / November 2024, the Friends of Tomaree National Park are celebrating 4 years of bush regeneration on the park and its many milestones, with our North Tomaree group starting in October and our South Tomaree group in November 2020.
Community action is important in contributing to the health, integrity and resilience of the park, now and for its future.
Since our beginning in 2020, we have grown, and developed in our reach, understanding and wisdom. And we have made lots of progress since we reported at our first 9 months in July 2021.
We now have 3 groups in Tomaree National Park with each group having expanded their original focus areas:
- North Tomaree – Tomaree Summit to Box Beach
- Central Tomaree ~ Boat Harbour / Kingsley Beach area, started a couple of years later in 2022
- South Tomaree ~ Fishermans Bay and Anna Bay
plus
- satellite activities (dotted arrows on the map), and
- plans for a new group around Fingal Bay in 2025.
Our primary focus is weeds that replace swathes of natural habitat
Our ‘modus operandi’ ~ ‘good to bad’ and keep maintaining!
Our goal – ecological restoration
Improve the health and integrity of Tomaree National Park, within our volunteer capacity.
Our approach
Good to bad’ – we try to work first with the ‘good’ areas, that is those with less invasion, so that we maximise the conservation value of larger areas for the same effort.
Maintain – we work in blocks, revisiting each block each 9-12 months to minimise flowering and ensure no seed generation.
Follow-up is the key to control, weeding out young plants or when not so small. While it may take about 5 or so years to exhaust seed stock (such as the Polygala and Bitou), in some locations like Zenith Beach we’re well over halfway to that goal.
Natural regeneration – allow time, at least a year, for native plants to naturally regenerate. Some weeds like Bitou are believed to have chemicals inhibiting native seed regeneration. The chemicals take about a year to breakdown or leach from the soil.
Revegetate if minimal regeneration – actively plant using locally grown plants if natural regeneration has been minimal after a year or more. We also revegetate some areas for erosion management, education and aesthetic reasons, or the site has been so heavily weed impacted for several years that regeneration is unlikely or weed grasses a threat.
At most of our locations, Bitou is of prime concern
Originally from South Africa, having arrived in ship’s ballast, sand miners believed Bitou useful in stabilising mined dunes and the NSW Government adopted it for use in stabilising eroded coastal dunes. Bitou was actively planted in Newcastle and has now spread along much of the eastern coast, smothering and replacing native vegetation.
Bitou has invaded many areas of the national park, particularly the coastal strip where the Tomaree Coastal Walk tracks.
As a mature plant, Bitou is a distinctive upright bush with shiny leaves, yellow flowers and black berries which birds spread.
As a younger plant or straggly ground-hugging wind-pruned plant on frontal dunes, Bitou can be confused with the Dune Fan Flower, or Climbing Guinea Flower.
White hairs on immature Bitou leaves, help identify Bitou from plants with look-a-like leaves.
Mature Bitou leaves, and young leaves with white hairs
Dune Fan Flower
Scaevola calendulacea
Climbing Guinea Flower Hibbertia scandens.
In contrast, many other invasive weeds are ‘garden escapees’
Seeds may be spread by birds or wind, and unbelievably, people dumping garden waste in the bush. Effectively, plants ‘escape’ from the garden, intentionally or not, and establish in bushland, often along tracks or initially in disturbed areas and then spread.
Myrtle-leaf Milkwort or Butterfly Bush, Polygala myrtifolia, a purple flowering pea, is an invasive garden escapee. Growing to about 3m, it smothers bushes and seedlings. We’ve found it in the northern section of Tomaree National Park. Beyond the park, it’s prevalent around Tomaree Lodge and Shoal Bay’s western beach bushland. Read more about Polygala, see its devastating potential impact, and how we’re managing it.
Lantana with its pretty pink and yellow flowers is another invasive garden escapee in the national park, though for us tougher to manage than Bitou. Fortunately its occurrence in the areas of the national park where we work is much lower than Bitou. However, along Gan Gan Rd in the One Mile Beach area it is highly problematic.
Prickly Pear is a succulent, drought tolerant shrub, armed with sharp large spines and can form dense impenetrable patches. Present in most areas we work.
Invasive ground weeds like asparagus fern, commonly used in the 1970-80s in hanging pots, form dense infestations. They smother ground native species and prevent their germination and establishment. Birds, reptiles and small mammals, as well as foxes, can readily spread its bright red berries
Buffalo grass is another insidious escapee from our lawns, established along many roadsides into the park and walk tracks near urban areas. Buffalo smothers ground covers, native seedlings and small bushes. We are trying to reduce its impact in select places, such as
- on Tomaree summit’s red brick path north of the summit staircase, we pull it back from the bushland. However it’s too dense nearer the paths entrance and other strategies are required
- roadside of Box Beach carpark as the burn reduced each plant to tufts that are now reshooting
- roadside at Kingsley Beach entrance road – since removing competing bitou and lantana, buffalo grass has become rampant. We’re trying to contain its further spread from around young plants and further into the park.
Turkey Rhubarb, we believe, is a developing invasive issue for Tomaree National Park. A wealth of wind blown seeds enable easy spread, and large underground rhizomes break off and are difficult to locate.
We have ‘Weeds of National Significance’ and other problem weeds too
Thirty-two Weeds of National Significance (known as WONS) have been identified for Australia based on their invasiveness, potential for spread and environmental, social and economic impacts.
Several of the weeds in Tomaree National Park are designated WONS – Bitou, Asparagus fern, Lantana, Prickly Pear (all mentioned above), plus Fireweed and Blackberry.
These invasive weeds can replace entire swathes of habitat, reducing it to almost a monoculture with little diversity and therefore little capacity to support wildlife year round.
Some researchers have suggested Polygala myrtifolia should also be a WON. In Port Stephens, Chinese Violet and Sea Spurge (more under Central Tomaree) are notifiable weeds.
Where our groups do bush regen
North Tomaree ~ stretches from Tomaree Summit to Box Beach
We cut our teeth at Tomaree’s Zenith Beach
We started October 2020, working the centre block, between Zenith’s two beach access tracks. This is looking fabulous now. On the frontal dune, Dune Fan Flower Scaevola calendulacea and the Coastal Wattle Acacia sophorae thrives where Bitou was insidiously over-powering them.
Behind the swale and in the hind dunes, invasive Myrtle-leaf Milkwort, Polygala myrtifolia, along with Bitou flourished.
Swathes of dead Polygala stretched across the dune ~ check out our fascinating Polygala story and see why we don’t want Tomaree to look like Cape Schanck in Victoria!
Now Coast Teatree, Gaudium laevigatum and Coastal Beard-heath Leucopogon parviflorus are fighting back.
After our first cut over of Polygala and Bitou of Zenith Beach’s centre block — from October 2020 to May 2021— we moved north of the northern beach access. Over the ensuing months, and between Covid restrictions, we steadily worked northward, removing Bitou along the dune to the base of Tomaree summit.
Along with a couple of our more agile Friends of Tomaree, and with many thanks to some from the climbing fraternity, NSW Australian Climbing Association and Escape Eco-Adventures, we’ve had support in reaching Bitou even higher. Though there’s a long way to go upward that’s too steep and out of our reach.
Along the way we found plants like White Correa, Correa alba, curiously completely absent from the centre block, and as we discovered later, also from Zenith’s southern block.
Released from Bitou’s grip, White Correa thrives on Zenith Beach’s northern reach
Incidentally, Correa alba is at its northern point in Port Stephens – growing south to Tasmania.
And to our surprise, we uncovered some Lilly Pilly or Midjuburi (Cadigal), Acmena smithii, typically an early coloniser littoral rainforest plant.
Bitou can be quite large
Tomaree Summit was within our sights.
While we worked on Zenith Beach’s northern block, whenever the south-easterlies howled, vegetation was too wet, sun was too high, or we needed a change, we’d retreat to the sheltered shady areas on Tomaree summit.
Some of our group worked on the bitumen entrance road from Tomaree Lodge, removing Bitou, Polygala, Asparagus fern and other garden escapees — a great site to learn about weeds. Those more agile took on Polygala and Bitou on Tomaree’s steeper slopes – ensuring they avoided the cliffs! And we’re also pulling Buffalo grass back from its invasive march from the pathway into the bush.
Beating Bitou at Box Beach is a bit of a battle.
We’ve been steadily working north of the beach access pathway toward Quarry Hill since late 2023. Working intermittently between other sites, we’ve completed a once over bitou cut and subsequent seeding pulls, and removed most of the Polygala behind the foredune. And we’ve found an interesting plant diversity, particularly at the northern end.
A couple of our more agile souls took to the northern headland to start bitou management there. South of the access track we’ll manage some Bitou-infested areas closer to the access, however much of the southern end is heavily impacted, so we’ll spend our time more fruitfully on higher quality areas such as Wreck Beach.
Here’s just a few of the native plants that bitou was over powering at Zenith and Box beaches..
Coast Teatree,
Gaudium laevigatum
Native Fuchsia,
Correa reflexa
Coastal Rosemary,
Westringia fruticosa
Scrub Sheok with tiny red flowers and cylindrical cones
Scrub Sheok,
Allocasuarina distyla
2025 and beyond.
Throughout 2025 we’ll maintain our existing sites, and start a new site or two, with Wreck Beach on our horizon for 2025. In 2026 we plan to start the new northern Fingal Beach track from Shoal Bay to the beach, following up on planned 2025 NPWS spraying.
And in 2025 one of our team is planning to start a Fingal Bay group to work from the national park area near Barry Park south to Boulder Bay, and maybe one day beyond!
Central Tomaree ~ Kingsley Beach and Boat Harbour north and south!
Boat Harbour’s Kingsley Beach headland — seaward of the access road to the carpark
We kicked off in April 2022 with a community event over two mornings, and a morning event in April 2023 which included management and planting. While a hearty smaller group has worked tirelessly over the last 2.5 years. From a wall of Bitou and Lantana, we can now see the ocean – that was not the aim but indicates the height and density of the bushy weed layer. Read more about our Kingsley Headland community events.
Now new native plants are naturally generating, and some supplementary planting on the block’s margins where infestation was heaviest, combine to create a fantastic looking site. The spring weed grasses at the margins remain, diminishing the site, though we hope as we thicken planting, weed grasses will be shaded out.
Revisit the headland area about each 6 months or so to remove bitou seedlings. In the more fertile soils here (compared to sandy dunes where we can let the weed grow to 0.5m or more), the seedlings seem to grow faster and are more difficult to pull without breaking. With more frequent checks they’re mostly small and easier to pull. Prickly pear is scattered here too along the rocky areas. Other weeds such as coastal morning glory are a challenge.
Chinese Violet is a highly invasive vine present through much of the site. While largely managed by an NPWS contract, we have found additional sites requiring management.
Chinese Violet flower is mostly white with some violet markings. Leaves are elliptical with a mid rib.
Vines are hung out to dry and die onsite, with no ground contact.
The native violet is more deeply violet, different shape flower, and has a distinctive circular leaf.
Around the informal carpark on Kingsley Drive down to the rocky shores we’re managing the Bitou. However there’s a host of weeds in the highly disturbed area closer to the carpark, which we are yet to effectively manage — that’s a big task for 2025 with some planting also!
Kingsley Beach’s foredunes and forested hind dunes have come into our focus.
Even the hind dune forests of Kingsley Beach have bitou, though it’s hidden from view. Bitou can readily grow in shade, with low growing Bitou scattered thoughout the hind dune, some large patches choking bushes, and some even reaching toward the treed banksia canopy. Yes Bitou is versatile and can wind around trees easily impacting and eventually smothering trees.
Much of Kingsley Beach’s southern end along the coastal fringe was thick in Bitou. NPWS sprayed the southern end and we’ve followed up removing Bitou seedlings and treating regrowth or plants missed. The foredune is looking fabulous.
We’ve just started working up Kingsley Beach’s southern steps. then we’re over the headland toward Little Kingsley — along with maintaining prior areas, this is a significant task for 2025.
Around the Boat Harbour area, some projects of interest
Sea Spurge, a new find for Port Stephens, attracted special attention.
Being out and about, we notice when something is new or out of place. When we first moved our workbees from the headland to the beach, we found a plant we hadn’t seen — Sea Spurge.
It’s a foreshore pestilence, a notifiable weed, and this was the first alert for Port Stephens. It spreads quickly, changes the natural shape and structure of dunes, ruins nesting areas for threatened shorebirds, reduces the number of native plants, and its poisonous sap irritates skin and eyes.
Sea Spurge spreads by seeds which ‘explode’ out of their capsules.
Morna Point and Slot Canyon
Morna Point is a spectacular site and over a couple of community events, July 2023 and March 2024, we’ve managed Bitou around the magnificent Slot Canyon.
The vegetation here is in fairly good condition and we’ve helped to maintain its quality to ensure Bitou does not get the upper hand. But another maintenance event is due!
Additionally a couple of our Friends of Tomaree keep the wonderful new walkway from Boat Harbour to the lookout free of Bitou.
Giant Reed laid to rest
When walking the Tomaree Coastal Walk south from Slot Canyon, after the open expansive rocky views, you may be familiar with the shady littoral rainforest patch around a little gully bridge.
A wall of Bitou and Lantana almost impeded the track before exiting to Boat Harbour’s urban fringe. NPWS sprayed track-side here. Then in early 2024, two of our keen Friends, both Boat Harbour residents, wanted to improve your experience around this site.
First they cleared the extensive remaining Bitou and Lantana, then gradually worked down the slope to the Giant Reed where canes stood over 8m tall, even out competing the Lantana. While the piles of reeds are a work in progress, battling the regrowth from the extensive underground tubers requires vigilance and dedication, a labour of love. Our vision is to replant the area to extend the existing littoral rainforest and reinstate the gully’s riparian vegetation.
Lilly Pilly, Acmena smithii, are part of the littoral rainforest at the gully bridge
Bruce and Robert are still smiling!
One Mile Beach onto the Tomaree Coast Walk at One Mile Headland
NPWS sprayed the lower reaches of the One Mile Headland along the Tomaree Coastal Walk — ideal for follow-up some 6 months or so later. We’ve held two marvellously attended community events, July and August 2024, with another planned for 7 December this year.
On the August event as well as clearing bitou, some groups planted locally grown natives. We really appreciated the additional interest and involvement from community helping the Friends of Tomaree NP, plus the agility and involvement of those from the Australian Climbing Association NSW.
Our One Mile coastal forest regen in December community event is also in partnership with Escape Eco Adventures who may reach another demographic.
South Tomaree ~ focuses on Fishermans Bay, extending into Anna Bay
Our group initially focussed in the Fishermans Bay area and have
The beach gully, the community heart of Fishermans Bay, has been a major intermittent effort over 4 years and now it’s looking beaut with its potential apparent. With Blackberry and the highly invasive Chinese Violet controlled, we planted the beach gully in Autumn this year ~ read more.
Early November we enhanced the site with supplementary planting – and guarding the new plants against rabbits!
The beach cliffs have been a rewarding challenge in weed management, with a mix of natural regeneration, supplementary planting and a heap of work.
Pre workbee early 2022
Hard at work March 2022
Weeding around prior planting Nov 2023
After nearly 2 years of battling the wild Blackberry patch at the boat ramp, the site is stabilised and the first stage of restoration underway.
On the headland between Fishermans Bay and Iris Moore, we’d removed dense Bitou patches.
Just 2 weeks after we’d finished working the headland from one side to the other, late January 2024 an intense arsonous fire burnt the headland. The fire killed some natives, other natives reshot from rhizomes or protected buds, while seeds quickly germinated in others.
Unfortunately fire stimulates the Bitou seed bank to quickly germinate a dense carpet – now they need removing.
Our other activities are many and varied
Supporting the SOS and similar programs
Threatened Villous Mintbush, Prostanthera densa,
Working with NPWS Save our Species program, we’re helping bring back the species from on the brink in Port Stephens, not just through establishing new sites from nursery-raised plants of local provenance, but from surprise discoveries too, demonstrating a key value of the program in community involvement. Read more ~ World Environment Day, bringing a threatened species back from the brink
Orchid surveys and reporting new orchid sitings
Our involvement with orchid surveys and reporting includes threatened orchids ranging from the Leafless Tongue Orchid, the Tomaree Donkey Orchid or Sand Doubletail and the Rough Doubletail, as well as reporting on unnamed leek orchids, though only some are part of the SOS program or its partner program, Species of Intergenerational Significance.
Prostanthera densa
Leafless Tongue Orchid, Cryptostylis hunteriana
Tomaree Donkey Orchid or Sand Doubletail, Diuris arenaria,
Growing native local provenance plants
One of our team, Josie O’Brien, holds a native seed collecting permit and grows plants for Friends of Tomaree National Park and local bush care groups on the Tomaree Peninsula, in conjunction with the Port Stephens Council’s Ngioka nursery volunteers.
Events create interest and involvement
Clean Up Australia Day participation over several years were well attended. Read more. And each workbee we clean up the dunes in which we work.
Wildflower walks over the last 3 years included many short walks and some day walks, which for many participants created a new dimension in appreciating Tomaree National Park.
Night walks during 2024 were a different experience for many participants. With thanks to National Parks Association’s John Simpson for leading all the walks.
Bush regeneration community events – like those for One Mile Headland and Morna Point, each create a little more interest and involvement beyond our regular sessions. You may like to give us a hand for the community event St 7 Dec.
Picnic for Nature ~ connecting beach, bush and your backyard, brought together families and more. See here the great things that happened.
FORUM ~ Celebrating the 40th anniversary of Tomaree National Park provided a wonderful kaleidoscope of Tomaree’s stories. Journey with us as we reflect on the afternoon’s diverse perspectives.
Learning along the way
Some volunteers are keen to learn loads, others are happy to recognise bitou and know the native plants that may look alike. We have varied opportunities to learn.
Workshops ~ the National Parks Association (Hunter) supported us with leading 2 training workshops for Friends of Tomaree NP, other bush carers and interested community. Hunter Regional Landcare network funded there workshops.
Mentoring, in the field and by email ~ sharing knowledge practically like this is invaluable, many thanks John Simpson
We’ve developed online fact sheets for background
- invasive weed
- native plants
- look-alike
See our fact sheers, a work in progress here
While one student, as part of her Duke of Edinburgh program, and under the permit of her supervisor, learns skills in seed collecting, cleaning and propagation
Why we volunteer?
Bush care is important for people and the bush
Bush care is important both for the people involved as well as for the contribution bush carers make to improving the health and integrity of the bush, and a more resilient ecosystem into the future.
Hear from some of our volunteers about what we do and why we enjoy what we’re doing.
Friends of Tomaree National Park – YouTube
For us personally, being involved in bush care helps us appreciate the intricate diversity of our landscape and how easily nature’s balance is thrown out of whack by invasive weeds.
It gives each of us a sense of achievement to contribute to conserving the coastal bush and forest — we’re delighted when we cut away at an invasive weed and expose a native plant that would likely have been smothered and eventually died. We experience the joy again when we see that released plant ‘spread its wings’, growing and flourishing, and yet again several months later as we watch new native seedlings regenerating in those areas.
There’s camaraderie in pursuing a common goal with like-minded people.
Benefits to individuals involved are many and varied, including for some a chat over a cuppa afterwards.
Involving community in bushcare is important for conservation. Weeds are becoming so widespread that good habitat is being lost, and there’s simply not enough funding to keep addressing the problem weeds.
As volunteers, we work with direction from the National Parks and Wildlife Service and we try to follow up where feasible on where NPWS have sprayed. Together at One Mile Headland as volunteers we achieved more as NPWS had sprayed several month earlier.
Our partners provide a helping hand
- National Parks and Wildlife Serve (NPWS) ~ our managing and supervising partner
- National Parks Association (Hunter Branch) ~ founded, support and mentor us
- Port Stephens Council’s Ngioka ~ partner in assisting in growing local provenance plants
- Hunter Region Landcare Network ~ provide advice and early on som starter grants
- Escape EcoAdventures ~ facilitate people power
- Other landcare groups ~ partner onsite and share time and learnings
- WET Systems ~ help with logistics, resources and knowledge
- Our community who volunteer with us in a myriad of ways – we have roles too for those whose skills and interests are not in the field!
Australian Climbing Association NSW (Hunter Branch) ~ bring agility to assist on more difficult areas
Looking to the future
Our vision
Bitou (and other WONS) are contained to a level that they’re not posing a threat to Tomaree National Park’s integrity.
What would that look like?
- No WONS reach sufficient maturity to fruit!
- Park’s integrity is restored with depauperate areas actively enhanced
How can we get there?
- Enhanced integration with NPWS
- Build capacity
- Partners ~ ongoing!
- Leaders ~ enabling more groups, involving more people
- Motivated individuals ~ enhance their capacity and direction
- Community events ~ involve more people
- Smarter at locating grants for assistance
- What other ideas are there in the community to help us achieve our vision ?
We volunteers would love to see the major impacting weeds across the park gone — Bitou, lantana, myrtle-leaf milkwort, prickly pear, mother-of-millions, turkey rhubarb and more. Though we don’t have the volunteer resources, nor NPWS the financial resources, to achieve this aspiration — as yet!.
Think big, we’re always looking for ways to achieve more.
If you have ideas to help us achieve our vision, we’d love to hear from you!
There’s loads to do, loads to experience, wonderful people involved and importantly,
we’re making a difference to the integrity and resilience of chunks of Tomaree National Park.
You’re welcome to come on the journey too.
North Tomaree group
Central Tomaree group
South Tomaree group
E: Tomaree-NP-Friends@npansw.org.au
Kicking the milestones for Tomaree ~ July 2021
By Sue Olsson, Coordinator
Friends of Tomaree National Park
In just a short nine months since a few dedicated souls got together in October 2020, Friends of Tomaree National Park has grown to around 50 registered participants, many helping at either of our two locations – Zenith Beach and Tomaree Head in North Tomaree, and Fishermans Bay to the south – while others more distant work behind the scenes. Some participants join us once a month, others several times a month, and some to both sites!
We’ve held bushcare workshops funded through the Hunter Region Landcare Network in May and June on recognizing native coastal plants from their weed lookalikes – with fact sheets uploaded to the website. Just over 50 people attended the workshops with great feedback, so we’ll offer again down the track.
Photo Left: John Simpson explains native and weed coastal dune plants (Photo: Mark Wilgar)
Right: Josephine O’Brien shows us how to recognize some reeds and lilies in the riparian gully (Photo: Sue Olsson)
We’ve planted the vulnerable Villous Mint-bush, Prostanthera densa (second from left), in mid May supporting the Save Our Species program. A trusty group of Tomaree friends dived right into it (top right) with Ranger Suse and volunteer Mark (centre) and celebrated afterwards with SOS officer ‘Woody” (bottom left starring in his selfie). Our plantings augmented other translocated plantings in Tomaree National Park to help secure the population into the future — find out more Friends of Tomaree National Park. (Photos: Sue Olsson unless indicated)
At Zenith Beach we’re nailing the invasive species. With a hectare or so between the two access paths to the beach, we’ve pulled or cut the purple-flowering polygala and the yellow-flowering bitou. Both invasive species, particularly bitou, smother and displace native vegetation. We’ve achieved a once over removal of both target invaders, and other incidental weeds. We’ll return periodically to capture seedlings and any targets missed or reshooting, allowing nature to restore the ‘holes’ created.
Moving northward, between Zenith’s north access and the lower reaches of Tomaree Head, we’re working on another hectare. Tomaree friends Barb, Lyn and Mitsy (photo left) are cutting back dense Bitou from around native plants, preparing the site for spraying, while Jenny, John, Lyn, Dallas, Alan and Nigel (photo above right, from right) proudly inspect their work. Where we’ve killed very large Bitou patches (photo centre) we’ll actively plant in August to accelerate natural rehabilitation. And in November-December we’ll plant the rolly polly spinifex seed heads to help revegetate the bare Zenith sand bowl. (Photos: Sue Olsson)
At Fishermans Bay we’re restoring the landscape. Many locals remember when native plants once lined the boat ramp, but in recent years until now, bitou has dominated. Since removing the invasive plant from the beach area, natives are naturally regenerating again. Northward along the foreshore bank we’re removing bitou and mid July 2021 we started active planting to give nature a hand. Volunteers (photo from left), David, Josephine, Dennis and Laurie show thumbs up for a great job achieved, delighted their bush care is in such a great location.
(Photo: Sue Olsson)
Along the beach gully we’ve been removing Blackberry, and the highly invasive Chinese Violet, a ground cover smothering our riparian vegetation. In Spring we will be planting the gully in an effort to restore its natural habitat.
Come and join us on our regenerative journey. Spend a couple of hours a month or loads more. We’re happy for any contribution. Please contact Josephine or Sue on tomaree-np-friends@npansw.org.au or read more about the Friends of Tomaree National Park.
Photo: Josephine O’Brien (left), Coordinator Fishermans Bay and Sue Olsson (right), Coordinator North Tomaree, are watering the Lomandra at Fishermans Bay (Photo: Laurie Frawley)
