Bobin Creek: Surviving Fire, Floods and Feral Intruders
Landholder action on erosion & tree loss
Community Participation - LP039-010
The issue
Landholders on Bobin Creek contacted Manning Landcare Inc after multiple flooding events caused major damage to riparian vegetation. Large areas of Bobin have been impacted by the drought and then fires of 2019.
These events devastated land in a manner never seen before. Very hot fires burned vegetation; this included riparian areas and normally protected rainforest gullies.
A series of flooding events in 2020 to the present have caused havoc, with the loss of large trees, the movement of sediment, and racking of material in the waterways. Many riparian zones on Bobin Creek have lost native vegetation and are now dominated by broad-leafed privet, camphor laurel and crofton weed.
There is also a lot of damage caused by feral deer.
The solution
There was no financial assistance available to these landholders.
Wanting to take action, landholders banded together with their local co-ordinator, taking a creek walk to survey the damage. This led to forming a plan that landholders could enact in stages.
Stage 1 was a planting day landholders with plants obtained from the Midcoast Council nursery.
The impact
Our planting session was a great success with 350 natives finding new homes.
The landholders are keen to followup with a strategic weed session to remove some broadleafed privet and camphor laurels. Biological controls for the crofton weed and Tradescantia will be brought in from Landcare sites at Killabakh.
Erosion will be monitored and feral deer damage will be reported to biosecurity officers at Hunter Local Land Services.
Key facts
- Landholders, supported by their local coordinator, devised a staged plan to address the impact of fires and flooding on Bobin Creek