This small group is based in the town of Moss Vale, NSW, in the Wingecarribee Shire. It is about 80 kilometres south of Sydney just off the Hume Highway. The group started in the year 2000 and has been active in revegetating the local creek, Whites Creek, ever since. Some four kilometres of the creek has now had massive weeds such as crack willows removed, and the group has planted local native species to replace them. The group is very happy to see the return of a large number of bird species to the banks of the creek.
The earliest work was done at the Moss Vale Golf Club where many years of crack willow, privet, hawthorn and feral pine growth was removed and replaced with local native species. (This project is now carried on by Golf Club members). At the same time the group took on its first project on public land in a small reserve at Mack Street, adjacent to the club. Both sides of the creek were worked on, with good community support, particularly from people living in nearby units.
The next project was done in conjunction with a shopping development which funded the removal of more crack willow and the revegetation was carried out on what proved to be a difficult site as the creek had suffered much interference through being straightened and controlled.
From around 2006, the Moss Vale Landcare Group Inc has been working at a public reserve known as Cosgrove Park. This large section of the creek has slowly seen the removal of gigantic crack willows and all the usual suspects such as ivy, hawthorn, privet, and blackberry. One weed that causes a lot of concern yearly on all the sites at Moss Vale is a delicate sticky weed called gallium. This seeds prolifically and, while it is easy to discourage, if left to develop, it will climb up and over large grasses such as lomandras, and even weigh down small shrubs and young saplings.
Cosgrove Park has been quite a difficult site with most winters bringing hard frosts that affect new plants. The site also floods with ten millimetres or so of rainfall, and the creek deposits a lot of rubbish and debris around and over the plants which then has to be moved back from the plants.
Fortunately, we nowadays have a great deal of help and support from the Wingecarribee Shire Council which funds the employment of four Bushcare workers through an Environmental Levy. There is at least one member of the Bushcare Team with us every working bee, and their assistance lends a great deal of effectiveness to our voluntary efforts.
The site has benefited from being the focus of National Tree Day events in several years, when many extra trees, shrubs and grasses were planted. We have also had a number of groups from Conservation Volunteers Australia give us a hand.
Many of our members also support the local Bushcare Nursery, and are able to see the progression from locally collected provenance seed through the propagation processes to the planting out of the new plants on our site at Cosgrove Park.
Our group welcomes new members to our working bees which are held on the second Saturday and fourth Friday of each month, from 9-00 am to 12-00 noon. Because the site has such as variety of planted areas, there are tasks ranging from preparing areas for new plantings to going back into older areas to carry out maintenance.