On 27 February 2011, Pete Johnson, Bob Crudgington and Cameron Hetherington, attended the Moreton Bay Rail Link Community Forum, held at the Redcliffe Leagues Club. The objective of the day was to review the key environmental impacts that would result from the Moreton Bay Rail Link and to provide input and recommendations for environmental mitigation and management measures, to offset the anticipated impacts. The forum was attended by members of the Moreton Bay Coastcare, Koala Action Group, Pine Rivers Koala Care, Saltwater Creek Greening Group, SEQ Catchments, Friends of the Botanic Gardens, Councillor Rae Frawley, Lillian van Litsenburg MP, specialists from the MBRL project team and number of other representatives.
The day was professional facilitated and took the format of a strategic planning session, which involved significant group participation. The key actions developed into a combined submission that was presented to the State Government as part of their consultation process for the MBRL.
Rae Frawley and the MBRC need to be thanked for sponsoring the day and Bob Crudgington needs significant praise for his efforts in brining the day to a reality and for his work in developing the pre and post meeting documentation.
On 27 February 2011, while some of our members were enjoying a nice day at the Redcliffe Leagues Club, a number of others were slaving over a hotplate at Bunnings, Rothwell, raising money for the REF. It was a great opportunity not only to raise the profile of REF, but a great team building exercise for members - raising over $1,070. 26. We wish to thank Tony, Sarah, Alex, Haley and Courtney Crudgington and their friends Rebecca, Sam and Rachel, Carolyn, Sam, Aubrey Crudgington, Harri Abbott, Greg and Ben Heaney, Dave Logan, Judy Seymour, Gavin McCullogh and Sam Webb for their efforts on the day and we look forward to next year's fundraiser!
REF has registered a site at the Western end of MacDonnell Road (Clontarf Industrial Estate) for this years Clean Up Australia Day event; to be held on the 4th of March, 2012. We will assemble at the end of MacDonnell Road at 7 am and would ask all participants to wear appropriate protective clothing for the mornings activities. Although registration forms will be available at the assembly point, we strongly encourage all members and guests to register online, using the link below. Register Here
The Redcliffe Environmental Forum was asked recently to facilitate an education workshop for some young people participating in the Skilling Queenslanders for Work Initiative Green Army project that is funded by DEEDI (Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation). The project is called Respect, Protect and is aimed at learning about and protecting our waterways and foreshores. The overall Green Army project is being run through the Redcliffe Area Youth Service and is being coordinated by Roz Waller through the work placement programme. Participants have been involved in some re-vegetation and weeding work around the Redcliffe Peninsula including at the Chelsea Street reserve and at Suttons Beach. REF was asked to provide more of an educative aspect to the project rather than another work-based activity. Bob Crudgington put together a lesson called 'Discovering the Wetlands of Redcliffe' and presented it to a class at the Redcliffe Youth Space one Friday morning. The lesson included information about habitat types and their wildlife, basic ecology of mangrove and saltmarsh systems and environmental mitigation. After lunch participants were taken on a bit of a tour through the Hays Inlet Conservation area by Bob and myself. The weather was great fortunately and we took a tour starting at the animal shelter on Duffield Road out into the eucalypt, casuarinas and paperbark areas and then out into the saltmarsh and mangroves. The group got a good illustration of the theories learned in the classroom in the morning as Bob identified various fauna and flora samples and the highlight was a close up look at some crabs running about as we disturbed their slumber. We also saw some Osprey hovering overhead and some glimpses of fish in one of the man-made channels that dissect the area. The participants were generally interested in the information being imparted to them and some even expressed interest in participating in future REF projects. Thanks to Bob Crudgington for putting the lesson together and thanks also to Sharon Marks, Community Education Officer for Healthy Waterways and David Logan, Environmental Officer – Community Engagement MBRC for recommending our group to the project organisers.
Pete Johnson
PS – no crabs were harmed in the making of this education project!
REF organized an event to celebrate World Environment Day on June 5, 2011. REF members and Redcliffe Outrigger Canoe Club members paddled through Hays Inlet and Saltwater Creek for a while with lunch after the paddle. The weather was fine but cloudy and we coincided the paddle with high tide so we had a chance to go up the creek, so to speak, for as far as possible. It was a first for me to canoe through the area and it was a very peaceful and sedate thing to do. We saw a bit of bird life and the main realisation for me was how shallow the creek is, even at high tide. Adam Richmond from the Clontarf Beach State High School supplied some canoes for those of us without them so great thanks to Clontarf High. Yvette D'Ath, federal member for Petrie dropped in to say hello after the paddle and we had a good chat about the government's efforts to fight climate change. Thanks to Matt Nation from the Redcliffe Outrigger Canoe club and his fellow 'outriggers' for taking part. Next year's World Environment Day will be celebrated with the Hays Inlet Festival and REF are once again part of the organizing team.
Pete Johnson
On Sunday, 7 August 2011, the REF manned a stand at the annual "What's Cooking in the Gardens?" festival at the Redcliffe Botanical Gardens. The festival was a great opportunity for the REF to educate the public about our organisation, some of the key initiatives that we are involved in and to launch our petition to get national park status for Hays Inlet. After a full day of meeting with the public, we managed to get over 350 petition signatures and provided a number of membership forms to perspective members. A big thanks must go to Bob for providing most of the stall infrastructure and to those members who gave of their time to man the stand.
On the 10 September 2011, a number of members conducted the second mangrove monitoring session for the year, on the REF's designated site at the end of Duffield Road. Monitoring occurs of the same site, three times per year, with an aim of gathering data for the monitoring organisation, Mangrove Watch. We wish to thanks those members involved in the project!
Ocean Watch Australia sponsored a cleanup day of Hays Inlet on September 30, 2011. The event involved many community groups from the area and resources from Marine Safety Queensland, QPWS, QBFP and MBRC, just to name a few. The event was run over a number of days and involved the retrieval and removal of large items that were deposited in the area from the floods, and on the Friday, the transportation of groups to the Hays Inlet islands, to focus on shore cleanup. The event was a tremendous success, retrieving many tons of rubbish from the Hays Inlet area. It is fair to say that given the amount of plastic bottles that were retrieved, that participants are likely to stick with reusable bottles in the future! The day concluded with a seafood lunch at the Osprey House to thank those who participated. We wish to thank Peter Johnson, Robert Johnston, Sam Abbott, Bob Crudgington, Courtney Crudgington, Alex Crudgington, Rachel Crudgington and Cameron Hetherington, for representing REF on the day.
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