MINUTES OF MEETING

HELD TUESDAY 13 October 2015

North Sunshine Tennis Club

President          Linda Roberts

Secretary:         Tony de Gabriele

Treasurer:          Linda Roberts

 

Present: Tony de Gabriele, Peter and Glenda Kueng, Martha Ragg, Gordon Simpson, Louise Nicholas, Jodie Williams, Jessica Gerger, Richard Piesse, Anne Beevers, Ashley Renaut, Dominique Wisniewski, Gerard Morel.

 

Apologies: Linda Roberts, Avis & Colin Dunne, Renate Haehnsen, Ferdi and Karin Saliba, Ingrid Duenzl, Rosemary and Wayne Armstrong

 

Meeting opened 7:05 pm.

 

1. WELCOME
   1. As Linda was not present, Tony chaired the meeting.

 

2. Minutes of Last Meeting
   1. Minutes were taken and accepted as read.

 

3. SITE REPORTS
4. Buckingham Reserve – Some weed reduction was undertaken.
5. Midweek Working Group: – Work was done retrieving guards and posts at Buckingham Reserve
6. Carter Street – No Activity
7. Davitt Drive – Wildflower garden is suffering from the lack of rain, however the plants are surviving.
8. Jones Creek
   1. Maintenance day was well attended with planting of grasses and hand weeding conducted. Rubbish collection was also done.
   2. Still awaiting funds from DKM for the restoration after the burst pipe event – they have been invoiced and about $1000 is expected.
9. Beautiful Brimbank group:
   1. Two clean up days were conducted at the Derby Road Footbridge with 23 bags of rubbish collected.
   2. Rubbish being collected is diverse from 14 syringes to dreadlocks.

• A total of 14 people attended.

 

4. RMIT Students – Upper Kororoit Creek Site – Melton
5. Last of plants are in and more boxthorn has been removed with the neighbouring landowner also tackling boxthorn on their property.
6. The next working day is 24 October with weeding, watering and guard removal activities.
7. A grant for the continuing the work in this area is being put together.

 

5. TREASURER’s REPORT
6. No report, however at last report the balance was approximately $1300

 

6. ORICA
7. No report

 

7. GRANTS
8. The sub-committee met regarding the Healthy Waterway Community Grant which is progressing.

 

8. GENERAL BUSINESS
9. Website
   1. Website relies on reports, photos and updating. A call was made for members to provide regular contributions to keep the website fresh and relevant.
   2. Contributions need to be submitted by Tuesdays to appear on the website from the Wednesday.

• Events should also be notified to the Website, with a 2 month notice period considered ideal.

1. Sunshine Short Film Festival
   1. The film festival will be at the Sunshine Village cinemas on Friday 30 October. FOKC and Beautiful Brimbank will have a table for promotion at this event.
2. Brimbank Environment (Martha)
   1. Gurnang Drive doing well and a planned burn at Isabella Williams reserve will be reassessed.
   2. Salt seep is occurring near Davitt Drive with the water seeping up from the ground. This area is now fenced off and will stop inappropriate use.  This area will be monitored

• Next year there is a plan to put in 150,000 trees with the sites being considered by the Urban Design group;

1. World Environment Day 2016 will focus on an area upstream from Buckingham Reserve. An invite will come to FOKC because they are looking for a huge day with a view to putting in 500 to 1000 trees on that day.
2. Zoe has done some planning so has information.

1. Melbourne Water (Gerard)
   1. Gave some information on working with correctional labour at the Woodleigh Estate near Melton which is in a very poor environmental state.
   2. Woodleigh are interested in handing over the project for the remediation work.

• In Caroline Springs there is a group of Keralese people interested in maintaining a site near the creek on the Ridge Estate

1. Goats in Brooklyn are back numbering 12 or 13 and are using the Transpacific Property.
2. Boulders have been placed in the Davitt Drive area and this will prevent vehicle access into the remediated area;
3. A film requested permission to film an actor swimming across the Kororoit Creek near Williamstown. After testing the water, the swim did not go ahead.

• An RMIT art student is doing a website “WIKI” project on Kororoit Creek and is looking for historical information, and photos that he can use. He has been working with the Sunshine Historical Society to get old images.  He can be contacted at tobias.brodel@rmit.edu.au.

1. Membership (Jodie)
   1. Discussion was held on membership. A membership package could be put together to welcome new members with a seedlings, induction, keep cup.  Memberships could be of different types, with organisations encouraged to join and sponsor.  Existing ideas of t-shirts and jackets should be revitalized.
2. Trailer (Ashley)
   1. The trailer would benefit from a clean and a stock take. Minor maintenance would keep it operating well.  Access to Orica can be difficult so keeping the trailer at a private residence would be useful to allow regular maintenance and care to be undertaken.  Ashley offered his services.
3. AGM
   1. Because of missing people, the AGM was not held as part of this meeting. Discussions for the future office bearers and date of meeting were conducted.
   2. An additional meeting was proposed for 27 October – venue to be confirmed and member availability to be checked for that date.
4. Brimbank Grant
   1. Brimbank provides a grant of $500 for each FOKC subgroup and the earlier this is planned for the better as it expires on 30 June. The grant is aimed at improving and enhancing biodiversity in Brimbank.

 

MEETING CLOSED 8:25 pm

 

Next Meeting –       to be advised