Working Party along the Drainage Line – 16 November
Majura Mountain Scouts spreading mulch in the reserve at the drainage line site to help in the Chilean Needle Grass control project. Hackett houses are in the background.
Photo by W. Pix.
Join the Friends of Mt Majura at this working party and help improve the grassy woodland along the drainage line close to the Hackett water tank. We will place mulch on top of dead Chilean Needle Grass previously treated with herbicide and tackle some garden escapees such as privet and other woody weeds.
When: Sunday, 16 November from 9 am until noon.
Where: Meet close to the water tank off Rivett / French Streets intersection, Hackett; view this map.
Bring and wear: Sun protection, long sleeves and pants, sturdy shoes and gloves if you have them.
We provide tools, equipment, some gloves, an introduction and a delicious cake for morning tea. You need no experience to attend this event.
Give as much time as you can spare. Enjoy the friendly company of work mates and see how the native shrubs and herbs grow that volunteers planted over the past years.
Inquiries: secretary@majura.org
Reports
Intrepid Landcare Evening on 1 October
As the academic year draws to a close, seventeen student members of ANU Intrepid Landcare put aside their studies to join FoMM volunteers for some twilight work at The Fair. Some of the group returned to the dam where they had planted Carex appressa (a native sedge) seedlings at an Intrepid event in March. They weeded around the plants, now grown to a healthy size, and replaced protective guards which had been washed away after recent heavy rain. The rest of the group scarified soil, spread native grass seeds, including Redleg, Windmill and Poa sieberiana (Snowgrass) and covered them with a light sprinkling of mulch. Some overseas student Intrepid members were thrilled to see kangaroos active at dusk.
Intrepid is a national network of local groups which gets young people involved in Landcare, natural resource management, sustainability and climate action. It also provides leadership training.
FoMM looks forward to another twilight event with ANU Intrepid when students return to ANU in 2026.
Some Intrepid students help Jenni put guards back around the planted sedges in the gully where the guards were washed out after heavy rain in September.
Photo by Margy Burn.
Wildflower Walk 12 October
Twenty or so walkers trailed behind ecologist Michael Doherty as he showed us the wildflowers on display in mid-October. Starting at the gate you are already close to those that like the lower slopes of Mount Majura, the remnants of the grassy woodland area which now houses our suburbs. There were patches of tiny yellow daisies Common Sunray Triptilodiscus pygmaeus and a little further on in the edge of the trees there was a quite a group of Native Leeks Bulbine bulbosa, one of the edible bulbs which were used by local indigenous people for food. Another food source was the Native Cherry Exocarpos cupressiformis, a tree with cypress like leaves and an unusual fruit with an external “nut”– not ripe just yet but come back in December to try them. Look here on Canberra NatureMapr to see what they look like. Michael told us the name of each flower and its number on the Mount Majura Flora list so everyone could identify what the flowers were, and many people took photos. To see photos of the species look them up in the Quick Search box at the top of the page on Canberra NatureMapr.
Michael Doherty explains about the Native Cherry fruit to some of the group of walkers.
Photo by Barbara Read.
A little further on in a seepage area there were some rather late flowering Early Nancy plants; they are another lily Wurmbea dioica, with separate male and female plants quite easy to tell apart when someone shows you. Then it was up the hill to the drier slope to see the Daphne Heath Brachyloma daphnoides, a shrub with lots of small white flowers, the large Nodding Blue Lily Stypandra glauca and some Leopard Doubletail orchids Diuris pardinia. Along the Casuarina Track there were Drooping Sheoaks Allocasuarina verticillata another dioecious species with separate female trees with cones and male trees with pollen “caterpillars” still visible on the ground after the end of flowering. Cutting across from the Casuarina track there were more orchids to see: the beautiful and plentiful Wax-lipped Orchid Caladenia major. These were just some of the wildflowers on display – there were lots more like egg-and-bacon peas, Indigo, the creeper Twining Glycine, Native Flax and Bluebell. The Mount Majura floriade keeps on and on, with a sequence of different flowers to delight you on your walks whatever the season.
The beautiful Wax-lipped Orchid admired by the walkers.
Photo by Jane Roberts, courtesy of Canberra NatureMapr.
At the Fair on 19 & 20 October
A handful of volunteers gave up their Sunday morning on 19 October to remove scattered Paterson’s Curse and other herbaceous weeds at The Fair improvement site. They spread seeds of native grasses and scattered mulch on bare ground; the mulch helps to keep the seeds in place, reduces evaporation from soil during the hotter months, and, over time, draws down the accumulated nutrients by microbes hard at work to decompose the wood chips and thus creates a soil environment which is less beneficial for nutrient loving weeds.
On the following day, the M@F group split up in two groups, one group continuing that work and the other group tackled flowering Sweet Vernal Grass SVG……
Sweet Vernal Grass gives off a gas,
Which you can tell by its horrible smell.
It invades our bush, so we ask it to shush.
A measure quite drastic is using some plastic;
The hard work is done by the power of sun.
More work to do, so join in the crew.
-our poet is Waltraud Pix!
Heavy black plastic sheeting can be used to solarise weeds that are difficult to treat in other ways. Perhaps because they are in a sensitive location where herbicide should not be used such as in a gully or on the edge of a dam, as in this case where the target weed was Umbrella Sedge Cyperus eragrostis.
Photo by W Pix, courtesy of Canberra NatureMapr.
Sweet Vernal Grass SVG Anthoxanthum odoratum was introduced by farmers to use in their pasture grass mixtures because of its sweet smell when they made hay. It is one of the target weeds in FoMM’s grant from the ACT government 2025-26 Environment Grant: ENV2025_2600003 Supporting the Fair Weed Management Plan 2024-2029. In the gully where SVG had been rampant last year, the sections where black plastic had been laid for some months had very few small plants, but there were some dense patches on the edge areas near the shrubs and trees.
By removing the SVG before it sets seed, we are preparing the gully for later planting of native grasses and Tall Sedge Carex appressa so that there will be competition for any germinating SVG in the future.
A patch of Sweet Vernal Grass on the edge of the gully – thankfully, there were not many such patches this year!
Photo courtesy Canberra NatureMapr.
Spotlight Walking
See advice from Jenni Marsh on taking advantage of the sunset, twilight and early evening hours to observe the nocturnal creatures on Mount Majura.
If you want to see a Garden Orb Weaver spider Hortophora sp. on its web, then night time is when to look! Many orb weaver species rebuild their webs every night. This one was photographed about midnight on Mt Majura by sbittinger but was no longer there at 6 am.
Photo courtesy of Canberra NatureMapr.
Callery Pear – Response from the Minister
Suzanne Orr MLA, ACT Minister for Climate Change, Environment, Energy and Water, has responded to FoMM’s request for legislative changes to list Callery Pear as a pest species in the ACT. See here for links to FoMM’s request, the Minister’s reply and more information.
Unfortunately the Minister will not act to make Callery Pear a pest species at this time, as she fails to understand that recognition of the invasive nature of a tree species should take priority over other considerations such as suitability to Canberra’s soils and climate, performance in urban environments, ecological value and nursery availability.
However please note that she writes the City and Environment Directorate (CED) is working to better understand the biosecurity risks, there will be a formal review by the Invasive Plants team, and this species will be considered as part of the upcoming review of MIS25 and will be further discussed with stakeholders, including community groups such as FoMM.
The wheels of government turn slowly and need greasing by community groups like FoMM.
Bush Heritage Australia Sites Near Canberra
Bush Heritage Australia, founded by Bob Brown, is a conservation organisation which operates on a large scale – see here. They do have small sites in the south east not far from Canberra. See their ecological score cards and stories for reserves at Scottsdale, Burrin Burrin, Tarcutta Hills and Brogo. Scottsdale, just south of the ACT along the upper Murrumbidgee, uses local volunteers to help in revegetation projects and to run a native plant nursery. A few Bush Heritage reserves can be visited – see here, but mostly they are closed to the public.
Survey On Endangered Woodlands like Mount Majura
ACT Natural Resource Management is actively conserving and restoring the threatened ecological communities of White Box–Yellow Box–Blakely’s Red Gum Grassy Woodland, Derived Native Grassland, and Natural Temperate Grassland across the ACT. ACT NRM has teamed up with Landcare ACT to help connect the Canberra community with these precious ecosystems—and we’d love to hear from YOU!
Maybe you’ve never heard of a grassland, or maybe you can tell your wallaby grasses from your kangaroo grasses. We want to know where you’re at.
Survey time: 2 minutes. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Z2QPJLB
In the News
Goanna Guardians
National Parks Association ACT has launched a fundraising campaign to support their work with the Rosenberg’s Goanna Varanus rosenbergi. Genetic mapping is a focus of this work, as it may reveal if the local populations are all one species or not, and this will have implications for listing the goannas as threatened species. See here to donate and become a guardian!
Newsletters and other information
Field Natter Newsletters from the local Field Naturalists are available here. The October newsletter had reports from outings to Mount Jerrabomberra for wattle day and to Lerida TSR plus other interesting articles.
Bush Heritage Australia newsletter Bushtracks Spring 2025 is available for download here.
Emissions Target See this Conversation article on how to get there.
Australian Conservation Foundation: What’s the Latest on Australia’s Nature Laws? New version to be introduced into parliament in the current session. See here for ACF’s view.
See Nature and climate are two parts of the same solution from Climateworks Centre.
Graeme Samuel wants these new Nature Laws, which Environment Minister Murray Watt says are based on the recommendations in Samuel’s review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act which was given to the Morrison government in 2020. See this ABC story and await developments in the parliament!
Lake Pedder – surely this is very old news? No, it has resurfaced! Wish it would. See here and look at the trailer of a film which was shown at the SER2025 international conference – the Society for Ecological Restoration – see their call for action here.
TERN Long-Term Regeneration Study of a Rangeland Site – a century of research! See this news item or a video presentation here.
TERN/CSIRO Satellite Eyes in the Sky: Revolutionary Method Detects Drought Stress Before It’s Too Late – a real-time tool to assist in understanding our environment. See here.
Climate – Fires – COP30 – see this Conversation article.
Citizen Science Photography Cards– see here to order.
Bugs, Biocontrol, Bettongs, Birds, Bioblitz and Books!
Bug Hunt is a new citizen science organization starting with an event in November, Bugs in my Backyard – see the events section. It has won an award from Australian Geographic – see story here. And see the other award projects here.
Bird of the Year – did you vote in October for BirdLife Australia’s Bird of the Year 2025?
It is the Tawny Frogmouth – see the announcement on FaceBook here, on BirdLife Australia’s website or revisit FoMM’s August 2025 newsletter which had a picture of one.
Bird Week was 20 – 26 October when over 5 million birds were counted! See here.
During Bird Week there were events organised – Jodie went to one at Stony Creek Nature Reserve on Captains Flat Road at Carwoola, not far from Queanbeyan and was lucky enough to see a wedge-tailed eagle chick in a nest.
A beautiful pair of Galahs Eolophus roseicapilla in their hollow home on Mount Majura.
Photo by trevsci, courtesy of Canberra NatureMapr.
Bioblitz or to give it its full title The Great Southern Bioblitz 2025 was over four days aound the last weekend of October. Then there were 10 days to complete identifying sightings. To see the Canberra project’s 2220 observations look here. The most commonly observed species was an orchid Diuris sulphurea ahead of the Eastern Grey Kangaroo.
Bioblitz on iNaturalist is one of the many ways to submit your citizen science nature data to the Atlas of Living Australia – see this ALA website page.
Bettongs are bettongs, unless you want to call them rat kangaroos? Little marsupial ecosystem engineers that live on fungi like truffles and were once widespread across Australia, including around here, until foxes and feral cats arrived. Well yes, but there are actually several different species, suited to different environments, or were – some of them are now extinct; see this Conversation story. The bettongs at New Haven were an arid zone adapted species which is now extinct. This recognition of different species matters because attempts to reintroduce bettongs are ongoing, including into unfenced areas on the Yorke Peninsula; see another Conversation story where successful releases have been made into an environment where feral predators are present but controlled.
Do we have bettongs here? Yes, in the feral-proof fenced area at Mulligans Flat. They are Eastern Bettongs Bettongia giamardi, introduced from Tasmania where they survived because it was and is fox free.
Biocontrol of some Weeds on Mount Majura:
- Some Thistles – see here,
- Bridal Creeper – see here,
- Paterson’s Curse – see here,
- Beneficial Bugs – see here for more general biocontrols – wasps, lady beetles etc.
- Better Biocontrol for Rabbits – see here for research on this topic.
Getting to Know the Birds in your Neighbourhood – A Field Guide by Darryl Jones published by NewSouth 2023. A birdwatching 101 guide with 139 species of birds most likely to be seen by people living in Australia’s 20 largest cities. Each bird has a page with a photo, and information on it to help identify it, and a fascinating fact. It is in the ACT library.
Defiance: Stories from Nature and Its Defenders by Bob Brown 2025. Several copies are in the ACT library or buy it here. Picture of Bob Brown here. More about Bob at this Tasmanian Bush Heritage website.
Events
Sunday 2 November 10 am – 3 pm. Brogo Reserve Guided Visit (near Bega, NSW). A Bush Heritage site with limited opportunities to visit. See here for more information and to register.
Wednesday 5 November 9 am – 4 pm. African Lovegrass Field Day at Yarralumla Woolshed – info and free tickets here.
Thursday 6 November 10 am – 12 pm. Kama Nature Reserve Western Edge Guided Walk: Gula (koala) Habitat – to book and get info see here
What is the Western Edge? See here for a map and more information.
6 – 21 November at Belem in Brazil, the United Nations annual climate summit COP30.
Saturday 8 November 10 am – 12:30 pm. Jerrabomberra Wetlands Bushcare: Back to Basics training session for volunteers, run by Lori Gould, Environmental Restoration Design and Planning. To register go to The ParkCare Hub and look for Bushcare: Back to Basics or click here.
Saturday 8 November 5 pm – 7:30 pm. Celebrating Our Wonderful Western Edge – End of Year Celebration! Conservation Council ACT Region is organising a BYO picnic with live music at the Arboretum at Forest 21. More information and tickets are available here.
Sunday 9 November 9:30 am – 11:30 am. Field Naturalists Walk around the AIS – see here for details and to RSVP.
Tuesday 11 November 12 pm – 1 pm. Online webinar The next Climate Strategy for the ACT from the Conservation Council ACT Region – see here
Saturday 15 November 9.30 am – 3.30 pm. Mulloon Institute ‘Home Farm’ Field Day For event info and to buy tickets see here.
17 November – 23 November. Bugs in my Backyard Week – see here to get involved.
Sunday 23 November 9 am – 1 pm. Western Edge Guided Walk: Murrumbidgee River Walking Track. More information and registration here.
Sunday 23 November 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm. Invertebrates Australia Bug Walk at Black Mountain – see here for free tickets, if they are not all gone!
Friday 5 December 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm. Summer Arvo Picnic – SoilEd CBR Launch by See-Change at the Watson Microforest – see here to RSVP and for more information see the link under SoilEd.
Saturday 6 December 8:30 am – 10:30 am. Western Edge Guided Walk: Woodland Birds in Stromlo area, led by Kim Farley of Canberra Birds. More information and registration here.
A Black-tip Greenhood orchid Hymenochilus bicolor (ACT) = Pterostylis bicolor (NSW) in the wider Fair area on Mount Majura.
Photo by HappyWanderer (one of the Monday@The Fair group), courtesy Canberra NatureMapr.
