Industrial Land Strategy - please make your voice heard!

Interested in the future of Perth?  Want to know where the next industrial development might be? 

The WA Government has released a document called "Industrial Land Strategy 2009 - Perth and Peel", and this is now open for you to make comments.  All submissions are completely confidential.  The closing date for comments is 31 March 2010.

The document shows the plans for future development of industrial sites around Perth.  It lists priority and possible future industrial sites, which may become places for general and light industry.  The possible industrial sites include areas close to Ellenbrook, such as Bullsbrook townsite, North Ellenbrook, Gnangara, Whiteman, Pinjar South and Jandabup.  It includes maps, and discusses why each site might, or might not, be good as an industrial area.

If you want to take a look at this document, please go to the Department of Planning website, where you can download a PDF -

http://www.planning.wa.gov.au/Plans+and+policies/Public+comment/2044.aspx

There are also comment forms and the provision to make online comments on the above link. 

Please consider adding your voice to those of people who feel strongly about this planning strategy.

Encounter with a legless lizard

While helping out at "Clean Up Australia" in Moulton Wetland today, I saw a beautiful pygopod - Burton's Legless Lizard (Lialis burtonis).  These lovely creatures look a bit like long sleek skinks without legs, and are usually colourful and have stripes and spots.  Their heads are very elongated with a pointed snout, often with white stripes along the jaws.  I have seen light rust-orange animals, and grey animals with longitudinal black stripes, and plain grey, and light brown. 

If you've never seen one before, please check out these website links to see pictures - 

http://www.kingsnake.com/oz/lizards/legless/lburton.htm

http://cms.jcu.edu.au/discovernature/herpscommon/JCUDEV_006360

The little animal I saw was sunning itself on a patch of sand amongst Melaleucas.  Most times when I see a pygopod, they are quick to move under a shrub to hide.  This one didn't, it just lay there!  I stooped down to have a closer look at it, wondering if it was sick or asleep, but no, it was alive and alert, looking at me.  It even let me gently stroke its tail.  I wish I'd had a camera with me.  

It makes me sad to think that sometimes these animals are mistaken for snakes, and needlessly killed.

Getting excited about rubbish...

It's almost that time of year again - Clean Up Australia Day!  It's a pleasure to walk around in a patch of bush with people picking up rubbish, knowing that we are doing a service to the community.  

This year is Clean Up Australia Day's 20th year. So far, three Clean Up events have been organised for Ellenbrook and The Vines.  Click on the links for info about times and contact details, or to add yourself to the list of volunteers.

Charlotte's Vineyard - Sunday 28th February at Moulton Wetland Park - link
The Vines - Sunday 7th March at Ailsa Park - link
Coolamon - Sunday 7th March at Mornington Park aka "The Billabong" - link

If you want to organise your own event, please go to the Clean Up Australia Day home page for more info - http://www.cleanupaustraliaday.org.au/

Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo : Endangered Species

Every day this week, I've enjoyed my early morning cuppa to the sounds of Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo.  One morning I saw a flock of about 200 big black birds floating across the sky, with the young fledglings calling to their parents - a magnificent sight.  This morning I saw groups of twos and threes for about an hour.  Two hundred might sound like a large flock ...but records of forty years ago say there were flocks of thousands, or tens of thousands, of birds. I would just love to see that.

Moulton Wetland in Ellenbrook is apparently one of their stopovers for snacks and a snooze.  The cockatoos sit up high in the Banksias and marri (Corymbia calophylla), feasting on the flowers and seeds.  They are so quiet that you wouldn't know they were there.  Sometimes a whole flock can disappear into the tree tops, reappearing after a couple of hours of feeding and resting.  Considering that these birds fly a long distance from coastal areas to the Wheatbelt and back every year, they really need these places to rest and refuel on the way.   

This photo shows what's left of the "honkey nuts" (gumnuts from Corymbia trees) after the cockatoos have removed the seeds!

Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo is an Endangered Species.   The main threat to the birds is from habitat loss, i.e. clearing of native vegetation.  We really need to look after the bushland that remains, because without it, we lose not only the plants but the animals that depend on them.

I would like to see more plantings of banksias (especially Banksia attenuata, Banksia menziesii, Banksia ilicifolia, Banksia littoralis and Banksia grandis), marri (Corymbia calophylla) and jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata) for these birds.  Other animals would benefit too.  So many hectares of healthy cockatoo food trees have been knocked down to make way for our houses and roads.  Surely it would be simple to replant even a few trees in parks and along streets?  How about a few trees in a corner of a schoolyard for environmental studies?  Or even an ornamental specimen in the front garden?

For more information about Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo, try these links:

an easy-to-read brochure about the Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo Recovery Project - here

a list of plants that the birds use for food - here

some scientific information including habitat, life cycle, threats, with maps - here