Landholders working on Rehabilitation of Wether Station Creek

Stage 1 of the Wether Station Creek Catchment Project was started with an application for grant funding from the Commonwealth Government's Round 9 of the Envirofund in July 2007.

The application was supported by the Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges Natural Resources Management Board, Friends of Grasby Memorial Park, Friends of Kenneth Stirling Conservation Park and the Balhannah Scout Group.

The application was made by Barry Windle on behalf of the following landholders in the catchment: Glengyle - Barry and Rhonda Windle, Tori Park - Alistair and Patricia McFarlane, Gleneden - Silvio and Natalija Apponyi, Amorilla Park - Brenton and Gai Adcock,  Wether Station - Jose and Keryl Piam Bruges, Pugh's Barnhouse - Peter and Penny Mumford.  The NRM Board is provided much technical and administrative support and is the 'sponsor' for accounting and auditing purposes.

The project includes about 3 km of creek fencing, removal of clumps of willows and poplars, control of woody weeds such as Gorse and Blackberry and revegetation with local vegetation. 

The purpose of the project is to reduce pollution of water from stock, improve water quality and aquatic life and restore habitat by revegetating  a section of the creek. 

This project will improve about 1.5 sq Km the riparian zone and it will demonstrate the approach needed in the rest of the ~7 sq Km catchment in this high rainfall (~900mm) zone of Adelaide’s Mt Lofty Ranges watershed area.  The Stage 1 project will remove basket willows and poplars in creek lines and poison stumps, kill and clear gorse, blackberry and broom, install 3 km of stock fencing and gates, build a bridge for stock movement, provide a new stock watering point and fence off 5 dams from stock and plant 5500  tubestock plants of local species.

  Revegetation around creeks and dams will connect remnant vegetation areas in the SE to the extensive Carey Gully/Forest Range scrub in the NW  of the catchment and improve the habitat for fauna.  50 native bird species, 5 orchids and 20 terrestrial (including echidna) and aquatic animals (including platypus) have been recorded in the project area in recent years.

Individual landholder effort had begun prior to this project with some plant input from the NRM Board but no systematic work had been done collaboratively by landholders in this area.  Further work has now started on about 2 km of ~9 km of creek in the catchment.  The 6 landholders in the project  will complete work on a total of ~2.5 km of creek by mid 2009 thus providing the foundation for future stages. 

Observation of the attempts to date suggests that the woody weed seed load along the creeks is heavy eg gorse and blackberry, and several years of follow-up weeding of these and regrowing willows will be needed.  Revegetation losses from frosts has been severe in recent years so species selection will focus on proven frost tolerant local species including E. viminalis, E. dalrympleana, A melanoxylon, woolly and prickly tea tree, reeds and sedges.  

Standard post and ringlock cattle fencing will be used for long term stock protection.  Advice from NRM Board staff will guide all fencing location, stock water point location and revegetation decisions.  Because this are included old dairy paddocks, competition from Phalaris grass has been severe and Fusilade herbicide application post planting has proven very beneficial.

Photo points will be established and used annually to record progress.  Within the catchment, the Adelaide Hills Council owned Grasby Memorial Park is maintained by a Friends of the Park group and the Balhannah Scout Group.  The Scout Group will be provided with information and presentations on the catchment rehabilitation so this project has an educative function for young people. 

The Wether Station Creek Catchment Group has been informally established with the launch of this project and support can be provided to all landholders.  The Friends of Grasby Memorial Park, Friends of Kenneth Stirling Conservation Park and the Balhannah Scout Group all offered their support to the project.  Aldgate Primary School students are propagating some plants for the initial 2008 planting.

Wether Station Creek joins the Onkaparinga River 1.5Km from the location of this work so the contribution to improving water quality in one of South Australia’s most important rivers will be very direct.   The catchment includes remnant Mountain Gum and Manna Gum stands which are described by the NRM Board as ‘endangered’ and ‘vulnerable’ respectively.  Both are target species for the revegetation proposed in this project.

Photo record of progress

Last modified: November 22, 2009