There are 4 species of Flying foxes along the east coast of Australia with their main diet being pollen, nectar and fruit. They are the main pollinator of hardwood forests as well as rainforest and with a range of 50km they are also a valuable spreader of seed. One species, the Grey Headed Flying Fox is listed as a threatened species mainly due to slow reproduction rates, slow sexual maturity of males and high infant mortality rate.

Flying foxes give birth in spring, upside down which is amazing in itself. The baby must crawl up under the wing and attach itself to the mothers’ nipple and hang on. The babies cannot thermo regulate so must stay attached to the mother for the first 3 -4 weeks of life. Mothers carry the baby everywhere during those first weeks, infants are at high risk of falling off if the mother does not feed well and the milk and baby are weak. When the babies get too heavy to carry they are left at camp in crèches while the mother feeds and are fed upon her return. They are quite venerable to predation at this time mainly by snakes and as at this stage they are unable to fly a bushfire can be devastating to a colony.

These animals are nomadic and follow the flowering and fruiting of their natural foods. They feed close to where they roost, mostly within 5 to 15k km from the campsite but up to 50km (100km round trip) in search of native foods. When a productive food source is found, individuals establish and defend their feeding territory, returning night after night to the same trees for up to a month or more or until the food source is depleted. Feeding groups vary from single individuals up to half a dozen or more in a single tree. Flying-foxes prefer blossom, nectar, fruit and occasionally leaves of native plants, particularly eucalypts, tea-trees, grevilleas, figs and lilly pillys. They will also take the fruit of cultivated trees, particularly during periods of shortage of their preferred food.

They spend most of the day sleeping in camps and feed at night flying out all at once between sundown and moonrise depending on distance to the current food source. They are very social and can be noisy in camp having over 30 different calls. Adults can weigh up to one kilogram and have a wing span of more than a metre. Flying-foxes have large eyes which are highly adapted for day and night vision and particularly suited to recognizing colours at night. Colour recognition is important when searching for food.

The wings are a very soft membrane that can be damaged by tearing both naturally on branches and more horribly by ensnarement in barbed wire and fruit tree netting. In most cases if rescue is quick and damage is not to the bone flying foxes can recover from these injuries.  Please call your local wildlife rescue if an animal is seen in any bad situation, there are many dedicated volunteers who will respond to these situations. Do not attempt to remove the animal as they can carry a virus and if bitten transfer of this to humans is possible.

Local wildlife rescue groups:

www.wiresnr.org/Flyingfoxes http://www.wildlifecarers.com/

They thrive in the quiet waters sliding down through the valleys, making their way from pool to pool across little rapids, the females setting up home in burrows at breeding time. Byron Creek is almost ideal for them. Highly regarded ecologist Dr. David Rohweder says research indicates the basalt soils of our area provide the right conditions, in association with riparian forest. Good populations of platypus are found where water quality is reasonable, food supplies are abundant, and where the creek banks are vegetated so they can dig stable burrows.

All adults platypus have burrows, either for breeding or shelter, in which they rest during the day. They feed most of the night, using sensory electro-receptors in the flat bill. They close their eyes, nostrils and ears when diving.

Platypus feed on the bottom life of the creek, particularly prawns and small yabbies, worms and snails. They also like lots of invertebrates such as water beetles and dragonflies – the kind of friendly critters the new Bangalow Park wetland will be producing in good numbers.

They breed once per year. Females lay eggs in burrow nests of leaves. The Bangalow Park wetland will have lots of suitable water plants with the kind of leaves they like. They produce milk and feed the young ones for most of the first season until the little guys move out and begin foraging on their own. There is no evidence of them forming families or groups and they seem to be fairly solitary except when mating.

Platypuses are often caught and die in yabbie traps, and these traps should not be used in any creek.

A biologist once called the platypus “the animal of all time”. In colonial days they were fascinated by this shy and intriguing critter. In the fashion of the day many thousands were shot for their fur. Some were taken to England to prove such an oddity really existed.

They seem to have adapted to the mildly polluted conditions of our creeks. Sediment and nutrient concentrations in the modern era are elevated, but we don’t usually see severe pollution such as bad algal blooms except in droughts and near sewage plants. The problems in our creeks are more centred on swimming quality and the loss of fish stocks, and the currently unknown effects of chemicals. Keep an eye out for platypus around Bangalow creeks and we’ll look at them again over time. A great reference book is “Platypus” by Tom Grant.

David Pont

It’s well known that cane toads were introduced to Australia from Hawaii in the 1930s in a futile attempt to control cane beetle in sugar crops. However, leading researcher Dr. David Newell of SCU says a second introduction took place at Byron Bay about 1965. None were observed in Lismore in a 1979 survey, but were found there in 1990.

Over the decades the toads in our region seemed to have fallen in number, with only the odd one seen on the road these days. However, they’re hanging in there particularly in wet years such as 2010, and are still a problem for our wildlife. Ground animals, native frogs, snakes, lizards and birds are affected.

There’s a story about a recent event at Woody Head where a stowaway toad arrived in the camping area, and was attacked by a monitor lizard. The monitor then dropped dead in front of horrified onlookers. Cane Toads have been declared a Key Threatening Process, and a Draft Toad Abatement Plan (Australian Government) is out for comment.

Wendy Gibney and Scott Hetherington of Byron Council recently undertook a Cane Toad control program funded by the NSW Environmental Trust. It was a 3-year “toad muster” project. Wendy and Scott have organized several musters, done a lot of talks, and issued 23 toad traps. The traps however are not seen as all that effective. In most cases manual collecting has far outdone traps in numbers caught.

There is a lot of variation in toad numbers in each area. For example 202 toads were collected in one night at Suffolk Park but only a few in some other areas.

Toads love mowed lawns, lagoons (including farm dams) and roads. Excluding toads from shallow-edged waterbodies is a high priority. A big question about collecting them is: “is it a waste of time?”

The consensus among the people who’ve done it in a big way is that it’s very worthwhile to collect the adults in musters and individual efforts, and the consequent reduction in toad numbers in an area is observable and pleasing. The toads have been virtually eliminated at Port Macquarie over 10 years, following 3 initial years of intensive effort.

A major anti-toad effort is underway in the Clarence valley, with a total of 6,000 caught this year already. They’ve split the valley into 8 zones, and in Yamba alone have netted 2,271 toads. Rural landowners in that area have also been enthusiastic collectors from their dams and ponds.

The main spark plug in that effort seems to be Sharon Lehmann. Sharon says an effective community-driven toad control program needs the tools (nets, information), people need to know the efforts are worthwhile, there must be coordination, regular communication and feedback, and of course a key person or two to drive it along.

David Newell says that based on his extensive research in the Border Ranges it’s likely that toads are using farm dams as a major breeding habitat, and spreading via the road network to other habitat areas, including into rainforest. They spread along the coast faster than in inland areas, and have made about 4km a year in our region. In the NT this rate of advance has ramped up to 50km a year.

Systematic capture on consecutive nights is highly effective in getting the population in any one place. You need to go back a couple times. The main predators of “metamorphs” (the tiny juveniles in their thousands) are thought to be adult cane toads. Only about 1% of juveniles survive to adult toads. Males have a more yellow colouring, and females are darker. Some evidence is merging that they are affected by parasites, and researchers are looking at possible biological controls. White-faced Egrets are thought to be preying on them, and perhaps other birds, possibly owls. Anyone out there seen birds eating toads?

Wendy Gibney has done autopsies on hundreds of toads and found the main item of diet in this area is (1) ants, (2) beetles, and (3) snails. In one big toad found near the coast seafood was the main stomach item.

With the number of watery areas around Bangalow, and the pollution control wetlands existing and planned for Bangalow, we need to be mindful of the toad menace. When wetlands are fully planted there is little risk, as the toads don’t like vegetation. Toads like farm dams with cattle access so they can hop easily across the cleared surface. Dams should have vegetation such as Juncus (tussocks) planted around the edges.

We intend to organise toad musters in Bangalow. Kids like the toad musters. They grab the collection nets, like the safety vests and love roaming around in the night with torches. We need to identify toad “hot spots” around Bangalow so encourage everyone to listen for the calls (a kind of drawn-out high-pitched “boop-boop-boop”), and take a walk around areas that hold water at night. Let us know on the website. David Pont

Captain Cook and the botanist Sir James Banks noted the rainforest as they sailed off Cape Byron in 1770. These forests contained an amazing range of flora and fauna that sustained the local aborigines who were aware of the seasonal availability of different fruits and animals such as macadamia nuts, figs and wild grapes, brush turkeys and crayfish. Beech, cedar, red and black bean, fig, teak, silky oak, coachwood and pine trees grew to enormous heights and were covered by vines and epiphytes that sheltered ferns, orchids and mosses.

During the 1840′s pastoralists gradually moved in from the drought-stricken west, followed by cedar getters and later dairy farmers from the south. The renowned red cedar trees are deciduous and the unique new growth of copper red foliage was easy to spot when the timber getters moved up the coast in pursuit of the ‘red gold’. The Big Scrub was almost impenetrable and brush hooks were needed to access the valuable timbers, but there were also a number of open grassed patches that provided convenient grazing for the bullock teams that dragged out the logs. It was arduous and dangerous work in difficult conditions to cut down the huge trees that provided timber for building ships, dwellings and furniture as well as being an important export commodity for the colony.

By the end of the nineteenth century, most of the rainforest had been cleared for farming and settlements. Weed infestation occurred quickly followed by declining soil fertility, increased water run-off and soil erosion exacerbated by poor agricultural practices in some areas. Fortunately several rainforest remnants were preserved and in recent years rainforest trees are being re-established as people appreciate their heritage and environment.

Bangalow Landcare Rivercare evolved slowly in the late 1990′s – a few local residents planting rainforest trees in park areas, then in 1998 the group was formalised and members concentrated on improving water quality in local creeks with appropriate planting programs.

In Australia, the days are gone, thankfully – when the ocean was seen as a suitable place to dispose of our wastes. It is no longer acceptable (or legal!) to directly dump pollutants and rubbish into the marine environment. But there are still vast quantities of contaminants making their way from coastal catchments, flowing into streams and rivers then out into the ocean.

Sediment, nutrients, toxic chemicals, pathogens and plastic debris … all this stuff comes out of the catchments – and it affects marine ecosystems at every level. Research is giving us an understanding of the range of processes at work. A few examples – corals and seagrasses are smothered by silt; nutrients cause algae to bloom and also smother reefs and seagrasses; turtles and whales can die after ingesting plastics; toxins accumulate in the blubber of whales and weaken their immunity to disease; dolphins can die from a parasite that’s carried by cats……

Pollutants come from many sources, but there’s a lot that we can do individually and as a community, to improve the water quality of our creeks and rivers – and the ocean. One of the most important actions with many benefits, is the restoration of natural vegetation on the river and creek banks (called riparian buffers). The ways a buffer can improve water quality and enhance biodiversity are:

• The velocity of water is slowed, allowing pollutants attached to fine sediment to settle out.
• Riparian buffers intercept and slow stormwater, so peak stormflows are moderated and more “spread out”.
• Nutrients are taken up by creek bank vegetation.
• Tree roots improve soil cohesion, and resist erosion.
• Riparian habitats create corridors between isolated remnants of vegetation in cleared or developed areas and improve biodiversity on land and in the water.
• Shading from trees limits weeds and reduces temperature in creeks.

Here in Bangalow, Byron Creek has pretty much the same history – and pressures – as other creeks and rivers in the wider Richmond catchment. From Hayters Hill, the creek winds its way through town, flows into Wilsons Creek, then to the Wilsons River (where on its journey to the ocean some of the water is pumped out to be treated as drinking water). Eventually it ends up in the Richmond River – and by this time, it has collected a very large load of sediment, fertilizer, pesticides, oils, pathogens and plastics, – all of this then flows into a unique and incredibly diverse ocean ecosystem.

Plant selection for our gardens should be well thought out as many non-native plants have the ability to produce copious amounts of viable seed and have very successful dispersal mechanisms. Dumping of garden waste into parks and reserves is another way these weeds get into our forests. It is always best to compost weeds and particularly the seeds.

Here is a list of some of the plants now appearing commonly as weeds in the local bush land: Jacaranda, Golden Rain tree, Duranta, Cocos palm, coffee, loquat and cherry guavas as well as other exotic fruits as they become more widely grown. The seeds of these ones are spread by the wind or by birds. Many others have the potential to get out of hand so please think carefully before you plant.

For information about weeds and their eradication visit these sites:

• Camphor Laurel Eradication
• www.northcoastweeds.org.au
• www.weeds.org.au

Weeds

The five most persistent weeds in Byron Creek Catchment are

• Cat’s Claw Creeper
• Small and large leaf Privet
• Madeira Vine
• Balloon Vine
• Camphor Laurel

Different areas can have a varying range of weeds depending on seed source and dispersal method.

The troublesome Madeira Vine.

Fortunately the flowers are infertile & propagation is vegetative i.e. by tubers The tubers are clearly shown here. Each germinates very readily once it lands on the soil. Early stage of rapid vine growth. The vine completely covers the underlying foliage and will eventually smother and kill all in it’s path.