Austinville Landcare Group
Next landcare at 8.00am: 621 Austinville Road on the last Sunday of the month.
All welcome! Come help us restore the bush – planting , watering, weeding and fertilising. All plants, gloves and tools supplied. Plus a scrumptious morning tea afterwards when we boil the billy. Bring the kids too.
So Come along. Join us. Do something for the community and have some fun.
.We work as a community in the valley and are strongly supported by the City of Gold Coast’s “Beaches to Bushland” program. We also raise money through grants to pay contractors to carry out bush restoration work in more challenging areas. Over 14 years we have made a huge difference to the valley by removing invasive and smothering weeds, and restoring native Australian habitat along 11 kilometres of the creek’s 17 kilometre run in the valley.
BEFORE AFTER
BEFORE . AFTER
In 2018 Austinville Landcare was recognised for its work by winning the inaugural Healthy Land and Water – Healthy Habitat Award.
Background and History
Austinville is the upper catchment of Mudgeeraba Creek. It is a beautiful valley that flows north from the Mt Warning Caldera. Austinville is an important buffer between the urban expansion of the Gold Coast city and several world heritage listed national parks.
Historically, the valley was a farming area. In the 1930’s a soldier settlement scheme was developed at the end of the valley. This involved clearing nearly 500 acres of rainforest. Unfortunately the scheme only lasted 10 years, and much of the land reverted to lantana and other weeds.
In 2005 very aggressive invasive vines were making their way upstream into the valley.
The Landcare Group was created in response to this threat. We worked as a community and also raised money to pay contractors to eliminate these vines. It was a fantastic result and the momentum has continued right up to the present day. The result is that Austinville is one of the most weed free catchments on the Gold Coast.
The community concentrated on Staghorn Park for 10 years. It is now a beautiful natural place that hosts our annual Anzac Day community cricket match.
For the last 4 years we have been working at the more remote Cox’s reserve. It is also rapidly transforming from degraded creek line into beautiful forest area.
The use of grants to fund contractors has also been maintained and in 2016 we started a massive project that starting restoring the critically endangered lowland rainforest along the creek from Cox’s south to the Springbrook Cliffs, a distance of 7 kilometres! This rainforest has a host of rare and endangered species as illustrated by this collage of photos
What can I do? Probably the biggest thing you can do is avoid planting invasive plants on your property. One out of control plant can spread through the whole valley and cost hundreds of hours of volunteer time or thousands of dollars of contractor fees to get under control.
An environmental booklet with information on how to identify common weeds found on the Gold Coast and appropriate weed control and removal methods is available to download here:
http://www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/environmental-weeds-of-the-gold-coast-booklet-2406.html