Beaumaris Conservation Society

1992 Annual General Meeting

President’s Report

Over the last year the Beaumaris Conservation Society has experienced many demands relating to conservation within our locality.

Lengthy discussions with representatives from the Sandringham Council about suitable trees for planting in the nature strips of Beaumaris have occurred. This resulted in the formation of a policy on street trees for Beaumaris, and the joint decision between the Beaumaris Conservation Society and the Sandringham Council that the Gramatan Heathland Sanctuary be managed by a joint committee comprised of representatives of the council, BCS and local residents. Apart from community working bees other works are now provided by the council.

The management of the heartland that adjoins the Beaumaris Campus of Sandringham Secondary School has resulted in an enormous amount of work due to a wildfire last summer. Members have been removing dead tea trees, removing exotic grasses by handing weeding, and spraying a limited amount. The work at the site was coming along nicely when building works at the Education Demonstration Unit which buts onto the reserve got well out of hand. This resulted in a bulldozer cutting a track through the most pristine section of heathland in Beaumaris. Accordingly members were extremely angry at this action and a flurry of letters, faxes, phone calls and meetings went out to every conceivable person who could assist in the resolution of the issue. Overlaying this is the on-going saga of changing the title of this land from the Ministry of Education and Training to the Department of Conservation and Environment. At this point I would like to thank Geoff Connard MLC for his support and efforts. Geoff has actively pursued the issue of the transfer of the title and rectification of damage done to the site in the State Parliament.

While all this has been going on members have been devoting much of their free time to hand weeding of Balcombe Park. After a wildfire in January 1991 close to one hundred different species of indigenous plants have come up.

So it’s been a very busy 12 months and although there have been disappointments there have been some wonderful times, like the discovery of sun orchids at the high school a month ago and the baby blue tongues at Balcombe Park.

Rob Casamento

PRESIDENT