National Tree Day 2010

Sometimes I get annoyed with Marrickvile Council & sometimes I think they do such fantastic things for our environment that I want to become their publicity officer.  Today was the latter.  It is National Tree Day.

Council arranged a National Tree Day working bee for members of the community to volunteer by planting the new area currently being renovated at Steele Park, Illawarra Road Marrickville South alongside the Cooks River.

My initial impression when I arrived was one of astonishment. I had been expecting to see a small area that was to be a salt-water wetland.  Instead before me were large decorative swales, at least 2 of them, with a couple more being built. One looks like a heart before it takes a winding route under a new pedestrian/bike path/bridge before reaching the Cooks River.  The car park has been removed, the soil has been landscaped to facilitate the swales & new trees have been planted.

Council supplied gloves & spades & put on a barbeque. We were given on-the-spot OH&S training before we joined around 60-100 other people to plant native grasses, ferns, shrubs & seedling trees.  The work was easy because the soil was wet after the recent rain. It looked like 4/5ths of the plants were in the ground by the time we left.

If you haven’t done this before, I’d recommend it as a nice way to spend a couple of hours. People were friendly, the work was not back-breaking & the food was probably good, though we didn’t stay for that part.  It was good to take part in beautifying this part of Marrickville.

There are a number of environmental programs in Marrickville LGA that rely on volunteers. For information contact Marrickville Council’s Biodiversity Coordinator 9335-2222.

I predict Marrickville Council will win awards for the landscaping & environmental work at Steele Park. When they do, I’ll post a reminder to say I said it first.  If this is any indication of what the waterplay section is going to be like, Steele Park is going to be beautiful.  As I write this it is raining – excellent for today’s new plants.

Showing a few shots of the swales. Second photo down on the right shows the salt-water wetland & the photo bottom left shows permeable footpaths.