Maribyrnong Plastic Free July team

The month of July has seen a great commitment by Maribyrnong residents and Council staff to reduce their environmental impact by taking on the Plastic Free July challenge. Plastic Free July aims to raise awareness of the problems with single-use disposable plastic and challenges people to do something about it.​ 

The Maribyrnong Plastic Free July team were encouraged to a number of actions to reduce their plastic and to share those with the community. Here's how they went...  



In addition to that Plastic Free July glow that all participants will feel knowing that they have made a significant difference (and maybe even an ongoing change or two), participants were eligible to receive incentives and rewards for signing up and for sharing their experiences on our Sustainable Living Maribyrnong Facebook page. Congratulations to all of those who received a prize and thank you to all of you for your enthusiasm and commitment to the challenge! For those of you wanting to make a change to your plastic consumption, there's still time to be part of Plastic Free July or to incorporate changes ongoing, visit http://www.plasticfreejuly.org/.

Hopping into action for frogs! 

You may have noticed we've had quite a focus on frogs recently and had plenty of frog events delivered...with more to come, but it's with very good reason!
 
Did you know that only seven species of frogs have been recorded in the Maribyrnong Catchment in the past five years? Did you know that only ten years ago we had more than double that amount with 15 species of frogs recorded including the endangered growling grass frog?
 
Well, we'd love to see more frogs found in our local wetlands, parks, backyards...and recorded so we know where they are and how they are doing. We know they're out there.
 
We have recently met with Melbourne Water and identified our top priority sites (spots where we would expect frogs to be found as there are historical records and fantastic habitat) and Maribyrnong's Most Wanted...and here they are, the top 3 frogs that we want found and recorded in our municipality.
 

1. Care for our local parks and reserves - take your litter home with you.
2. Create a frog friendly habitat garden at home.
3. Avoid the use of chemicals in the home garden.
4. Attend one of our upcoming Frogs in our Parks events to learn more from experts and see live frogs.
5. Record frogs using the Melbourne Water Frog Census app. Find our more at melbournewater.com.au/frogcensus

Further to our meeting with Melbourne Water, Council have committed to a strategic plan for frogs including a 12 month action plan to be immediately implemented. This will mean a frenzy of frog events and opportunities to get involved for all, including the opportunity to monitor frogs in your local park or reserve and report back to build a Melbourne-wide network of information on frogs. 

FACT: Litter that falls in our parks and on our streets ends up in our stormwater drains, which connect and empty into our waterways. Even when we live far from a river or creek, our rubbish will often find its way into these waterways, polluting the water and threatening our wildlife. In order to protect this rare and unique species, it is important that we take steps to reduce our impact upon their habitat and support them in our rivers, creeks and wetlands. Taking care not to pollute our creeks and waterways is just one way that we can help to support the growling grass frog.

Green Army successfully graduate 

Are you a superhero? 

Calling all Nature Explorers

New bike repair station

 
 
Images: New Bike Repair Station at West Footscray Train Station.

Event Wrap Up:
 

Growing mushrooms from coffee grounds

On a chilly evening in June, we warmed up local café Fig and Walnut and Victorian Premiers Design Award finalist – MushiMushi, delivering a mushroom growing workshop that utilises used coffee grounds to grow mushrooms. The workshop demonstrated how to grow mushrooms using the world’s first zero-waste mushroom growing kit developed by Mushi Mushi. The Mushi Bag kits include used coffee grounds that would otherwise go to waste mixed with a portion of recycled paper or straw. Every bag recycles 35 shots worth of coffee grounds and yields between 300 – 500 grams of mushrooms.


“I would like to teach people to grow their own oyster mushrooms from coffee grounds, from junk mail or anything that contains cellulose. With the Mushi Bag, we can demonstrate to people that it is possible to stop valuable resources like coffee grounds and paper going into landfill”, said Eddie Tsyrlin – founder of Mushi Mushi.



Fig and Walnut Café is committed to sustainable restaurant practices and waste minimisation. On their premises are outdoor garden beds with worm farms for breaking down excess food scraps which in turn assists in growing vegetables. Additional food waste is turned into composted off-site. They grow herbs and have just begun growing their own mushrooms. Their philosophy is about creating awareness for the community and learning along the way.  

Wriggling worms and bug hotels...it must be school holidays!

Our Winter school holiday program was full to the brim with excited children and their families, ready to learn about the fascinating world of bugs and frogs!

We had approximately 150 community members join us during the four sessions over the two days. Day one was all about bugs - with the children learning what is a bug, what is an insect and becoming 'Bug Detectives' during their bug hunt. Each participant also had an opportunity to create a mini 'bug hotel' to take home. 

The second day was all about the fascinating frogs of Victoria and local species of Maribyrnong. The children explored fun facts about frogs but also learnt about threats to frogs and how we can save the frogs! There were games, role-play and hand-on activities to make this learning exciting and engaging for everyone involved.

All children received a beginners guide to frogs and bugs as part of their experience. They were also very fortunate to be the first to see Council's new Nature Explorer Kits - a fun backpack loaded with great resources for discovering the amazing world we live in! The kits include binoculars, bug viewers, guide books, journal for capturing your experience and sharing it with others. These Nature Explorer Kits are bookable through all our Maribyrnong Library Branches. Eight very lucky families were able to book these out for the next fortnight for more exploring of bugs, frogs, birds and more!

Thanks to Leap into Nature, Maribyrnong Library Branches and all of the families that joined us to make these school holidays loads of fun! We hope to see you next school holidays for some organic gardening.

Spotted!

This beautiful Spotted Marsh Frog was found by our lucky Park Ranger, Martin Forster, at Pipemakers Park earlier in the month. Have you heard or seen frogs in Maribyrnong? Want to know more about frogs and where they have been found? Discover it all at melbournewater.com.au/frogcensus.

 
Image 1: Spotted Marsh Frog, Pipemakers Park, Maribyrnong. Image 2: Echidna, Cranwell Park, Braybrook.

Also spotted in one of our parks, was this little guy, an echinda cruising around Cranwell Park in Braybrook, on the bank of the mighty Maribyrnong River. He was spotted by John Laguna in Council's Operations and Maintenance team . John said he was seen feeding, and digging around the park. If you would like a chance to see an echidna or create habitat for wildlife, come join us for National Tree Day at Cranwell Park. This is a free event with a community BBQ lunch, face painting and wildlife show for the kids, bookings essential here. 

The Friends of Newells Paddock have also been lucky to spot wildlife with a recent sighting of the first lorikeet using/inspecting one of the nest boxes along with a flock of Australian white ibises in the park. They also saw the new sign being installed at the entrance to the park, on the river side.

  
Image 3: Lorikeet. Image 4: Australian White Ibises. Image 5: New signage at Newells Paddock.

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