ROBERTSON HERITAGE RAILWAY STATION INC (RHRS)
Grounds and Gardens Report for 2020 AGM
The general situation for the grounds & gardens administered by RHRS has been outlined in Neil’s President’s Report, but several items of detail are recorded below.
Drought conditions in recent times. The drought, which affected eastern Australia during much of 2018 and 2019, had a substantial impact on the condition of many of our native shrubs, including some waratahs. As a consequence, several shrubs died and others are in need of replacement. A ‘wait & watching’ brief is being exercised here. Unfortunately, one of our prized waratah shrubs on our western embankment has died and will be replaced in due course. Altogether though, most shrubs have survived and some are doing particularly well, which is very pleasing. This is, no doubt, due to the water-sprinkling and hand-watering administered by several of our volunteers during the drought, and is much appreciated. Recent plantings of waratah hybrids and native shrubs have generally been successful, with some flowering this season, although several shrubs succumbed during the drought and are in the process of replacement. A watering system was considered but, because our plantings are widespread and the very welcome rain which occurred earlier in 2020, this was not proceeded with. However, a part watering system may be activated over some convenient parts of our gardens & grounds in the future as the hand-watering is extremely laborious and time-consuming for our volunteers.
Assistance with management of our grounds & gardens. For a long time – both before and during the recent Covid -19 restrictions – our grounds and gardens have benefitted from external assistance with their management. This is a task which is beyond the capability of our volunteers alone. The recent Covid -19 restrictions imposed, understandably, by the NSW Department of Corrective Services, have meant that detainees are no longer providing such assistance with mowing, whipper-snipping and other related duties. This has been a huge loss to us, but it has been overcome, to a large extent, by additional time-consuming work being done by our volunteers. However, this is becoming unsustainable, particularly during the main grass-growing period between September to May each year. Graham Grootemaat, an experienced contract gardener, has been employed by us on an ‘as needs’ basis to undertake more demanding heavy pruning and other tasks beyond our current capability. This will continue, even when/if the detainees return to our grounds. It is uncertain at this stage whether the welcome assistance provided to us by Corrective Services detainees will resume after Covid-19. We certainly hope so and are optimistic. Without their assistance, it will be increasingly difficult for us to fully maintain our grounds and gardens.
Garden working-bees. Regular garden working-bees have been held, generally on the second Saturday of each month. In recent times, following our advertising for assistance, our numbers have increased slightly. We now have several additional regular garden volunteers, but we would like more. Much good and valued work has resulted. The next garden working-bee will be held on Saturday, 10 October 2020, the day before our grounds will be opened for the Robertson Garden Club’s annual plant sale, which will be held in our Fettlers Shed annexe during our “Waratah Weekend”.
Robertson Community Garden Inc. Recently, members of our executive committee had initial discussions with Ange Clarke, President of Robertson Community Garden Inc, concerning the possibility of establishing a community garden over the south-eastern part of our leased land from ARTC. This was approved in principle by ARTC and we agreed to create a Memorandum of Understanding concerning this proposal. The Robertson Men’s Shed has agreed to participate. To date, little detail has been provided, but we are hopeful that this will become a valued initiative by the efforts of several not-for-profit volunteer community organisations. In particular, I am interested in gaining additional caring and active support in the management of the RHRS grounds and gardens.
Main issues. Several important issues relating to the management of the RHRS grounds and gardens remain and are outlined below.
1. Removal of weeds from established gardens. This has long been, and continues to be, a major issue for us. David Tranter used the herbicide Roundup for this purpose, with mixed success. It is frustrating for our volunteers, and particularly for the detainees, to weed certain areas only to have to re-weed the same areas again several months later, and again and again ad nauseum. Careful use of an effective herbicide applied by an experienced gardener such as Graham Grootemaat, using Roundup seems the most effective solution.
2. Disposal of green-waste. This, too, is a major problem for us. It is aided and abetted by our regular garden working bees and detainees throwing everything unwanted on our disposal site, which started off as a mulch pile. Some time ago, the mulch site was enlarged appreciably into two separate bins. However, it is no longer an effective mulch pile, as it is growing too fast with mixed green-waste and we have insufficient water to create an effective and valuable mulch pile. Until recently, we used to be able to regularly take a trailer-load of green-waste to the “bonfire” site on the property of Steve and Rona. The future of that is uncertain and probably not ideal in the long term. Clarity is required.
3. The future of our grounds & gardens. Unless we can gain one or all of the above-mentioned avenues of assistance from other people and organisations, it is hard to see with any clarity how the RHRS grounds and gardens – much admired and valued by many garden lovers – can continue without a great deal of assistance being provided to current RHRS volunteers. With increasing age and ability of our current small number of active volunteers, it is quite stressful and time-consuming to continue their management. Unless the required assistance is provided, Sandra and I are unwilling to continue on the basis currently in place beyond early October 2021.
Ian Wallace
RHRS Grounds and Gardens Co-ordinator
Phone: 0412 696 381
Grounds and Gardens Report for 2020 AGM
The general situation for the grounds & gardens administered by RHRS has been outlined in Neil’s President’s Report, but several items of detail are recorded below.
Drought conditions in recent times. The drought, which affected eastern Australia during much of 2018 and 2019, had a substantial impact on the condition of many of our native shrubs, including some waratahs. As a consequence, several shrubs died and others are in need of replacement. A ‘wait & watching’ brief is being exercised here. Unfortunately, one of our prized waratah shrubs on our western embankment has died and will be replaced in due course. Altogether though, most shrubs have survived and some are doing particularly well, which is very pleasing. This is, no doubt, due to the water-sprinkling and hand-watering administered by several of our volunteers during the drought, and is much appreciated. Recent plantings of waratah hybrids and native shrubs have generally been successful, with some flowering this season, although several shrubs succumbed during the drought and are in the process of replacement. A watering system was considered but, because our plantings are widespread and the very welcome rain which occurred earlier in 2020, this was not proceeded with. However, a part watering system may be activated over some convenient parts of our gardens & grounds in the future as the hand-watering is extremely laborious and time-consuming for our volunteers.
Assistance with management of our grounds & gardens. For a long time – both before and during the recent Covid -19 restrictions – our grounds and gardens have benefitted from external assistance with their management. This is a task which is beyond the capability of our volunteers alone. The recent Covid -19 restrictions imposed, understandably, by the NSW Department of Corrective Services, have meant that detainees are no longer providing such assistance with mowing, whipper-snipping and other related duties. This has been a huge loss to us, but it has been overcome, to a large extent, by additional time-consuming work being done by our volunteers. However, this is becoming unsustainable, particularly during the main grass-growing period between September to May each year. Graham Grootemaat, an experienced contract gardener, has been employed by us on an ‘as needs’ basis to undertake more demanding heavy pruning and other tasks beyond our current capability. This will continue, even when/if the detainees return to our grounds. It is uncertain at this stage whether the welcome assistance provided to us by Corrective Services detainees will resume after Covid-19. We certainly hope so and are optimistic. Without their assistance, it will be increasingly difficult for us to fully maintain our grounds and gardens.
Garden working-bees. Regular garden working-bees have been held, generally on the second Saturday of each month. In recent times, following our advertising for assistance, our numbers have increased slightly. We now have several additional regular garden volunteers, but we would like more. Much good and valued work has resulted. The next garden working-bee will be held on Saturday, 10 October 2020, the day before our grounds will be opened for the Robertson Garden Club’s annual plant sale, which will be held in our Fettlers Shed annexe during our “Waratah Weekend”.
Robertson Community Garden Inc. Recently, members of our executive committee had initial discussions with Ange Clarke, President of Robertson Community Garden Inc, concerning the possibility of establishing a community garden over the south-eastern part of our leased land from ARTC. This was approved in principle by ARTC and we agreed to create a Memorandum of Understanding concerning this proposal. The Robertson Men’s Shed has agreed to participate. To date, little detail has been provided, but we are hopeful that this will become a valued initiative by the efforts of several not-for-profit volunteer community organisations. In particular, I am interested in gaining additional caring and active support in the management of the RHRS grounds and gardens.
Main issues. Several important issues relating to the management of the RHRS grounds and gardens remain and are outlined below.
1. Removal of weeds from established gardens. This has long been, and continues to be, a major issue for us. David Tranter used the herbicide Roundup for this purpose, with mixed success. It is frustrating for our volunteers, and particularly for the detainees, to weed certain areas only to have to re-weed the same areas again several months later, and again and again ad nauseum. Careful use of an effective herbicide applied by an experienced gardener such as Graham Grootemaat, using Roundup seems the most effective solution.
2. Disposal of green-waste. This, too, is a major problem for us. It is aided and abetted by our regular garden working bees and detainees throwing everything unwanted on our disposal site, which started off as a mulch pile. Some time ago, the mulch site was enlarged appreciably into two separate bins. However, it is no longer an effective mulch pile, as it is growing too fast with mixed green-waste and we have insufficient water to create an effective and valuable mulch pile. Until recently, we used to be able to regularly take a trailer-load of green-waste to the “bonfire” site on the property of Steve and Rona. The future of that is uncertain and probably not ideal in the long term. Clarity is required.
3. The future of our grounds & gardens. Unless we can gain one or all of the above-mentioned avenues of assistance from other people and organisations, it is hard to see with any clarity how the RHRS grounds and gardens – much admired and valued by many garden lovers – can continue without a great deal of assistance being provided to current RHRS volunteers. With increasing age and ability of our current small number of active volunteers, it is quite stressful and time-consuming to continue their management. Unless the required assistance is provided, Sandra and I are unwilling to continue on the basis currently in place beyond early October 2021.
Ian Wallace
RHRS Grounds and Gardens Co-ordinator
Phone: 0412 696 381