Tales from the Crypts

The BPSG met on Friday, 23rd September 2005 at our home in Wooloowin. This was my first meeting since my return from my teaching experience in Howard Springs. There were only a small number of us in attendance on the night, but we did have plenty to talk about.

I started off telling everyone of my fantastic teaching experience at Howard Springs Primary School in the Northern Territory. My main project being that of creating a cane toad free frog habitat for the native frogs at the school. This project came about after mentioning to my supervising teacher that I knew Dave Wilson and Graeme Sawyer and that I had a fondness for fish and frogs. The principal was quick to hand the project over to me, since no one else was taking action. I was extremely excited about the prospect of being involved in such a large project and a bit worried as I had never installed a pond before (at least one that was buried in the ground). I won't bore you with all the details, but the ponds were installed and the habitat area completely finished in three weeks time. We had a ribbon cutting ceremony on my final day at the school - attended by the local member, Jerry Woods, Dave Wilson, Graeme Sawyer, parents, school administration and students. If you want to know more about it, just ask - I would love to tell you more about it.

Next up was Bruce. He brought along his house plans to discuss how many and where he should put the ponds at his place up North. He also wanted some advice on plants, whether or not to have an overflow marsh area, cane toad walls/prevention, etc. We discussed several options, different plants, cane toad preventative measures, etc. Alan wanted to know if the marshy area would be kept artificially moist/wet when it wasn't naturally in that state. Bruce said that he has several books on the subject matter and that they explain how to put down the liner and stuff. The biggest dilemma is figuring out what plants to use, how many, etc. You want a nice balance, but don't want to go overboard.

Greg said that he thinks his fish ate the blue pickerel rush (Pontederia chordata). He found solid tubers but nothing else was left. The plant was part of his RNA show display but thinks the herbivores had a bit of a feast. He also said that his Lileopsis sp. is doing really well in the pond and is growing over the edges of the pots. He said that you can find it at Bunnings.

Bruce mentioned that he has been putting styrofoam trays in his pool to hold various bog/marsh plants. He has wired them with soft drink bottles which act as floats so the styrofoam doesn't get unbalanced and the contents end up on the bottom of the pool. Last week he had black ducks making themselves quite comfortable in these styrofoam trays. However, they weren't intended to be nesting areas for the ducks.

Peter then informed us that he did quite well at the RNA show. Congratulations!!! Ken and Peter had also made a trip up to the Tin Can Bay area recently. They were pretty disappointed to find no Rhadinocentrus ornatus or Pseudomugil mellis. There were some colourful fish in the area but it looked as though someone had been there and wiped out everything. Peter has also been noticing a difference in his plants since he has started using "Dinosaur Pee". The plants are doing quite well.

Ken has had a bit of an interesting time as well. The grand fish room has stopped for the time being because he has been travelling. He brought along a catalogue from one of his recent trips - "Austral Watergardens". His Ludwigia sedioides (mosaic plant) is going well and did fine over the winter. Several other members lost theirs over the winter. Ken said that he did have a cover over the pond. Ken has also been to the Townsville area. He saw some nice water lilies that had purple flowers with yellow centres. The flowers didn't have a lot of petals. Bruce thought they could have been either Nymphaea gigantea or a non-native variety. Ken also saw some nice Aponogeton elongatus (Queensland Lace Plant).

We wrapped up the meeting and headed to the kitchen to enjoy some supper where our talks about plants, fish, ponds, projects and other topics continued.

The Brisbane Plant Study Group (BPSG) meetings are held on the 4th Friday of every month and begin around 8PM. If you need directions or have any questions, please feel free to contact me via email at bpsg2002@hotmail.com or via mobile on 0403 790 701. For the latest information, please visit our website at http://bpsg.frell.org