Today on this New Year's Eve I went down the river for my walk, as I do most days. In the carry box the friend's group gave me I had my hand tools and herbicide and gloves and also 2 two litre bottles of water. That was the main purpose of the walk, to water a few little plants along the way that I had planted fairly recently, things I'd propagated from seed that were not doing well in their pots. I thought I'd give them a chance out in the ground, even though it was early November when I planted them. They should be planted in winter, as were the others that were better plants, but fortunately we had good rain after I planted them in November, then more again in December. Little rough barked Manna Gums.
The path to the river starts a couple of hundred metres west of our house, at the bottom of Cudmore St. When I got there a deep blue Audi sedan was parked. It had a man and a woman sitting in the front. The lady in the passenger seat had her window down and I nodded to her as I approached, as I had to pass by the car close to it. She said something like "Going to do a bit of work?"
I had my carry box in my left hand and a Roman hoe in my right and a flouro friend's group vest over my shirt. "Yes." I explained that I was going to give a bit of water to a few young plants, and that I often do some weeding and watering while I walk. I said I was in the river friend's group and collectively we'd planted many hundreds of trees and shrubs over a couple of years, and they were doing very well.
The man leaned across and said "Natives?" He said that was good, the land needs repairing. I explained, wattles, paperbarks, tea tree, red gum, hop bush, lots of other things. He was dark skinned. I asked him was he local and did he know his way around the river reserve and about the plants, I'd like to take a walk with an indigenous person who could tell me more about the flora. He said he couldn't help me with that, he was from Adelaide and most of the indigenous have long left this area. He asked me did I know of Archie Roach. I said, "Yes, he was quite famous and died fairly recently, didn't he?"
"He was my uncle," he said.
"Really," I replied. Then he said. "I know who'd help you. Moogy Sumner. He knows about the rivers. He's well known, he leads a group of young people in a singing group.
"Could I find him on google, do you reckon?"
"Yes, I'm sure you will."
As I left them, I felt a little empowered and pleased after the lady said I was doing a good thing. She didn't look indigenous. I always try to explain what I'm doing to people who ask. Most are comforted to learn what the friend's group does. The odd person has a negative comment like "Why don't you just leave nature alone to do its thing." But that's on the rare side, most are pleased to see weeds going and new plantings.
I watered my plants and found some weeds to pull. Over a hundred African daisies ranging in size from a few inches to a few feet. Very few in my patch reaching flowering stage as I've been getting them before they do mostly. A hundred mightn't sound like much but add that to the over 900 I'd got in the previous 5 days and it's significant. And also, I would have done a few dozen small olives, boneseeds and sweet pittosporums as I've seen them too. And some persistent Ivy that's seeded after the rain. Not bad for the last week of the year.
Next year, more of the same. I do feel I'm making an impact and being useful in my retirement. And I'll be in touch with Moogy Sumner at some point. I see he's on Facebook.
