Tomorrow, 5th June is both World Environment Day and the inaugural Queensland Environment Day. I’ll be acknowledging the day in a highly visible way!!….. The new pedestrian bridge over the Brisbane river has had over one million people walk on it. And ever since it opened there has been a highly visible, massive Mile A Minute vine smothering a large Casuarina. Through a lack of knowledge, lack of awareness, lack of will or a ‘Council will fix it’ attitude, none of the over one million people have done a thing and the vine is getting bigger and spreading. But no more!! Tomorrow, with my trusty secateurs, I’ll cut the stems and relieve the pressure on the poor casuarina. And over the next few weeks passersby will see the drying, dying vine leaves, and maybe a few will wonder why.. Our native environment is under threat from so many sources. The way I see it, we need as many people as possible, making numerous small actions, to inspire others, to end up making a difference.

Today is Queensland Environment Day and also World Environment Day. I spent 15 minutes at the Kangaroo Point end of the bridge this morning. I cut all the vine stems and pulled what I could out by the roots. No chemicals, one person, problem sorted. I’ll pop back again time to time to prevent regrowth.

Tomorrow, 5th June is both World Environment Day and the inaugural Queensland Environment Day. I’ll be acknowledging the day in a highly visible way!!….. The new pedestrian bridge over the Brisbane river has had over one million people walk on it. And ever since it opened there has been a highly visible, massive Mile A Minute vine smothering a large Casuarina. Through a lack of knowledge, lack of awareness, lack of will or a ‘Council will fix it’ attitude, none of the over one million people have done a thing and the vine is getting bigger and spreading. But no more!! Tomorrow, with my trusty secateurs, I’ll cut the stems and relieve the pressure on the poor casuarina. And over the next few weeks passersby will see the drying, dying vine leaves, and maybe a few will wonder why.. Our native environment is under threat from so many sources. The way I see it, we need as many people as possible, making numerous small actions, to inspire others, to end up making a difference.

It was so refreshing to see that there was so little rubbish on the beaches or in the waters of the Whitsundays. I did pick up this Australia shaped piece of plastic though in beautiful Butterfly Bay. I’m in a shirt as I didn’t have a stinger suit. Every little action counts!

Start of our Whitsundays boating trip. I removed numerous Glycine vines from the charter company garden. An employee was very happy with what I did. He mentioned that invasive vines are a huge problem on the islands 😢

I was inspired by the Queensland Trust for Nature’s story on how the Containers for Change refunds can be donated to charities. QTFN uses these funds to buy and install nest boxes for Australian wildlife. Have my $8.20!!!!

Attending King’s College’s first Bushcare session for 2025! Ably led by legend Jack!

We are so lucky in Brisbane to have urban bush, parks and wildlife. Tōkyō is an amazing city, the largest in the world, with an energy to match. But I saw only two species of bird in 3 days, a few crows being one of them. Very few trees as well which doesn’t help, tree canopy at only around 7% and declining. Bird numbers are also declining https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/science-nature/environment/20241015-216633/ We should do all we can to keep and improve what we have in Brisbane. They are an asset the world will love come 2032.

I met with Sarah from Impact Dragonfly and had a great discussion about the future of greenbrand.org. Thanks Sarah for your feedback.

My flight home is not until tonight so had some time to myself during the day. I thought I’d clean up some of the rubbish in the local square where I was staying. I reacquainted myself with the same pick up stick I’d used in France on my last trip! I also had a helper, though I think he was only helping because he thought I had food lol Even collected a Fosters can. People drink it????

I planted the remaining 6 free trees I was gifted, 5 bottlebrush and a grevillea. I did some weeding so council can easily see the plantings, and also watered the previous plantings as we missed the recent storms. It’s looking quite nice and lush now. Amazing what one person can do. I also removed a glycine vine that was loaded with seed pods. Removed via the roots, so can’t regrow, and I removed the vine and seeds so they can’t germinate. An hour well spent!

I attended 2024’s last King’s College UQ Bushcare session on Sunday morning. During the two hours there I worked with residents Ned and Sam to remove glycine and balloon vine from trees planted some years previous. The White Cedar would have died without our intervention. Countering the twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change are not just about planting trees, it’s their nurturing and survival as well.

I visited Kings College for the first time since the early 1990s. Andrew and Thérèse were wonderful hosts for my tour. Andrew and the residents are doing wonderful work regenerating the vegetation along the river. Super impressed! So much so I’ve offered to come help next Wednesday. Watch this space 😊

Was walking the dogs with Soyun at Sid Bigg park in Mudgeeraba when I noticed a Passionfruit vine in a tree near the scoreboard. It was easily removed, but I also removed 30 vine seedlings.

Someone held a party near my daughters’s bus stop with cask wine and vapes. No one else was cleaning it up, so I did, along with about 300m of roadside in 15min.

Waiting for a ferry to go to Karragarra Island. Thought I’d pick up the bits of rubbish. Every bit of positive action helps.

I saw all these plastic bags just waiting to be washed and blown into the drain and into our rivers and oceans. At least this bag of plastic and rubbish didn’t make it!

On Saturday 14th October I watered the 6 seedlings I’d planted earlier this year. They are all growing nicely. You can see a Brisbane Wattle in the pics next to the pink ribbon on a stake. I also collected a bag of rubbish, rubbish that had been washed into the basin during the last storm a couple of weeks earlier

So much rubbish accumulating against fences on Warragul road, I suspect mostly from the construction site, shopping centre and local fast food restaurants. Felt great making a difference on a beautiful Sunday afternoon!

So much rubbish flows into our streams from gutters and stormwater drains. I picked up about 40 items just from this grill alone on Warrigal road. Collected a full bag from rubbish on the footpath nearby.

My good friend Sameer showed me around the wonderful site at Tivoli Social Enterprises and their conservation park