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

I don’t normally discriminate…but I did today….I chose which pieces of rubbish I’d pick up, and left the others as only had one bag 😬 I’ll collect the rest tomorrow! Why?? I’m pitching in the Battle of the Founders event tonight! What is in the bag? I’ll unveil during the pitch!!

Cleaned up the rubbish swept into the basin in the last rain, some 203 pieces. The young trees are growing well ❤️😊

Until we can solve the production of disposable objects and wrappings, and until we change improve the behaviour of people who litter, some of us need to clean up, in the moment, so this rubbish doesn’t pollute and damage both our physical environment and our aesthetic enjoyment.

Visited the biobasin and removed numerous baby glycine vines, and 3 large ones that were starting to cover the lomandras on the western side. Otherwise it is looking really healthy!

I removed the last remaining large glycine vines from the lomandras in the biobasin. If these were left unchecked they’d overgrow all the vegetation. Doing this service frees up Brisbane City Councils time and money, but also saves vital biodiversity from being killed. Removing weeds by hand, by root also saves the use of poison.

Picked up some rubbish on the way for a coffee with my Aussie cricketing friends

Here we are in London! First impressions tell me (at least in Isleworth), there is an awful lot of rubbish in the streets and they let the grass grow quite tall, and when I say grass, it’s grains like a wheat or barley! This verge below would be providing food for insects and birds, and is much better for biodiversity than a lawn. The locals tell me this is a council failure….but I like it

Off on my trip to the UK! Singapore is renowned as a very progressive city environmentally. 3 types of recycling bin, and I’m sure they actually do the recycling.

Another instance of people eating their KFC food and then just leaving their rubbish on the street. Happening all the time in my neighbourhood sadly. Ended up collecting two bags worth of rubbish - mostly fast food wrapping, plastics and cigarette butts and boxes. I read the latest KFC Corporate Sustainability Report. I wonder if companies like KFC would be open to having their staff clean up their local areas on a regular basis??? Would be good marketing and demonstrate their impact.... Food for Thought.....

I used to think that most of the rubbish I saw on the streets had blown out of bins, or was accidentally dropped. Sadly, time and time again I see the discards of whole meals from the KFC, and containers from Starbucks, where people park their cars, consume the food, then leave their rubbish 😔So sad. I repeatedly pick up the rubbish noting how grass cutters just mow over the top helping speed the creation of micro plastics….and on cue!!! A ride on, mowing grass that doesn’t need mowing, goes straight over the top. Wrong on so many levels 😢

Revisited the biobasin, removed a shopping bag of rubbish washed there after the rains, watered the seedlings and pulled out 50+ baby glycine vines. It’s looking really healthy ❤️

Watering the shrub tube stock again on my walk. The silky oaks do like lots of water.

Down at the creek and noticed an outbreak of Singapore Daisy...looks pretty but overgrows plants and smothers native vegetation.. l will need some help to get this removed.. Please reach out of you can help.. Location Wishart..

Planted 10 native shrubs on the Easter weekend, some weeding.

Invasive vines are everywhere in Brisbane, but these ones on Padstow Road were annoying me every time I drove past them. The trees had been deliberately planted, and some weeds had recently been wiper snipped. The Lilly Pilly and Eucalyptus now have a second chance!

Planted a Banksia and a Brisbane wattle in Skyview biobasin. Glycine has started to infiltrate the bed of Lomandras, so spent 45mins removing most of it. You can see the pile of removed glycine in the second pic

My family are spending two weeks in Vietnam. Our transportation has been walking, buses and boats. It has been appalling to see Waterways, roads, pathways and open vegetation/forest littered with plastic bags, plastic water bottles and take way containers etc etc. I am finding the main issue is that travellers can’t drink the local water due to the health concerns and then having to buy huge amounts of single use plastic water bottles. It’s hot here too. In two hotels that we have stayed in we have been able to boil the water and use our own insulated water bottles that we brought with us to drink from. We say no to plastic bags and limit buying packaged items. At bus stations we have seen plastic coffee cups, plastic straws, plastic lids and then a plastic bag. If u buy more than one plastic bottle they give u a plastic carrying handle. This is the resources and education the local people receive about plastic. The government is not pushing enough for recycled items or recycling plants. It would take years and years to clean up this country I have read articles that local people are aware and receive money when they collect plastic from their streets. Hopefully there is some change happening

Planted 2 casuarinas, a Brisbane wattle and a banksia in the biobasin, replacing those that were killed by the glycine vine. Also removed some glycine regrowth, must have pulled out 100plus baby vines by the roots as well. No poison used 😊

Cleaned up cigarette and coffee paraphernalia around my local bus stop

Spent 15mins removing glycine from the pathway near the kids

I had 15min to kill waiting for my friend to arrive for our afternoon catch-up and walk. Cut away the Balloon vine smothering a wattle, and removed Passionfruit vine from another 4 trees including the young brushbox in the centre of the second pic. Council contractors have poisoned along the paths, but many vines remain in the trees ☹️

A huge weekend. Massive clearing of long grass by hand with an old Cane Cutter blade. Then planted over 60 trees. The aim was to help our mate Jules stabilise the sloping land beneath his pool

Did another 30min on the pathway. Halfway done. Can you tell where I got up to in the first pic??

Glycine regrowth removed from the lomandras and Eucalyptus tree. Roots removed, no poison required!! Looks good in the before and after pics below.

Glycine vine is over growing these lomandras and the biobasin opposite. I can sort out the path, but will get council to do some heavy lifting in the basin. We can then maintain 😊

Here’s just one of many trees being smothered and killed along a popular path near the Sunnybank Rugby club. 15min later it has a new lease on life!

I picked up rubbish.

Revisited the biobasin on Miles Platting Road, removed regrowth of glycine vine. The trees are looking happy and healthy. Will return as more vine in the lomandras.