SPEAKER_01 0:00

I'd like to acknowledge the Bunnerong people as the traditional owners of the land where this recording was made. Over the past few months, I've been walking through reserves around Melbourne, Phan, and recording conversations along the way. I've met with traditional owners and First Nations peoples, conservationists, ecologists, and others who've chosen a place that matters to them. We walk and talk about nature, what lives there, what's changed, and what needs protection. You will hear our footsteps, the wind in the trees, the birds overhead, and the city not too far away. This is Finding Melbourne's Nature. Welcome. Today we're at Brayside Park in the southeast of Melbourne, and we're lucky to be joined by the president of the Friends Group here, Judith Sice. She's an amazing woman and she's got a great story of how she got into conservation. She's also going to tell us all about the conservation values of the reserve, a bit about its history, and the amazing things that occur here to this day. There's heathy woodlands, there's grassy woodlands, and there's wetlands. It's a great spot for birding too if you're interested. So I encourage you to get down to Brayside Park and have a walk around for yourself. It's a beautiful place.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

The park is actually only started in the park in the 1990s. It was a sewerage farm up until 1975-79. And then it was given, the Board of Works eventually gave it over to Parks Victoria. And so this was all open land. It was a sewerage farm and it was, you know, before that it was a racing horse training track, and before that it was grazing, and then it was vegetables, and before that it was a carum carum swamp. So it's had a changed history. If you look here, there you can see that that's actually a scar tree.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

That is a scar tree, right?

SPEAKER_00 2:13

Yeah, there's a few others, but that one is the most obvious one to me. And most people never see it. Yeah. It's there. Amazing. So this is a lovely photographed tree. It's quite an old tree. So sometimes not all the trees were chopped down.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

Beautiful River Redgow.

SPEAKER_00 2:30

It's a really old one. It's not the biggest in the park. The biggest in the park is called Big Ben, I think.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 2:36

And I'm not sure how old the old we reckon it's probably between five and eight hundred years old. This one probably isn't, it's probably three to four hundred years, we reckon. But it's quite photographic.

SPEAKER_01 2:48

It is, isn't it? It's well.

SPEAKER_00 2:50

You look at, I mean I look at the size of those branches, but when you look at the other one, which is down in the Heathland, it's they're massive.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

And so a few trees managed to avoid the sewage run.

SPEAKER_01 3:02

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 3:03

Not many. The biggest problem we have in this park is actually rabbits. I think we have, according to one ranger, the biggest rabbit population in a regional park. Because we lost our big trees, these are our nesting sites. So the sulphur-crested cockatoo is our crest, and he is the most popular bird you'll see here. And they're all nesting at the moment and fighting over sites. So you see them all out here. But we planted all in there. So that's quite a recent planting, probably only in the 15 years old. But you can see, and the wood ducks are out there trying to contest for holes as well.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

It's great that you've got hollows though in this sort of a landscape. It's amazing to see.

SPEAKER_00 3:46

This is where the ranger and I would like to see a big rewilding fence all round this idl section here. And wallabies reintroduced swamp wallabies and echidnas, and we have got echidnas, and bandicoots, we'd like this rewilded. So imagine if you were running along here and a little head popped up. Wouldn't it be wonderful? It would be magic. It's just that's how that's his dream and that's my dream.

SPEAKER_01 4:10

I can understand why, and like from memory, there used to be bandicoots here till the not distant future, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_00 4:18

It was um I think about 2000, we started, we just lost them. We also, the field naturalists came in and did lots of um surveys for um snakes, lizards, and anti kinus at night. We don't have them anymore. But we did have, I would say up to 2000.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

Southern brown bandicoots, yeah. It's amazing, isn't it? And this close to the city. Oh as well.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

We had koalas and because one of my members did her um environment study here and she said I remember the koalas. I thought, oh my god, I never saw them, but they were here. So in here is, see how you can look through there?

SPEAKER_01 4:56

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 4:57

And there's a hole.

SPEAKER_01 4:58

Right through a tree stump.

SPEAKER_00 5:00

Yeah, right through a tree stump. They're just it's just one I really like. It's an old tree, but I don't know why it's like that. Got some good few toadstools here. So this area here I like because right through there is the dingley drain comes in and goes through a series of ponds, which I'll show you. Yeah, and eventually come here. And when we get a little bit of rain, which we should have had this winter, this actually goes under flood. Right. You can hear the frogs.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 5:32

And this is a little bit of a wetlands in here. And you we're actually planting karracks. Beyond this, you go right back to our creek called Bent Creek, and we're carracksing the roots up there. But we've always got something in there and water.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

It's beautiful, so we're we're looking out over about six ducks on the pond there.

SPEAKER_00 6:00

Yeah, you've got um black ducks and we've got the what is it, teal.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

Chestnut teal.

SPEAKER_00 6:06

Chestnut teal.

SPEAKER_01 6:07

Yeah. And they're frolicking, I might say. Is that is that an overstatement? They seem to be enjoying themselves.

SPEAKER_00 6:14

They are they do like this pond, and this pond winds all the way back. You I've actually walked through there, but it gets quite difficult to walk through there.

SPEAKER_02 6:22

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 6:23

But it gets to the creek where we're putting in carrots, which is the only grass that the rabbits don't eat. Which is nice. Look here they are, heads up, tails down, dabbling free.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

Dabbling free. From Wind in the Willows or something. I remember that one. That was a good one.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

I love them. So this pond goes over here and it continues up and crosses another um park. So it just keeps continuing. So this is where I've actually seen an eel crossing them on its way to the sea.

SPEAKER_01 6:58

Over land, crossing land.

SPEAKER_00 7:00

So this at the moment this is dry because we've had a really dry winter. Yes. But normally this is up high and it it will flow all over this area.

SPEAKER_01 7:10

And there's some great aquatics I'm seeing in the in the water here, like where there is some, yeah. Triglocklin and um persicaria and things like that.

SPEAKER_00 7:20

We've also got a few weeds in there.

SPEAKER_01 7:22

I'm trying not to look at those.

SPEAKER_00 7:24

Because we're we're a frog person doesn't like thistles near the water because he said the frogs can get caught on that. Oh really? Yeah, I didn't know that. I didn't know that either. I feel quite sad. So if you go through there, there's the trail that goes beyond to the it comes out through here, and in there is another part I like because this go winds through there. But all the water comes from the Dingley Drain for that reason.

SPEAKER_01 7:48

From the Dingley Drain. Are we seeing a postcard of the caram swamp sort of thing in a way? The old one?

SPEAKER_00 7:56

You'd you'd like to think so, but I don't know. This is a favourite area for roosting.

SPEAKER_01 8:01

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 8:02

Because all these old trees are being contested at the moment.

SPEAKER_01 8:05

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

So up there we've got our ibis sitting up there, and wood ducks, no doubt. And we've got the our Rosellas, and there's usually parrots all fighting because this is a great tree for nesting. If you come here in the early morning or late afternoon, there's always something having a bit of a go at the moment because they're nesting. Along that line of trees there, we had a salinity problem. So when they first started here, one of the major things for the group was to actually plant and we tested for salinity. We haven't tested for salinity for about 15 years. Yep. Probably think we should, but we've actually made a huge difference because all the trees are growing there. So that probably saved it. This is an actual project we're in at the moment, and this is actually rabbit-proofed, and it will come out. Rabbit-proof fence, yeah. Yeah. Rabbit resistant rather than proof because you can't keep bloody rabbits out. In there are some of the wildflowers and orchids that we'd want to keep.

SPEAKER_01 9:05

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 9:06

Um if we have them out here where the rabbits are, we haven't got a hope. So it's about two hectares, and where the rangers and the community, my group, um are applying for grants and we weed it, and but it's got to a critical stage where it's probably hard to maintain them because we just don't have enough genetic input from the few that are left. So I don't know how we're going to address that. I'm talking going on an orchid thing into Cranberne Botanic Gardens and trying to talk to all the orchid specialists. What can you do? What do we do? How do we save our orchids? It's quite a different, difficult problem.

SPEAKER_01 9:49

Do you think you could um be a future translocation site as well?

SPEAKER_00 9:53

Probably, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

That'd be nice.

SPEAKER_00 9:55

Probably would have to be. Problem we have is echidnas.

SPEAKER_01 9:59

They can get through this rabbit-proof fence.

SPEAKER_00 10:00

They come through any hole and the rabbit follows them. It's just amazing. The problems we have to contend with. But you can see we've actually expanded that. Yes. I've seen a fox jump through that, no problems. Yeah, right. They go in. If they eat the rabbit, I don't care. But we check this usually once a week. Um, I do, the ranger does, and fill in holes just to make sure nothing is in there. But all this, some of these are rabbits, but some are echidnas. Could we have a very healthy echidna population?

SPEAKER_01 10:32

Lots of diggings along the track, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:33

Yeah, they come along. They're mainly in the Heathland, but they do come out along the tracks occasionally. So this is the far lap track, and then we come into the River Red Gum, which goes down the other end.

SPEAKER_01 10:51

And we're starting to see some vegetation changes, things.

SPEAKER_00 10:54

You do.

SPEAKER_01 10:54

Yeah, she oaks and things come through.

SPEAKER_00 10:56

You do, because I think the ranger said to me the original, not the ranger this one, but the ranger before, is the carumcarum swamp, there is a different change, especially on the far lap track, where you go from where the carum carum swamp is and then you go into river red gum country, which is open, what do they call it? River red gum um grassy, yeah, grassy um woodlands.

SPEAKER_01 11:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:24

Grassy woodlands. So we are changing into it.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

And this is such a habitat that's been lost so much around Melbourne, isn't it? To see it on the south side down here, it's pretty special because so much of this.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

Then we have the Heathlands, which is um nominally protected. Yep. People are not supposed to go in there. This weekend I do a spring walk and we take people up there. Flowers are spiteful, I've decided. They either come out before or after. They never seem to come out. We're not, you know, we've changed from October to September to November and we just can't get it right. The wedding bush is the main big display up there, but also we have lots of um greenling greenhoods which were out a month ago. And then there's different orchids up there, the donkey orchids and and the hyacinth.

SPEAKER_01 12:18

Are you a birder yourself?

SPEAKER_00 12:20

Um, sort of. My husband's more the birding person.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 12:25

But I go on trips with him, and I know that birding here is a lot of people tell me is almost as good as going to the Western treatment plant.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

Wow, that's a new big claim. That's great.

SPEAKER_00 12:37

You can see all the ducks down here in one day. Not at the moment, because we don't have enough water.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 12:43

But we do see um bittens and rails, and all those will be down here. So in here you can see a lot of trees have fallen down.

SPEAKER_01 12:53

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 12:54

In here, we've had a lot of loss of trees because we've had successive uh drought conditions. And I often think the golf course has a lot of ponds along there. And once upon a time I imagined that when the golf course wasn't there, water used to flow through here. But it doesn't anymore because they use it. And so I think we've over the years it's changed a lot. But that's I guess that's life, isn't it? But you can see I always like some of these big old trees, but they are dying slowly but surely because of lack of water in the deep down. They survive quite well, but every now and again I think what they need is a big, big soaking and they don't get it anymore.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

You think the natural floodplain of the sort of carum swamp would have would have been through here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:42

But it's not there now. So what we're seeing is the end of it.

SPEAKER_01 13:47

How big is the park?

SPEAKER_00 13:48

295 hectares, just under 300 hectares.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

Wow, that's huge, really.

SPEAKER_00 13:54

It's quite a big park.

SPEAKER_01 13:55

Yeah, that's great.

SPEAKER_00 13:56

Which is why, when you've successively cut your budget, how hard it is to maintain.

SPEAKER_01 14:03

And you're the leader of the Friends Group?

SPEAKER_00 14:06

I'm the president of the French Group. The president of the Friends Group? We've got about registered paid-up members, about 40 plus, just over 40. But we have a lot of people who aren't members, but who come to planting and you know they tell us I planted here as a kid and I'm bringing my kid back to plant. So you can see that happening. So it's it's that's quite good. When I talk about the centenary drought, which you mightn't remember, which was 19, what was it?

SPEAKER_01 14:34

88. Is it that one? No.

SPEAKER_00 14:35

That's Bison's after that one. Not that one, it would have been the next one, 2002 or something. Yep. There was a big, we had sort of must have been, I was here because I didn't come to Melbourne until come down here until 1995.

SPEAKER_01 14:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 14:51

And it was after that, so it would have been about 2000. We had huge um flood through here, and it was all the rain, and it just flowed all the way through here. Long swamp, which is up here, was full. I've never seen it full again. So, and that would have all soaked in.

SPEAKER_01 15:10

Wow. When did you join the Friends Group?

SPEAKER_00 15:14

I joined the Friends Group about 2000. Wow. But I was here working in the nursery before that, probably in 1998, 1999. And I really joined because I was a member of the I still am Greater Daninon group and we ran a nursery. Yes. Our nursery closed because we didn't have enough, well, they shifted us, and we had a smaller space and all sorts of complications. But so I thought, oh well, I'll join this group and become part of it. And then I've been president for I think 15 years. Wonderful. Because, well, we lost our original members are all in the 80s and 90s and past. And our president at that stage was 92.

SPEAKER_02 15:57

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 15:58

Elsie. And Elsie died. She showed me how to make this slice, and I make it for every meeting because it's Elsie's slice. Everyone said Judith's slice. I said, no, it is Elsie's apple slice, which everyone loves.

SPEAKER_01 16:12

That's lovely. And was Elsie, I presume, a huge influence on the place as well.

SPEAKER_00 16:17

She was the secretary and she was one of the original members. Yes. The original members, I don't think we've got any of the original members left now. They've, as I said, they're in their 90s, 80s. They all joined probably when the park started in about 19. The group started in 1989, I think it is. It started. And they probably were all in their 40s and 50s at that stage, retired and moving in here. So they did a lot of work. They planted, they had a lot of fun. They had about 12 to 14 ranges to work with.

SPEAKER_01 16:51

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 16:52

Now we have two permanent full-time and two part-time. Four.

SPEAKER_01 17:05

And you had an interest um in environmental things before you started this friends group? You've been involved in other.

SPEAKER_00 17:14

Yeah, I was. I was a member of the Greater Danion one. I grew up in central Queensland.

SPEAKER_02 17:20

Lovely.

SPEAKER_00 17:21

And I can always remember, always riding in those days, you know, your mother let you go right off on your bike into the bush.

SPEAKER_02 17:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:27

So I just ride off in the bush. And I said my earliest memory is always in the central Queensland in a bush. Well, not far from my home, I don't think. Just standing there and listening to seeds like Wattles and Acacia seeds. You know how they twist and then go and you can actually hear them doing it. I can always remember a hot day just listening to that. So that that started me, and I did I did, I was lucky. I did science all through secondary school. I actually had a girls' school with women science teachers, which was I think influential. And I also got a zoology teacher. We didn't had, yeah, usually you did physics, chemistry, three and two maths. But we got a zoology teacher. And I think she was the catalyst because she was pregnant. I remember her being pregnant, cutting up dogfish on the oval, going to Keppel Island, chasing mudskippers, you know, just doing. Where physics was all, let's do some more maths. Yeah, yeah. Let's do some more maths. And I'm thinking if I do any more maths, I'm going to scream. But she just made science so wonderful. It was, yeah, I can always remember that. I think that was a turning point for me because my mum said, you used to be the person who used to grow wheat and try and make be the little red hen and grind up wheat and try and make bread. She said, You were always digging or doing something stupid in the garden. No one else did it. And my dad also used to travel for the Commonwealth and he used to check the kangaroos that got hit to see if they had any joeies.

SPEAKER_01 19:00

Oh, that's nice.

SPEAKER_00 19:01

And he brought one home for me once, and I had this little red kangaroo who I was going to breed. My mum said, you can't have a red kangaroo, they're big animals. But my dog had adopted him, so you'd see him lying on the ground and the kangaroo would be, the little joey would be curled up so. You know, I just I think all those things influence you as a child, but I think kids now don't get those opportunities.

SPEAKER_01 19:26

It sounds magic, it sounds idealistic.

SPEAKER_00 19:29

Those are the sort of things I think that get you in. And then I also married a geologist, so I did roam the bush with him a lot.

SPEAKER_01 19:38

And when did you start getting involved in the environment groups around Melbourne?

SPEAKER_00 19:43

Um well I went back to teaching. Yep. That's a nice look through there. I like I like it when you can see old trees and new trees.

SPEAKER_01 19:51

Yeah, it's nice, isn't it? Side by side.

SPEAKER_00 19:55

And you can hear birds. And even though this is a fairly popular park, once you get away from the main centre, you hardly see anyone. So you can see we've planted here.

SPEAKER_01 20:06

She oaks, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:07

Yeah, we've planted a bit of those.

SPEAKER_01 20:08

And some lovely blackwoods that are putting on a bit of a flower forest.

SPEAKER_00 20:12

They are. They do quite well actually.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

And there's some of your cracking seeds from your childhood.

SPEAKER_00 20:17

I know, they are.

SPEAKER_01 20:19

So um you started to join some of the environmental groups?

SPEAKER_00 20:24

Yes, I I joined, I went to plantings in Brad in Danon, and then I joined the Danonon Environment Group. And then I actually um joined this group because I was across the road from it. And from this group I thought, well, I need to know more, so I joined the Field Naturalists. And then from the Field Naturalists I said, well, I really need to see the big picture. And so I joined Living Link Collaboration, which is a Melbourne water sponsored group which looks at the Dan and On Creek catchment. So I'm probably their only volunteer group there, and they have all the councils that go right along the Danon on Creek catchment. And then we I joined I'm a field naturalist rep for them because they didn't want a friends group, they wanted someone who had a bigger picture. So I said, Well, I'm a field naturalist. Oh yeah, you're good, you're good. So then I joined the Gardner Creek Regional Collaboration, which is Gardner Creek that feeds into the Yarra. So I'm in that one. And with the field naturalists, I'm on the committee for Maui Dunes, which is a property we bought up in the Maui. So quite a few little people.

SPEAKER_01 21:35

You keep yourself busy.

SPEAKER_00 21:37

And this is our wetlands area. It's deteriorated a lot from lack of water. It really has. But it is very popular with the birdos and painters, artists come down here, which I think is. I had a lovely incident. I was collecting water to take to an event with macroinvertebrates. And there were these five ladies all sitting there with their little easels peeking. And I thought, I said, I won't disturb you, I'm just going to collect water. So I waded out in my boots and I had my net and I got my boot stuck and I couldn't pull it out. And I slowly just went. And do you know they did not laugh? They did not laugh. They did not laugh. I picked myself up as if, oh, this is perfectly normal. Just fall in the mud, crawled out and went off. And you know they did not want. I said to someone, it must have been the strangest thing. This woman comes in, falls in the mud, crawls out, gets some more water and drives off. And I was thinking about the stupidest thing I'd ever done. Toby said, you weren't supposed to be there on your own. I said, I wasn't, I had five observers watching me. I said, I wonder if any of their paintings had any line in the mud.

SPEAKER_01 22:55

Oh, isn't it great to see the sheok in fire? I love the she-oke. It is just, isn't this what life's about when you see that beautiful red.

SPEAKER_00 23:02

And do you know people don't stop and look at that?

SPEAKER_01 23:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:04

And it's it's such a weird, because you know, you say to kids, that's a leaf.

SPEAKER_01 23:08

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 23:09

And that's not what you think of a leaf.

SPEAKER_01 23:11

No.

SPEAKER_00 23:12

And I said, there's a male and there's a female. And they have to have both. Eucalyptus don't, but she oaks do. And I said, and if you lie, at the school I taught we had a lovely she oak. And I used to get all the kids to lie under there and listen to the wind blowing through the she oaks.

SPEAKER_01 23:29

It's a magic sound, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 23:31

It just It's a sea. It's like shh shh.

SPEAKER_01 23:36

I like that description a lot. It is the sea, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 23:39

So I used to say, just close your eyes and where are you? Eventually some kid would say, it sounds like the beach. I said, exactly. But I said, even this.

SPEAKER_01 23:50

Yeah, the bark.

SPEAKER_00 23:52

It's such an interesting bark. You just gotta stop people, and then they have these tiny little seed balls, which are interesting.

SPEAKER_01 24:00

They're a tactile plant, aren't they?

SPEAKER_00 24:02

They are very tactile. But people just walk them by and look at them. Because look, this is our little. Now that's the female, isn't it? The male is the other one, I think.

SPEAKER_01 24:14

That's right, yes. We've got growing side by side.

SPEAKER_00 24:19

So they should be producing good seed.

SPEAKER_01 24:22

They're in a relationship, perhaps.

SPEAKER_00 24:24

Husband and wife, I remember that one. This is the old wife, and that's the young male. Here's a good one. This is the tree that we're trying most to propagate at the moment, is the sh is the banxias.

SPEAKER_02 24:40

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 24:41

And they're very hard at the moment to grow. I don't know why. They're not producing seed, they're not growing so well from cuttings. And this is an area where we've got the coastal and we've got the marginata. And we shouldn't have the coastal. Technically, we should be the interfoli one, it is. But it's not growing well. That's so I'm trying to grow both if I can get any seedlings at all. We do have um ringtails and brush tails, and we do have the small um, what are they not small possum that like a glider.

SPEAKER_01 25:26

Feather tail? Yeah. Or should we gliders?

SPEAKER_00 25:28

We had gliders.

SPEAKER_01 25:29

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00 25:30

And I used to in the early mornings when I used to walk up from across the road, I actually used to see them flying from tree to tree, but they've moved. Whether they're still alive, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 25:41

How long ago since you've seen a glider?

SPEAKER_00 25:43

A glider, probably about 15 years.

SPEAKER_01 25:46

15 years.

SPEAKER_00 25:47

But there could be other places in the park where they've gone. This is our official old bird hive, and it's actually not bad. It's not bad. People come in here, and my husband said, You do still see the odd um good bird in here.

SPEAKER_01 26:04

White-faced heron is just gracing us with its presence.

SPEAKER_00 26:08

It's not doing its usual oh you know the poking voice it has. Such a wonderful fairy tail, the little superb fairy wrens.

SPEAKER_01 26:17

And I shouldn't mention for people who are listening orderly, on the audio, sorry. There is a lot of planes flying over, and that's because we had the Morabin Airport across the road.

SPEAKER_00 26:28

Yes. This is us here.

SPEAKER_01 26:30

Friends of Brayside Park.

SPEAKER_00 26:32

Friends of Brayside Park. That's us.

SPEAKER_01 26:34

And I'm lucky to be here with the president.

SPEAKER_00 26:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:38

Oh, you've got a website and everything too.

SPEAKER_00 26:40

We have. We have. It's all up to date.

SPEAKER_01 26:42

Braysideparkfriends.org.au. Are you looking for more members? Oh, always. Really? Yeah. Always.

SPEAKER_00 26:49

Always.

SPEAKER_01 26:50

And they can come along and do planting, weeding. What are they what are the main activities?

SPEAKER_00 26:55

The main activities we do we run a propagation. So I I head up that one.

SPEAKER_01 27:01

So a nursery propagation?

SPEAKER_00 27:03

Yeah. Great. We go through the propagation. We we do a whole series of walks which were once done by rangers. So we've just finished doing six night walks. In daylight saving we don't, but when it's not daylight saving, we do six night walks on the first Friday of every month and we do extra walks for different groups. We do the planting with the rangers. We also grow some, do our own planting that they allow us to do. We do water watch, but that's sort of restrictive because we have to be trained by Melbourne Water. And also if you have ten people doing water watch, a whole lot of people don't get to do anything. Yeah, so we have about five of us, which is good because it means that someone can be away, like I can be away and say to the three others, can you do it? Yep, good. So we do that at every month. We do the propagation two times a month. We do the night walks, we're just finished. We do a spring walk this Sunday, we do breakfast with the birds, we do autumn walks, we used to have photography, we invite people in to do talks, we apply for grants and we advocate. And that seems to fill us all up. It is hard work actually. But if people come in with a special thing that they want to follow, then we're more than happy to say, okay, let's go for that. So one member came in and he's a frog man and he's runs a frog night and he's always growing his moment water plants to get more water plants in for the frogs. So people come in with different ideas, we follow them, I think. Now if you go along there, you go past our nursery, which is up there, that's the depot. But I quite like this bridge. This is one of my it was one of my water watch areas. Yes. But I like this bridge because it comes from a little wetlands and it's this little turnaround area. And it was flowing up three weeks ago. Not flowing anymore. Stopped. We had a bit of rain. We had two bridges and I liked it because it's man-made. We've still got a bit of water, it's seeping through. But I liked it because it ran through these rocks and in through there, and somebody did a night herand and a dragonfly.

SPEAKER_01 29:41

In mosaic on the rocks?

SPEAKER_00 29:42

Yeah, yeah, on the rocks, which I thought was one of the early ones. There's a bit of weeding that should be done there. They probably tell us it's too dangerous to do that. But in the early morning, we used to walk through here and there'd be swirling mists, and it's really pretty.

SPEAKER_01 29:58

And am I right in thinking that I recently read you've got an OAM?

unknown 30:04

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 30:05

Congratulations! Tomorrow. Tomorrow! Tomorrow! Really?

SPEAKER_00 30:09

Tomorrow. Uh yes. Monday I went, oh my god, it's Wednesday. What am I gonna wear? I've thrown out all my work clothes. So I went to Southwood, which is about as far as I can stand in shopping centres, and said, I need something.

SPEAKER_02 30:27

Because I thought, what am I gonna wear?

SPEAKER_01 30:29

It's so special, congratulations! And when you've listed all the things that you've done, and I'm sure you're just giving me a tiny part of it, but you've you must be so busy, like this is such a huge effort.

SPEAKER_00 30:41

It is a bit, but I don't like it's something you love, you do it, don't you? But yeah, that was a bit of a surprise, that one.

SPEAKER_01 30:50

Oh, I think it's well and truly deserved.

SPEAKER_00 30:52

I look at both my feel naturalists and think every one of them is better, does more than me. I think the only thing I can say is I'm across many groups, and that interconnectedness, that's what I think. Everything is interconnected. People, environments are interconnected, and we've got to keep making those interconnections for things to survive. I keep thinking that it's only when you get someone on their hands and knees planting, and then they sit down and talk to other people who've shared it with them, and then they go away, and then they come back, and that plant is still there. You know, and they bring it back and say to their kids, I did this when I was your age. That is what makes it powerful. So I planted with kids where I worked as a teacher on the Dandenong Creek, and the sign is still there, and their kids' trees now are a couple of metres high. You know, they planted them when we did this big centenary, but they grew them at the school and then they went out with the rotary and the rotary from Japan there and they plant it. You know, and I thought that's so powerful because they've now got little kids at PrEP, and they still can say, Well, I planted that area. I don't know, I think the doing is really important, and getting people to meet with others who share that same enthusiasm. See, here comes our little bushkinders. And isn't that apt for what you're talking about because these kids are experiencing this place of nature in yes, and it's so good, and this is where we have our echidnas like to dig and delve. There are five eucalypts in this tree, in this one. We've got the peppermint, the manor, the river red gum, the snow gum, and there's one more. And that's the we only have five in the park. Is that because we eliminated the others and only planted those? I don't know. That question I don't know. So this is locked. Supposedly, we never go in here. But if you've got a key, you get in here. If we go down here, this is where I go for Heathland, and when I come in here, I just say to people, now think what we've just walked through and look here. This is what it should be out there.

SPEAKER_01 33:24

It's different geology and everything, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 33:27

This is our Heathland, and this is where the sandy bits are. And see, I like the grasses there. It's not a place we can bring people in at night because it's bumpy, but we're going to go down here and see if we can find a big tree. If you go down there, there's lots of birds in here. Lots of little birds.

SPEAKER_01 33:43

So this is a restricted area?

SPEAKER_00 33:45

This is a restricted area, and what's digging here will be our echidnas.

SPEAKER_01 33:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:49

We're having a lovely time.

SPEAKER_01 33:50

Hopefully promoting some orchid growth and things like that through that.

SPEAKER_00 33:54

That would be nice, wouldn't it? Would be nice, but it's not the one we want. The one we're trying to save is the Diuris Punctata.

SPEAKER_01 34:03

You have that here, do you? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:05

Purple, spotted purple one. Yes, but we don't have many left. We got to a hundred once when I was here, and now we're down. Really? This is the one we're trying to save.

SPEAKER_01 34:16

Isn't this wonderful?

SPEAKER_00 34:17

This is the nice part.

SPEAKER_01 34:18

I did not know this.

SPEAKER_00 34:19

You have to watch your feet, yes, because there's the drain beside us, by the way.

SPEAKER_01 34:24

Oh right.

SPEAKER_00 34:24

This is now we're starting to get to our big trees. This is not the big tree.

SPEAKER_01 34:28

That's not the big tree.

SPEAKER_00 34:29

No, that's not the big tree.

SPEAKER_01 34:31

That's a beautiful tree.

SPEAKER_00 34:32

The big tree's further on, but that's quite a big tree, isn't it? But it's not that big tree. The big tree's further on. And I haven't been in here this year. So sometimes I bring people in here, but I have to look at how able-bodied are they?

SPEAKER_01 34:47

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 34:47

Because this is not easy to walk through. Yes, I can hear you. And one of our trees has got um mistletoe on it. There it is. And we don't have mistletoe in our park.

SPEAKER_01 35:00

Really?

SPEAKER_00 35:02

This is we don't bring many people in here.

SPEAKER_01 35:04

I feel privileged to come in here.

SPEAKER_00 35:06

I'm trying to find my big tree. It's it's got to be up at this one up here that you can sort of see. This is our big tree.

SPEAKER_01 35:18

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 35:18

Now that is a big tree, isn't it? That look at the branches drop.

SPEAKER_01 35:22

Undeniably a big tree.

SPEAKER_00 35:25

That's Big Ben. One of our guys said when he dies he wants his ashes at the bottom of the tree.

SPEAKER_01 35:30

That is magic.

SPEAKER_00 35:32

It's a big tree, and it's such a lovely tree. Sometimes I bring people in here.

SPEAKER_01 35:40

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 35:41

You look at it though. How old do you think it is? Look at the size of that. God.

SPEAKER_01 35:45

What's your guess for age?

SPEAKER_00 35:47

Well, there's the ranger. See now there's the mistletoe. Yeah. That we don't have anywhere else, but it's here. He reckons it's about 800 years old.

SPEAKER_01 35:56

Really?

SPEAKER_00 35:57

Yeah, but I don't know. Should that be one of our projects? I don't even know how you go about getting it aged. But if you think about it, that should have been the trees all through here, shouldn't it?

SPEAKER_01 36:08

It should, and this yeah, we would have been in a land of giants where this might not have been the big tree, but the uh average. But today in 2025.

SPEAKER_00 36:18

That is our biggest tree.

SPEAKER_01 36:20

And it's huge. It is huge. I did not know.

SPEAKER_00 36:25

So there's two big trees. That other one we reckon is probably maybe half its age. Yeah. Three or four hundred. See now this is all wet, should be have some wet wetlands through here too. And we've tried planting them here with the other ranger because that's lower down in on the road out there. But this area, I just love this tree. It's so big.

SPEAKER_01 36:46

Absolutely. It's beautiful, it is stunning, and the habitat on it, everything, these perfect stems with it's a climbing tree too, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 36:56

Yeah, you could climb that tree and lie in it.

SPEAKER_01 36:59

I'm glad you got the same feeling because I was just feeling that myself. Oh, this is beautiful. Magic, and I can only wonder what this tree's witnessed, you know, like it would have would it have had a a tree going to climate at a different stage of its life? Would it have would bandicoots have congregated under it?

SPEAKER_00 37:20

Bats?

SPEAKER_01 37:20

Bats on it.

SPEAKER_00 37:21

Anikinus, unanimous koalas. It's not a koala tree, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 37:25

It probably saw quals.

SPEAKER_00 37:26

It probably saw it probably did. It probably did.

SPEAKER_01 37:29

Things that are just lost completely now. And it's still the witness standing here.

SPEAKER_00 37:34

That's what I used to do with kids at school. We used to have to follow a tree for a year, so we used to have to draw the tree every month. I used to go out and all the kids used to just lie down and draw their tree. The first tree drawing they did was bloody awful. But slowly they got better and they started to say, I said, so what's on the tree? Ants, what else? And they'd slowly build up this relationship with the tree. You know, and at the end I used to keep all their pictures and their thoughts, and then I'd give them the diary of a tree. And you know, it made a big impression on them because they suddenly saw that the tree was a living place. But it it, yeah. They're things you try and do. Look at these.

SPEAKER_01 38:13

I didn't know there was icing to put on this cake, but this is stunning. It is absolutely stunning.

SPEAKER_00 38:20

I think it's called Big Ben.

SPEAKER_01 38:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:23

There you are, Big Ben.

SPEAKER_01 38:25

There you go. I can try and tell people it was named after me, but I don't think so. I think it'll probably go down a tree.

SPEAKER_00 38:32

It's like the big volcano down the bottom, Big Ben. Anyway, I have said enough. Yes. You've got more than enough?

SPEAKER_01 38:39

I've got great stuff. Thank you so much for your time. That was Judith Sice at Brayside Park. And if you're interested in joining the Friends of Brayside Park, check out BraysideParkfriends.org.au. And while you're online, why don't you have a look at finding Melvin's nature.com and you can read more about this series. And please check out other apps on your favorite platform for streaming.