Congratulations to all volunteers for this well deserved acknowledgement of all your hard work.

John Butcher receiving Award

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Thank You to Gayle Adams!!

Gayle also set up and ran CooksEye – the CRVA’s pollution reporting program. Gayle demonstrated tenacity & determination in making relevant authorities (Councils, Sydney Water etc) take responsibility for and act on pollution incidents. She also ran a very successful campaign to make our River clean enough to swim in. This campaign resulted in a petition with over 1000 signatures being presented to Paliament and culminated in the very successful Non-Swimming Carnival Media Event in February. The executive of the CRVA and members of the water monitoring team held a small celebration at Ewen Park on Sunday 28 April, to thanks Gayle for her outstanding contributions to the Cooks River. THANK YOU GAYLE

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The CRVA organised Two Valley Trail Reconciliation Walks in September 2011 & 2012 in conjunction with Canterbury City Council, the Canterbury Aboriginal Advisory Group & the Wolli Creek Preservation Society.

Smoking Ceremony – 2011 TVT Reconciliation Walk

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In May 2011, the CRVA’s work was recognised by the Sydney Metro Catchment Management Authority’s Regional Urban Landcare Group of the Year Award.

You can watch a video about the award here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SiIRDOxMoo

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LANDCARE ACTIVITIES

Ewen Park Bush Regeneration Site

Ewen Park Working Bee

During 2009 and 2010 over 6000 local native plants were put in at Ewen Park along the river foreshore. Local residents joined the Mudcrabs and the Friends of Ewen Park to complete the plantings over an 8 week period. This site is now maintained by a monthly bushcare working bee.

For more information contact the Mudcrabs  mudcrabs.cooksriver@gmail.com or Friends of Ewen Park

Foord Avenue Bushcare Site

A ferny gully – Foord Ave

The Mudcrabs and the City of Canterbury have formed a partnership to regenerate the remnant native vegetation on the sandstone outcrop adjacent to the cycleway at Foord Avenue, Hurlstone Park.

If you would like to join in, contact  Liz Millen at: mudcrabs.cooksriver@gmail.com .This is an exciting project that is really starting to show great progress. On site working bees every month.

Richardson Reserve (The Warren)

Following a recommendation from the Mudcrabs, Marrickville Council developed a bush regeneration plan for Richardson Reserve. The Mudcrabs are leading the local community in actively supporting this initiative.

Richardson Reserve – Marrickville

Rosedale Reserve Bushcare

For the past 10 years, the Mudcrabs have been working on reconstructing a significant area of Riverside land, just west of Brighton Ave Canterbury/Croydon Park. This is now a large tract of revegetated bushland with some exciting birds & fauna taking up residence. Monthly working bees occur at Rosedale Reserve.

This is how Rosedale Reserve looked in 2005.

This is how it looked 5 years later

For more info contact Joy Berville at mudcrabs.cooksriver@gmail.com

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CooksEye – CRVA’s pollution reporting program

Many people show concern when our River is polluted by dumping of toxic material. If you see any more suspicious pollution incidents particularly dead fish or unusual discharges from drains [eg heavy flows in dry weather, milky or coloured water] please do the following:

1. Take photographs if possible.
2. Ring Department of Environment and Climate Change 24 hr Pollution Line 131 555
3. Ring the local Council
4. Send an email to info@crva.org.au
5. Put a note in your diary [date, time, tide, odour, colour, number and species of fish, etc].
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In late 2008 The City of Canterbury Council approved a Plan of Management for Ewen Park which includes 2 new mini soccer fields, provision for community facilites and a cafe in a building to replace the former Sydney Olympic Sporting Club. The Plan of Management will be implemented over several years. The CRVA continues to play a role in negotiating the full implementation of the Plan of Management, in particular the building of a community meeting place and café on the eastern end of Ewen Park.

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The CRVA’s Streamwatch water testing group recently won an award under the Streanwatch Rewards and Recognition Program for the best Community Group out of 80 groups in the Sydney Water Streamwatch program.

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The Two Valley Trail (TVT) Project continues and the website for the TVT is operational www.tvt.org.au. It is a fantastic website and well worth a look as well as a walk along the trail. The website also has links to the Two Valley Trail educational resource which is another outstanding project developed by the 5 community groups active in the valleys (WCPS, Friends of Ewen Park, RiverLife Tours, CRVA & Mudcrabs).
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