My Blog About Anything / Everything: Sustainable Living Blacktown E-newsletter - Blacktown City Council

This month in Sustainable Living Blacktown:

many thanks to Adopt a Park volunteers
bolster Blacktown biodiversity through bushcare
let's be waterwise this summer
responsible picnics
which bin goes out when?
flying foxes at risk from powerlines
World Wetlands Day.

As our Adopt a Park project comes to an end, we wish to thank all the volunteers who contributed over the past 5 years.

Adopt a Park commenced as a Council initiative to engage local residents in helping to keep our parks clean and to discourage littering. It was a NSW Environment Protection Authority, Waste Less Recycle More project, funded from the domestic waste levy.

Since 2015, across 20 ‘adopted’ parks in Blacktown City, individuals, school groups and other organisations worked together to remove 216 cubic metres of litter. This is equivalent in size to 9 household garbage trucks!

With the promotion of community education around responsible rubbish disposal, the program has seen a decrease in the litter in our parks. Volunteers have also planted, weeded and mulched gardens, and provided ideas and input into improving engagement with the community.

We would like to extend our thanks and congratulate all our Adopt a Park program participants for their time and hard work.

We wish them well in their future endeavours and thank the NSW Government for its assistance with funding throughout the program.

Our Open Space Maintenance section will continue to service these parks, for the enjoyment of the public.

If you would like to help improve Blacktown’s parks, we encourage you to join Bushcare!

Australia is one of the 17 ‘mega diverse’ countries that together account for less than 10% of the global surface, yet support more than 70% of the world’s biological diversity.

Australia is home to between 600,000 and 700,000 species, many of which are only found in Australia. Unfortunately, since European settlement, 100 species have become extinct, including 34 species of mammal.

Blacktown City’s local bushland contains the vegetation community called ‘Cumberland Plain Woodland’, which is classed as a critically endangered ecological community under the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 and the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act 1999. Only about 9% of this vegetation type is left.

Would you like to be part of an amazing group of volunteers helping to protect and restore the remaining Cumberland Plain Woodland?

You can join one of our local bushcare groups and be part of a team working to protect our local bushland and the wildlife that depend on it.

Bushcare groups are supported by Council through training, supervision, plants, tools, technical advice and opportunities to participate with grants and other special projects. Volunteers generally work for 3 hours, one weekend a month.

The bushcare program will recommence at all 17 of our Bushcare sites in 2021.

For further information about our bushcare program, click here, or call our Natural Areas Team on 9839 6000 or email us at ourenvironment@blacktown.nsw.gov.au

Sydney Water has announced that Water Wise Guidelines apply. These replaced the Level 1 water restrictions which NSW Government lifted from 1 December 2020. The guidelines apply to households and businesses.

Being water wise remains important due to Sydney’s growing population and the longer-term trend of increasing numbers of hot summer days in western Sydney. Combined, these will continue to increase our ongoing demand for water. We can all help to reduce that demand by being efficient in our use of water.

By following the new Water Wise Guidelines, we can conserve water now and ensure there is enough for everyone to use in the future.

Under the new Water Wise Guidelines, you can use water to:

water lawns and gardens before 10 am and after 4 pm using a hand-held hose fitted with a trigger nozzle, sprinklers or standard watering systems
top up pools and spas to replace water lost through evaporation
wash cars with a hand-held hose fitted with a trigger nozzle
clean windows, walls and gutters with a hand-held hose fitted with a trigger nozzle.

See here for more information on what you can and cannot do under the new guidelines.

During the warmer season, picnics can be a great way to enjoy Blacktown City’s beautiful parks.

Whether you are enjoying a barbeque with family or are getting together with friends, it’s important to make sure you don’t leave litter behind. It’s everyone’s responsibility to keep our parks and green spaces litter-free by making sure we put our rubbish in the bin.

Litter can blow into the stormwater drains and waterways and harm the local wildlife. For example, plastic bags, balloons and bottle caps may cause choking hazards and other injuries when ducks, birds or fish mistake them for food.

Leaving food scraps behind can also be dangerous to the local wildlife as it disrupts their natural diet and may make them sick. Many animals are unable to break down foods such as fruit peels, apple cores and processed breads. Feeding local wildlife can also have long-term effects on their health and foraging abilities. Visit Environment NSW for more information.

When picnicking, avoid litter by taking your own kit of reusable items, including:

a reusable bag
refillable water bottles
re-usable food containers, cups and plates that you take home to wash
and an air tight container for food scraps that you can take home for composting.

If you are new to the area, find the parks nearest you, by visiting the ‘My Neighbourhood’ page on our website.

At your place, do you remember which night is recycling bin night? Have you recently moved into Blacktown City and are not sure which night the bin goes out?

You can get bin reminders and correct disposal information through the B informed app, which can be downloaded from our website here.

You can also find this information on our website under the ‘My Neighbourhood’ section. Simply enter your address and click ‘search’ to find lots of useful information, including:

your upcoming garbage and recycling bin collection dates
a downloadable pdf of the annual recycling calendar that you can print for yourself or keep as a quick reference on your computer or phone
events happening in your local area
information on your local Councillors.

If you are looking for information on recycling, including on some of the trickier items, you can watch our recycling video here.

Blacktown City is home to a grey-headed flying-fox camp on Ropes Creek. Currently, an estimated 500-2,500 flying foxes live at the camp.

Flying-foxes are the largest members of the bat family and play a crucial role in the Australian environment because they are valuable pollinators and seed dispersers. Flying-foxes feed mainly at night on nectar, pollen and fruit.

Flying-foxes face a range of threats including habitat loss, entanglements in garden or fruit netting and hot weather events (with temperatures over 40⁰C sometimes leading to mass deaths). Flying-foxes also come into contact with powerlines and are frequently observed to have suffered electrocution. It is not currently known how many die from this each year.

Researchers are investigating this, and you can assist by downloading the free iNaturalist app on Apple or Google Play and signing up to report photos or sightings.

You can also help flying-foxes by:

planting native flowering species to provide food
ensuring that netting used in your garden is ‘bat friendly’. If not sure, use the ‘finger test’ – choose netting that you cannot poke your finger through.
notifying WIRES on 1300 094 737 if you find an injured flying-fox. Do not attempt to rescue it yourself.
volunteering to assist sick or injured wildlife. Contact WIRES.

Check out reported flying fox sightings here.

The theme of World Wetlands Day on 2 February 2021 is ‘wetlands and water’. This is because wetlands are key for maintaining and improving water quality, and essential in providing healthy habitats for plants and animals.

The soil and plants in wetlands improve the water quality of downstream waterways by removing harmful bacteria, nutrients, suspended material and pathogens from the water. They also provide protection from floods and storms by absorbing excess water and releasing it slowly back into the catchment.

Blacktown City has 12 natural and constructed wetlands, including the floating wetlands in William Lawson Park, Blacktown International Sports Park and Ropes Crossing. These floating wetlands contain suspended aquatic plants on the water’s surface, where the plant roots can remove nutrients and help settle sediment.

However, litter and excess nutrients entering waterways has degraded the health of our wetlands.

Help us maintain and improve Blacktown City’s wetlands through these simple actions:

keep the drain just for rain – wash your car on the lawn instead of on concrete, sweep gutters and driveways rather than hose them, and compost your garden waste
scoop your poop – pick up dog poo when walking the dog
don’t trash our waterways – dispose of your waste responsibly by placing your litter in the bin or call Council to book a free household clean up. Residents can book up to 12 collections a year.

We run an annual 'Carp Fish Out' at Lake Woodcroft to help reduce the number of carp degrading the lake. Last year the event removed 166 carp! Our next Carp Fish Out’ will be held on Saturday 13 February 2021 – come and join us by registering here.