In 2016 we bought an acreage block of land which had been subjected to extensive earthworks, resulting in no topsoil, yet plenty of weeds. We had limited knowledge about regeneration and native plants as well as a limited budget, but we were enthusiastic about the opportunity to create a sanctuary both for ourselves and the local wildlife.
After rainfall, we noticed ponding occurring in a few areas at the base of a rocky hill, so we dug out various small ponds that connect to form a seasonal ‘creek bed’ approximately 50m long. We spent many hours digging, weeding and relocating rocks to form the dry parts of the creek bed. The vast majority of this work was hard manual labour – our wheelbarrows have well and truly earned their keep!
We’ve tried to minimise the use of herbicides for various reasons and have therefore resorted to many other weed removal methods including whipper snipping, flame weeding, hand weeding, solarising with black plastic and smothering with cardboard/mulch.
We have planted hundreds of native tubestock and have imported and spread hundreds of cubic metres of mulch.
Like everyone I’m sure, we’ve worked hard on particular areas, only to neglect them and have to re-weed, re-mulch and plant all over again. We’ve lost plants due to drought and then conversely lost some more in wet times.
Six years (and three kids) later, our ‘creek’ and property is still a work in progress and our soil is still pretty average – but it is a vast improvement on where we started. We are very happy to be visited by wallabies, bandicoots, echidnas, antechinus, a myriad of birds and insects as well as goannas, water dragons and many other reptiles.
During frog season, the noise from the creek is deafening – there are so many frogs that you can see them on the rocks, in the water, hanging in branches and often even inside our house! Given that we’re at the top of a hill with no permanent water nearby, we have often wondered where the frogs came from and how they survive the dry months to be so abundant in the wet season.
All together, we are looking after 3.15ha of habitat across the property but this is an area we have been able to focus on and transform for now.
We are extremely grateful to Brisbane City Council’s Land for Wildlife team for their support and encouragement over the years, and to also our local creek catchment group Save Our Waterways Now which has been the source of many of the endemic tubestock.
Article and photos by Ben and Ariane
Land for Wildlife members
The Gap, Brisbane