I had the pleasure of attending the Pawkala Animal Welfare Charity Gala today. Their mission is ‘to give stray dogs a second chance at life, fostering a compassionate community where every dog can thrive.’ Nilima, Nikki and the family are doing wonderful work here in Australia and in India. Please check them out!

I had a wonderful meeting on Saturday with the Climate and Energy Club at UQ about Greenbrand.org. Keerthi, Mateo, Dinalka and Jagdeesh were all curious, asked me heaps of questions and full of suggestions and feedback. And I learned about the activities the club organises, from problem solving Hackathons to Mentoring. I feel the future is in good hands.

I came back after a month to see the result of cutting the invasive vine next to the pedestrian bridge. I’m happy. Trees saved!!! The video below shows it best.

The theme for World Environment Day this year is reducing plastic waste. I spent 15 minutes in the winter sun picking up over 50 pieces of plastic from the footpaths around my home.

Today is Queensland Environment Day and also World Environment Day. I spent 15 minutes at the Kangaroo Point end of the bridge this morning. I cut all the vine stems and pulled what I could out by the roots. No chemicals, one person, problem sorted. I’ll pop back again time to time to prevent regrowth.

Tomorrow, 5th June is both World Environment Day and the inaugural Queensland Environment Day. I’ll be acknowledging the day in a highly visible way!!….. The new pedestrian bridge over the Brisbane river has had over one million people walk on it. And ever since it opened there has been a highly visible, massive Mile A Minute vine smothering a large Casuarina. Through a lack of knowledge, lack of awareness, lack of will or a ‘Council will fix it’ attitude, none of the over one million people have done a thing and the vine is getting bigger and spreading. But no more!! Tomorrow, with my trusty secateurs, I’ll cut the stems and relieve the pressure on the poor casuarina. And over the next few weeks passersby will see the drying, dying vine leaves, and maybe a few will wonder why.. Our native environment is under threat from so many sources. The way I see it, we need as many people as possible, making numerous small actions, to inspire others, to end up making a difference.

Had a great chat over breakfast with KOCA President Blake Miller about the great work his organisation does building communities and networks with old collegians. I demonstrated Greenbrand.org and highlighted all the positive activities undertaken by the current residents. We are working on an exciting future model of sporting tour sponsorships using Greenbrand.org to bring extra value into the transaction; for not only the sponsor and the team, but also the environment and community.

The fast food companies really do need to take some responsibility for educating their customers and cleaning up their mess. Leaving their mess is so disrespectful for local residents.

Back at the Biobasin. Collected a bag’s worth of rubbish washed in by the recent rain. I cleared around the latest plantings and removed many immature glycine vines which would grow into a much larger problem. There were some much larger vines removed from the eastern edge that can be seen in the second photo.

It was so refreshing to see that there was so little rubbish on the beaches or in the waters of the Whitsundays. I did pick up this Australia shaped piece of plastic though in beautiful Butterfly Bay. I’m in a shirt as I didn’t have a stinger suit. Every little action counts!

Start of our Whitsundays boating trip. I removed numerous Glycine vines from the charter company garden. An employee was very happy with what I did. He mentioned that invasive vines are a huge problem on the islands 😢

Sunday April 22 I finished off removing the Glycine vine along the fence line of the Biobasin. Removed as much as I could by the roots, cut what remained.

I spent an hour on Sunday removing Glycine vine on the fence line of the Biobasin. It’s a hard to reach spot and was making its way into the tree canopy. I got about a third of it done.

It’s like unwrapping a living present. Question: What is wrapped by Glycine vine here??? Answer: A Lillypilly!

Here is an example of what can be achieved with simple actions and a little bit of work. Under the glycine vine was not one but two trees; a Brush Box and Silky Oak. Hopefully, with follow-up, both these trees get to grow another 30m tall.

All the rain we’ve had in Brisbane recently has meant the invasive vines have gone crazy with growth. I’m seeing whole parks being swallowed 😢 So I spent 2 hours removing vines on Padstow road near the Sunnybank Rugby club. I’ll post a couple more stories with before and after pictures.

I attended the wonderful networking event held by the Rotoract Club of Brisbane International on Thursday evening. Among the inspirational speakers was Brisbane City Councillor Emily Kim. We had a really great chat about Greenbrand and the opportunities where it can be used by residents to record important environmental activities.

On my way to King’s College for a catch up, walking through the redeveloped and revegetated UQ lakes. I notice a young Glycine vine, which, if left alone it will totally smother the native plants. So I pulled it out by the roots. Problem, for now, solved.

I was inspired by the Queensland Trust for Nature’s story on how the Containers for Change refunds can be donated to charities. QTFN uses these funds to buy and install nest boxes for Australian wildlife. Have my $8.20!!!!

After the heavy rains of Cyclone Alfred I came to the Biobasin expecting a lot of rubbish. But there wasn’t. There are HEAPS OF WEEDS though, and I spent an hour clearing around the saplings I’d planted, and with the soft soil I pulled out at least a 100 glycine vines, some of which were quite large.