Phillips Creek Restoration 2024

Phillips Creek is close to the Jones Rd entrance to Whites Hill reserve. It is a small creek which is dry untill heavy rain brings it to life. If we get a storm then it becomes a torrent for a while and you'll get wet feet crossing it for a few days. It has a couple of waterholes that retain water for about a month after heavy rain and these are popular with the local marsupials and birdlife.

The Brushbox track crosses the creek near the Jones Rd entrance to the reserve and for years all that you could see was a wall of Guinea grass along the creek. Our plan was to clear small areas and invite the native grasses back in to replace the invasive species.

May 2023 - Stage one was to brushcut and spray a small area by the walking track. We left the grass to become mulch and in July we planted 100 Lomandra Longifolia. We had to respray the Guinea grass a couple more times as it kept reappearing, but along with that and occasional spot weeding on our working bees it is becoming less apparent a year later.

May 2024 - Clearing just this small area was hard work for one person so we were happy when contractors came in to brushcut and spray South along the rest of the creek. We have been lucky. The guinea grass has not returned (I suspect the contractors did a better job than us). Sometimes it pays to get professionals in.

June 2024 – We continuing to weed around our new plantings and working on an area approx. 100m up the creek clearing Corky Passion Vine and planting some Lomandras. We revisited this area during our October working bee and the Corky Passion Vine had not returned! Nearly all the plantings were doing well, and they all got a drop of water.

It's heartening that the Guinea grass is conspicuous by it’s absence. We have taken a risk by clearing a large area all at once but, for now, it seems to be going well.