SWR dune care preparing to bash the bitou on back beach

So they shrug their shoulders and say 'there's nothing we can do' or 'someone else should do something'.

Not the intrepid volunteers at South West Rocks Community Dune Care!

In 2012 many of the dunes behind Back Beach were a shoulder-high thicket of almost 100% bitou bush - a highly invasive weed from South Africa introduced to Australia to stabilise dunes after sand mining.

Faced with such a huge problem, keen volunteers wrote a successful grant application to the NSW Environmental Trust and used the funds to engage bush regeneration contractors to carefully splatter the bitou bush with herbicide.

Contractors were diligent to avoid damaging the few remaining native plants.

"We divided the site into small manageable work areas from the eastern end of the dunes," SWR Community Dune Care secretary Alan Hill said.

"We regularly followed up by hand-weeding bitou seedling regrowth with teams of our enthusiastic local and visiting volunteers.

"When we removed the competition, the diverse native plants started to thrive again.

"Once they were recovering well and developing some resilience to the weeds, we'd move on to the next area further west.

"This week we have 14 visiting volunteers in town to help locals tackle weeds in public bushland.

"Five of them have been coming for over 10 years and have been instrumental in rehabilitating this site to a diverse and resilient ecosystem."

The next monthly 'bitou bash' working bee for SWR Community Dune Care will be on Sunday June 27 from 9am to 1pm in the dunes behind Back Beach.

If you'd like to join in, new volunteers are welcome.

You don't need to know anything about native plants or weeds, as training is provided.

There's no obligation to join the group permanently.

Volunteers are rewarded with a delicious morning tea and a BBQ and salad lunch.

"We've had contractor John Delaney spraying one of the last large infestations of bitou bush, about two thirds of the way along Back Beach," Mr Hill said.

"So now is the perfect time for volunteers to sweep through the area and pull up any seedlings of bitou which are coming up under the dead bushes.

"It's a fairly long walk in from the footbridge at Back Creek.

"But, as we've shown in the past, it's the sort of area where our volunteers can make a huge difference to regenerating the native plants like banksias, coastal wattles and tuckeroos which have been smothered by the bitou bush.

"We'll work back toward the footbridge and have lunch in the park on the town side of Back Creek at 1pm."

South West Rocks Community Dune Care has major funding from the NSW Environmental Trust and a great turnout of keen volunteers.

They have achieved award-winning success restoring huge areas of publicly owned bushland over 16 kilometres of coastline from the mouth of the Macleay River to south of Smoky Cape lighthouse over more than 25 years.

The community group is also supported by National Parks and Wildlife Service, Kempsey Shire Council and Local Land Services North Coast.

At last month's working bee at South Smoky Beach, in glorious winter sunshine, 30 volunteers contributed 120 hours uprooting bitou bush over nearly 5 hectares of the dunes.

If you'd like to try your hand at Dune Care, please wear enclosed shoes or boots (not sandals), long pants, long sleeves, sunscreen, insect repellent, a hat and take water.

Gloves, tools and training will be provided.

Volunteers are asked to meet at 8.45am on Sunday 27th June at the footbridge at Back Creek, off Buchanan Drive South West Rocks.

For more information please see Facebook SWRcommunitydunecare, or phone Alan Hill on 0419 012 640.

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