Marriotts Falls Track Maintenance

Saturday, 19 October 2013

Although fine weather abounded it was accompanied by very high winds, especially in the alpine area.  It seemed the safest spot to work would be on the open area at the start of the Marriotts Falls track.   We had worked on it before but there was still a few sections that were quite boggy and needing drainage work.  Several drains were dug beside the track and cross drains installed to allow the water to escape.  At most of these sites rock and other hardening was placed in the track and rocks also beside the drains.  At the far end where the boggiest part was we built the track up with rocks and dirt fill.  A number of pine wildings and other weeds were removed from near the track and down to the river edge.

The track could do with a layer of gravel to make it a better standard and we are considering lodging an application for a Wildcare grant to purchase some.

Most of us were also thrilled to be alerted by Maraika  of a platypus coming down one of our earlier installed drains and we were able to stand and watch it go past only a few centimetres from out boots; we felt very privileged to witness this.

Before heading home we also cleared weeds around the plantings that we put in on the river bank beside the entrance bridge to the park.  Quite a number of small broom seedlings were found there.  Most of the plants, especially the tea trees were looking healthy and although most were now above the guard height there didn’t seem to be much browsing.   The plants were originally put in during August 2011.

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From Marriotts October 2013