Friends of Conder Wetlands

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Conder, ACT
Friends of Conder Wetlands

Our Canberra group aims to restore, improve, and sustain the environment of the Conder Wetlands.

10/06/2026

On Sunday we held our June work party.

Six volunteers (Bob, Nicola, Kirrily, Mel, Agnes and Rohan) braved the cold foggy winters morning to work on our rain garden.

https://www.act.gov.au/environment/water/waterway-friendly-gardening/rain-gardens

The rain garden is located between the bottom pond and Tom Roberts Ave and was mostly established in late 2024 with the help of a government grant.

The rain garden has since done well with most plants now well established.

However, the original density of our plantings was quite low, due to issues to do with time, money and weather.

So the goal for the work party was to increase the density by planting in any "gaps" that we found.

We managed to plant a mixture of nearly 200 grasses, sedges and rushes, in the top half of the rain garden.

We plan on returning to the rain garden next month to finish off the planting.

Thanks to all those who helped.

01/06/2026

Hi Friends,

Our June Work Party will be held this Sunday, 7 June, from 9am to 12 noon.

This time we will be replanting our rain garden near the bottom pond. There will also be an opportunity to do some watering and/or weeding, for those who might want to do something else.

We will meet up between the bottom and middle ponds.

See you then

04/05/2026

Yesterday we held our May work party.

The day started ominously though, with rain in the hours before threatening to disrupt our work.🌧️

But just before we were due to start, the rain disappeared and the sun began to shine again. When we observed a rainbow come out over the wetlands, we just knew that it was going to be a good session!🌈

The first good sign that told us we were going to have a great meeting was that we had one of our best volunteer turnouts, despite the threat of bad weather. 🦹

We had 10 keen volunteers - 8 regular ones (Kirrily, Tracey, Nicola, Angelo, Mel, Bob, Agnes and Rohan) plus 2 new ones (Tim and Sandor).

The goal for the day was to replant the embankment on the corner of Tom Roberts Ave and Templestowe Ave. This area has been worked on several times before by us, and we have had some mixed results.

Some parts of it have done very well, but other areas have done quite poorly with whole patches dying, despite frequent watering, mulching and weeding.

We think that the areas that have not done well are the ones that get full sun, which has caused the young and delicate plants to struggle in the hot, dry and windy conditions that we have experienced over the last 12 months.☀️

So the idea was to plant "earlier" in the season this time, to give the plants as much time as possible to establish before the difficult conditions return later in the year.

We managed to plant approximately 150 plants, including a mixture of grasses, matrushes and shrubs, to improve both the density and diversity of this patch. 🌿

And because we had such a good turnout, we also managed to get some extra jobs done, including some extra watering, weeding and rubbish collection.

Lastly, we finished off a very successfull session with morning tea, where we enjoyed some yummy chocolate chip biscuits provided by Priscilla. 🍪

Thanks to all that helped out.

28/04/2026

Hi Friends,

Our May Work Party will be held this Sunday, 3 May, from 9am to 12 noon.

This time we will be replanting the embankment between the top pond and Tom Roberts Ave. There will also be an opportunity to do some watering and/or weeding, for those who might want to do something else.

We will meet up first on the northern bank though (because it is more suitable for morning tea), before moving to the southern bank to commence work.

See you then.

30/03/2026

Our April Work Party will be held this Sunday, 5 April, from 9am to 12 noon. NOTE: daylight saving also finishes Sunday morning so make sure you arrive at the right time!

This time we will be replanting and mulching around the northern bank of the top pond.

There will also be an opportunity to do some watering and/or weeding, for those who might want to do something else.

26/03/2026

Another great planting session at our greenhouse at St Clare’s. If all goes to plan, these plants will be ready to be planted around the banks of the ponds in springtime by the kids.

23/03/2026

It was a beautiful autumn morning - blue skies, still cool air with magnificent reflections on the ponds - when Tracey and I did a bit of work at the wetlands today.

We worked on the southern bank of the middle pond. This area was first planted out a couple of years ago, but has not been worked on much since then. Consequently, the area was overgrown with weeds and looking tired and messy.

We first weeded the bank of many large and small weeds (Purpletop, Fleabane, St Johns Wort, Mustard W**d, etc).

We then planted some Carex appressa (Tall Sedge) to replace the ones that had died.

Unfortuneately, we did not get time to finish it all, so the plan is to come back next week and finish the planting. We also aim to mulch the area with straw to prevent the weeds from returning.

Thanks for your great help Tracey!

02/03/2026

Yesterday, we held our March Work Party.

The cooler autumn temperature and cloudy sky made for much better working conditions than we have had to endure over the hot summer months.☁️☁️☁️

We had six regular members attend (Rohan, Tracey, Nicola, Bob, Chris and Mel), plus two new members (Verity and her mother Sarah).

We mainly focused on weeding around the banks of the middle and bottom ponds, which were starting to look a bit tired and unloved. We pulled out by hand a variety of large weeds (Fleabane, Mustard W**d, St Johns Wort, Spear Thistle, etc) and piled them up for later removal.🌱🌿🌾

We then did a bit of replanting along the banks to replace a few of the plants that had died.

Lastly, we remulched the banks and repaired the damaged chords we use to protect the banks from damage.

We also took the opportunity to "do our bit" for Clean Up Australia Day by picking up rubbish around the area.🗑️🗑️

The area now looks much better. In particular, by removing all the weeds, this helps to highlight all the plantings we had previously done along the banks, which are on the whole doing very well.

Thanks to all that helped to make the day a success.🙌

28/02/2026

Hello Friends,

Our March Work Party will be held this Sunday, 1 March, from 9am to 12 noon. NOTE: we will return to our regular working times due to the expected cooler weather.

This time we will be weeding around the banks of the bottom and middle ponds.
There are lots of large weeds (St John’s Wort, Purple Top, Mullein, Fleabane, etc) around both ponds. We will try to pull the weeds out by hand, so you are encouraged to bring some a pair of suitable gloves.

However, some of the weeds are quite hard to remove (due to the dry hard ground) so we might have to just cut them off at the base instead, so if you have a pair of secateurs, please bring them.

There will also be an opportunity to do some watering and/or planting, for those who might want to do something else.

See you on Sunday. 😄

29/01/2026

Hello Friends,
Our meeting will be held THIS Sunday, 1 February, from 8am to 11am. NOTE: the earlier start and end times due to the warmer weather.
This time we will just continue with removing the woody weeds in the area just above the Templestowe bridge.
Most tools and materials should be supplied. But if you have a saw (bow/pruning) and gloves, please bring them as I do not have enough for everyone. Let me know if you will bring a saw. Thank you in advance.
There will also be an opportunity to do some watering and/or weeding along the banks of the ponds, for those who might want to do something else.
The weather is expected to be hot at this stage (approx. 33 degrees) but the impact should be softened by both the early start and the presence of significant shade. If it becomes too hot to work, we can just finish early.
I hope to see lots of you on Sunday! 😀

Address

Tom Roberts Avenue
Conder, ACT
2906

Website

https://www.gofundme.com/f/conder-wetlands-revegetation

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