Bonbeach Foreshore Coast Care Community

08/10/2026

Here's another great event on tomorrow - the final day of indigenous plant sales at the wonderful Bayside Community Nursery. Check the post below for more details.

Don’t forget - Bayside Community Nursery will be holding its Final Gala Day this Saturday 10 October! 🌱

This will be your last chance for 2026 to discover what wonderful indigenous plants can do to help turn your garden into a climate tolerant and wildlife friendly space.

Buy stock, enjoy a free sausage sizzle and learn more about indigenous plants with the help of our knowledgeable and passionate nursery volunteers.

Kate Pearce, Director of Invertebrates Australia and Invertebrates Manager at Melbourne Zoo will also be giving a presentation about attracting butterflies to your garden from 12pm to 1pm 🦋

📅 Saturday 10 October, 9am-1pm
📍 Bayside Community Nursery, 315–317 Reserve Road, Cheltenham

🔗 Learn more: https://pulse.ly/bngxzjeh7j

The nursery will close its doors for public sales on Saturday 31 October to focus on seed collection, propagating and growing new plants, and will reopen in 2027.

[Image description: Rows of indigenous plants in pots displayed outdoors at Bayside Community Nursery, surrounded by trees and greenery.]

29/09/2026

A reminder about tomorrow evening's event on the marine mammals of Port Phillip! See details and link to register below.

Join the Marine Mammal Foundation celebrating Biodiversity Month with City of Kingston as we deliver an engaging presentation exploring the incredible marine mammals of Port Phillip Bay and Victoria’s coastline!

When: Wednesday 30 September 2026, 5:00pm - 6:30pm
Where: Aspendale Life Saving Club

27/09/2026

Celebrate one of our beautiful local plants and all things spring at the Wedding Bush festival! Saturday October 10th - details in the post below.

The Wedding Bush Festival is back! 🌼

The Wedding Bush plant is hard to come by these days - it is extremely difficult to propagate and grow in gardens, however, it does grow at The Grange and is a beautiful sight to see throughout October!

Celebrate spring at The Grange Heathland Reserve with guided walks, birdwatching, family-friendly activities and the chance to see the beautiful Wedding Bush in bloom.

📅 Saturday 10 October, 9am–12pm
📍 The Grange Heathland Reserve, Osborne Avenue, Clayton South

Enjoy free tea, coffee and a sausage and veggie burger sizzle, plus take home a free indigenous plant!

Find out more at kingston.vic.gov.au/wedding-bush

[Image description: Two people smiling and laughing next to a wedding bush in bloom.]

23/09/2026

September is Biodiversity Month and there are two cool events this coming week hosted by City of Kingston!

This Saturday head to Braeside Park for a Bioblitz! Go on a guided nature discovery walk and record the plants and animals using iNaturalist.org.

Then next Wednesday (30 September) learn about the marine mammals of Port Phillip Bay in a evening presentation by the Marine Mammal Foundation, at the Aspendale Life Saving Club. 🦭🐬🐋

Read more and register here: https://www.kingston.vic.gov.au/community/events/upcoming-events/biodiversity-month

20/09/2026

A lovely morning greeted our coast care group for the September working bee. It was great to have a few new people, as well as many regulars, come along. Thanks for all your hard work!

First up was a bird walk! Unfortunately with the wind there weren't as many birds as we normally see. In the coastal shrub habitat we saw several Little Wattlebirds and heard the trilling calls of the Brown Thornbill - a tiny native bird that loves dense shrubby habitat.

We then concentrated on weeding around the planting area. As well as the usual suspects - Marram Grass and Gazania - we pulled out piles and piles of annual species and plants that come up every year from bulbs, such as Fescue (𝘝𝘶𝘭𝘱𝘪𝘢 species), Three-corner Garlic (𝘈𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘶𝘮 𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘮), Soursob (𝘖𝘹𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘦𝘴-𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘦) and Annual Veldt-grass (𝘌𝘩𝘳𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘧𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘢).

Lastly we hand watered the plants we planted over the past few months. Hopefully they will survive the warm weather!

See you all for our last working bee of the year - Saturday October 17.

13/09/2026

The sun sets on a beautiful warm weekend.

Less than a week to go to our next working bee! Next Saturday, 19th September, 10 am to 12 noon.

See you there! 🌿🌱🪏

06/09/2026

An ecologically important plant of our coastal dunes is Bower Spinach (𝘛𝘦𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘢 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘹𝘪𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘢). A key characteristic is its fleshy, succulent green leaves.

Bower Spinach is a tough, perennial species. It is a scrambler, spreading and sprawling right across the sand, binding it together and protecting against erosion. It can also grow as a mound or up and over other plants.

It has small yellow flowers which are out in bloom right now.

The genus Tetragonia refers to the 4 ("tetra") angled ("-gonia") shape of the fruit.

It's also found in New Zealand. You might have heard of the closely related species, 𝘛𝘦𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘢 𝘵𝘦𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘰𝘯𝘰𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘴, sometimes known as Warragul Greens - this is a similar species but is an annual.

01/09/2026

Spring is here! In celebration we're going to showcase some of our beautiful foreshore plants and flowers.

Let's start with one of the most important species: Coast Banksia. The scientific name is 𝘉𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴𝘪𝘢 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘨𝘳𝘪𝘧𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘢 subsp. 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘨𝘳𝘪𝘧𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘢.

It's the main tree species along the foreshore and provides crucial habitat for birds, bats, insects, possums, and other animals.

But what's up with the flowers? Where's the petals?? Why are they like a brush??? They are so weird!

Banksia 'flowers' are actually flower heads made up of HUNDREDS of tiny flowers. In each tiny flower, the traditional 'petals' are like a tube. The brush-like appearance is due to the wiry styles - which are the stalks that hold the pollen. Check out the drawing below (of a different Banksia) from the Australian National Botanic Gardens.

Next time you see one, look closely and see if you can spot the individual flowers.

The Genus "Banksia" is named after botanist Sir Joseph Banks. The species name refers to the 'entire' (i.e. "integer") edges of the leaf (i.e. "folia). (As opposed to serrated edges, like some other Banksia species). Our local species is one of three subspecies, occurring only on the Victorian coastline. Banksia are ONLY found in Australia!