FOCUS On Burnside - the news hub

City of Burnside is undertaking a 12 month trial of e-bikes for staff to get to and from:

- Site meetings

- Home visits

- Building inspections etc.!

The e-bikes are part of our pledge to reduce our impact on the environment by encouraging cycling over car use where possible, and make up one small part of our environmental sustainability and climate mitigation work and pathway.

You can read more about our advocacy for Climate Action here!

Wow! What a first week at Newland Park!

Mayor Monceaux put a challenge to the Community. Beat the current record of 62,313. And in just the first week, you have amassed a staggering 22,000+ laps! What a fantastic effort, already over a third of the total in just one week!

If you haven't already, be sure to head along and check out the new configuration. You can check out a snippet of the set-up here: #rideburnside Newland Park

Where? #rideburnside is relocated at Newland Park on Hallett Road/Newland Road in Erindale.

The Braithwaite children of Dulwich are keen photographers so they all decided to enter the recent Mayor’s Photography Awards – and all of them won something! Mum Sarah Cook says there was a bit of competition between her five children but they all enjoyed the experience. “The children were very excited to have been awarded places in the competition and receive the wonderfully generous vouchers,” she said. Due to COVID restrictions the usual award ceremony has been postponed but that did not deter them from celebrating. “We have decided to recreate the awards ceremony at our house this year with lots of cakes, cups of tea and sausage rolls,” said Sarah.

And the Braithwaite winners are:

Alice, 13, first place – Aboriginal Beauty in Burnside

“Thank you for having the competition. It was very exciting.”

Matilda, 17, second place – High School Category

“Thank you!”

Daisy, 13, commendation – High School Category

“Thanks so much for making this competition possible! I can’t wait for next year?”

Archie, 12, first place – Junior Category

“Thanks for a great competition! Hope to participate next year!”

Flora, 7, second place – Primary Category

"Thank you for doing the competition and making it possible."

See all the winners here.

Nominations for Australian Of The Year are now open!

There are four main categories:

- Australian of the Year

- Senior Australian of the Year

- Young Australian of the Year

- Australia's Local Hero

If you know someone from the community who is worthy, why not submit a nomination?

To nominate someone, head to australianoftheyear.org.au/nominate/

In 2019 Burnside secured $3 million in Federal funding, and over $200k from the National Resource Management Board (NRM) for this exciting project that will deliver enormous environmental and recreational benefits to Kensington Gardens Reserve and the surrounding creek ecosystem.

The Council has now secured a further $850k through the State Government’s Open Spaces and Places for People.

City of Burnside CEO, Chris Cowley, said that the grant has allowed Council to broaden the scope of the original project. “At no extra cost to the community, we are adding in a raft of features that will provide much needed unstructured passive and active recreational activities around the park,” Mr Cowley said.

The new features include:

• Installation of a 1.7 km shared walking/running track, providing recreational walking/fitness opportunities for the community at all times.
• Two additional bridges to enable the walking track to be installed (currently no track exists).
• Installation of disability accessible board walk over the wetlands.
• Installation of fitness stations, around the parkrun/walking circuit.
• Expansion of the biodiversity zone, to showcase native indigenous plantings at the reserve, complementing the remnant SA Blue Gum forest currently in-situ.
• Establishment of a Kaurna ‘place of reflection’ in the south-eastern corner of the reserve (possible site of cultural significance and respect).
• Establish a ‘cultural walk’ with interpretive Kaurna signage and
• Installation of Kaurna art to be incorporated with the nature play space, wetland and surrounds.

The original planned revitalisation work in the Reserve includes:

• replacing the unsafe artificial lake with a functional wetland to treat urban water pollution entering Stonyfell Creek.
• visual, recreational and environmental improvements to Stonyfell Creek and the surrounding environment.
• eight reconfigured tournament standard tennis courts with lighting available for club and public use.
• nature play features and biodiversity education elements.

The overall project will include an extensive revegetation program with 30 trees, 230 shrubs and over 6,500 groundcover species to be planted in the area surrounding a new wetland. A dedicated ‘biozone’ area will feature 2,400m2 of plantings across three distinct areas that will complement the remnant SA Blue Gum ecosystem at the reserve. Native species will be used exclusively for all new plantings, and the ‘biozone’ plantings will be locally sourced and indigenous to the reserve and feature an additional 4,800 new plants. The wetland itself will feature almost 15,000 new plants that will visually improve the landscape and benefit the quality of stormwater that enters Stonyfell Creek.

Council is working closely with Kaurna traditional owners to monitor the construction and to develop opportunities for Kaurna heritage recognition such as public art, cultural sites and signage.

Works are scheduled to commence in September 2020 and the tender will be launched within the coming months.

The Kensington Gardens Reserve Redevelopment project is featured in the winter 2020 Focus newsletter being delivered across the City this week. You can also download Focus

The 2020 Local Plant Giveaway is NOW CLOSED

If you missed out and would like to hear about the giveaway next year, please subscribe to our mailing list.

To find out more about the giveaway, read below.

This year Council is holding the annual native plant giveaway online, due to COVID-19. Go to burnsidebiodiversity.com.au/ where you can select from more than 70 different species of trees, shrubs and local wildflowers. When we receive your order the plants will be boxed then delivered to your home.

Council botanist Dr Mark Ellis says there are more than 3,500 plants at the Biodiversity Nursery available to giveaway to Burnside residents.

“While the plants are free, we do appreciate a donation of $2 a plant simply to cover the materials,” Dr Ellis says. “The plants are grown by volunteers and that will allow them to keep growing – it covers the cost of pots, labels and boxes.”

Everything grown at the Nursery is a local native species. “They are things that used to grow in the area of Burnside before European settlement,” Dr Ellis says. “We’ve got a team of volunteers that work very hard propagating seeds, cutting and dividing plants. We’ve collected all these things locally so we are preserving the local genetics.”

Dr Ellis describes some of the plants available.

“Lemon beauty heads (calocephalus citreus) which is a fantastic little local wildflower. It has beautiful lemon yellow button head flowers in summer. It is perfect for a sunny spot in the garden.”

“The common everlasting (chrysocephalum apiculatum) is a small wildflower that loves a sunny spot as well. It is perfect for a garden as it encourages butterflies and other lovely local insects.”

“The tall scurf pea (cullen australasicum) is a very precious local native plant. Not only does it have sprays of lovely pink and purple pea-flowers in spring and summer but it is also a butterfly food plant. The caterpillars of the checkered swallow-tailed butterfly use it, so it is really important to plant locally.”

The giveaway runs until 22 June or until sold out. For City of Burnside residents only.

The 12 month pump track rotating trial continues across four locations: Kensington Park Reserve, Newland Park, Miller Reserve and the Civic Centre.

It is now Newland Park's turn!

#rideburnside will be relocated to Newland Park on Hallett Road/Newland Road in Erindale, on Monday 15 June. The pump track will be located on the middle two tennis courts at Newland Park for three months (15 June to 14 September).

In her fortnightly 'Burnside Highlights' Mayor Monceaux challenged the community to beat the 43,225 loops record set at the Civic Centre site since the pump track arrived on 29 Februrary. Over to you Burnside!

National Volunteer Week (NVW) is the annual celebration to acknowledge the generous contribution of our nation’s volunteers.

The theme for National Volunteer Week 2020 is 'Changing Communities. Changing Lives'.

L - R: Volunteer Coordinator Lisette Bruno, Mayor Anne Monceaux and Group Manager Community Connections Farlie Taylor, show how they miss our volunteers.

City of Burnside has almost 400 volunteers across more than 30 programs. They contribute more than 25,000 hours each year, equivalent to 14 full time equivalent (FTE) staff.

National Volunteer Week 18 – 24 May 2020

National Volunteer Week (NVW) is the annual celebration to acknowledge the generous contribution of our nation’s volunteers.

The theme for National Volunteer Week 2020 is 'Changing Communities. Changing Lives'.

Leonie Brown has clocked up 20 years as a volunteer at Pepper Street Arts Centre. “I have always been interested in art and craft,” she says. “I was on maternity leave after my daughter was born. I saw an advert and I had a bit of time so I applied.”

Leonie says the centre was a lot smaller then and she helped out in the gallery, on reception and in the coffee shop, making coffees. “I did a regular fortnightly shift but it was a bit too much with my work as well. Now I just fill in on a roster as I live just around the corner.”

Leonie’s interest is in card making but she has not displayed anything in Pepper Street. “I am turning 59 in a few weeks and would love to make my card business more profitable but for now I still need to work to pay the mortgage.”

Leonie says the 20 years has flown by and she intends to keep on volunteering when she can.

National Volunteer Week 18 – 24 May 2020

National Volunteer Week (NVW) is the annual celebration to acknowledge the generous contribution of our nation’s volunteers.

The theme for National Volunteer Week 2020 is 'Changing Communities. Changing Lives'.

At 80 years of age, Glenunga resident Jill Bransbury is still volunteering in Burnside Library. “I retired at 60 from being a teacher and I was on my own and looking for things to do,” Jill says. “I was always keen on reading so I applied to volunteer at the Library and was accepted.” Jill started out on the home library service going to nursing homes to deliver books. She then moved onto shelving and putting books and DVDs back on the shelf when they are returned. “I volunteer once a fortnight for about two hours,” she says. “I enjoy seeing the range of books that are returned and I get companionship from it. A few volunteers have become good friends.” Jill says it is fun and relaxing. She is also a member of Probus and started a book club some years ago where members choose books from Burnside Library. “I never knew about book clubs before volunteering at the library.” With 20 years of volunteering under her belt Jill has no intention of stopping. “It is quite unbelievable how quickly the time has passed. It is a very worthwhile thing to do.”