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Somers Paper Nautilus
... a diversity of views without rancour
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Our Own Local
Hero: Rosemary Birney
Local Heroes all over the Country has been awarded a prestigious
Coastcare Local Hero medal for their outstanding contributions to
repairing and protecting our magnificent coast.
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Denis Cox of
DSE Presenting Local Hero
award to
Rosemary Birney at Somers
picture
Peter Hohaus
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On February 28, 2008 Coastcare Australia
awarded Rosemary Birney the prestigious Local Hero Award for her
tireless contribution to the Somers Foreshore. This is a
Commonwealth award conferred by the Federal Coastcare program to
outstanding and well-deserving volunteers who have contributed to
best-practice coastal management through their high-value project
works across Australia.
Rosemary also received a Victorian
State Government Coastal Hero certificate conferred by the DSE Port Phillip
Regional Director, Peter Watkinson, in recognition and appreciation
of the commitment and success of the recipients in achieving
high-quality project outcomes in their particular project
area. |
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Denis Cox with
Rosemary Birney
picture
Peter Hohaus
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Rosemary was secretary of the
Somers Foreshore Committee of Management for eight years and during
that time she, with lots of volunteers inspired by her untiring
enthusiasm, re-vegetated the Eastern Cliff area. It was restored
from a weed-ridden,
lifeless, heavily mown, insignificant patch of land to a
vibrant
indigenous-filled natural Reserve with some semblance of what it
would have been like in the distant past.
A meandering path was put through
the Reserve which enables walkers to enjoy the plants and flowers
and also serves the purpose of moving walkers away from residents’
fence-lines.
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Rosemary also helped maintain
all the walking tracks on the Reserve, attended to stranded or dead
seals on the beach and numerous other activities.
We’ll all remember her on her
hands and knees carefully weeding out the baddies around precious
plants like little orchids, or native grasses which emerged
spontaneously once the weeds were removed.
The Coastcare movement has
60,000 volunteers in 2000 community groups around the country. We
feel privileged that one of our own was chosen for the Local Hero
Award. Rosemary is in good company as one of the recent recipients
of this award was Tim Flannery, a former Australian of the
Year.
We thank you Rosemary and
honour you for your great work; and as we walk through the Reserve
we will remember you.
Editors of the Paper
Nautilus |
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