Massive Crowds Go Native At Mermaids
There were incredible scenes on Sunday 28th July (2002) in King St, Manly Vale as around 400 people turned out for National Tree Day.
Throngs of men, women and children arrived from 9am onwards to register as Planet Ark volunteers and plant native shrubs in what was once an overgrown mass of weeds at the entrance to Mermaid Pool.
Locals were joined by visitors from as far away Korea, Italy and Finland all eager to do their bit for the environment as bush regeneration supervisors were worked off their feet in the rush.
Warringah Council provided around 1,000 plants and Bill Buckle Toyota chipped in with free seedlings for volunteers to take home as part of this Save Manly Dam Catchment Committtee organised event.
Earlier in the week, local companies had helped prepare the site by delivering and spreading 150 cubic metres of crushed sandstone as a planting medium (all without charge).
Thankfully the hordes of people were kept refreshed with free coffee, courtesy of Starbucks, and afterwards a sausage sizzle hosted by the Save Manly Dam Catchment Committee proved very popular.
Jim Casimir (Community Projects Officer at Warringah Council) said that it was the ‘most successful tree planting day that he had ever witnessed.’ Meanwhile MP David Barr worked feverishly with his constituents to help make a positive difference to this neglected area. Take a bow Manly Warringah is there anywhere else in Australia where people would queue 12 deep to plant a tree?