Volunteer effort restores Emu Park bushland
Volunteer effort restores Emu Park bushland
Cliff is a bush kid at heart
Cliff Bunn has worn many hats. His working life has included jobs as an electronic technician, an engineer, the owner of a nursery and operator of a florist shop.
Now retired and widowed, this self-confessed ‘bush kid’ has returned to his roots and dedicates a lot of his time to rescuing bushland on the Capricorn Coast.
Cliff joined the Emu Park Community Bushcare Group (EPCBC) in 2007, and says he now has very little time for anything else but working to restore local scrub.
“I have realised the size of the problem that we have in rehabilitating even a small part of our landscape, and the need for the evolution of new and efficient ways to rescue it,” he said.
“The best thing I have got out of being involved is making contact with many people and projects, which expanded my horizons.”
One such horizon-expanding opportunity came when the developers on the coast were seeking a local volunteer to improve the condition of a parcel of land.
The 61-hectare Cocoanut Point National Park—about the size of 90 rugby league fields—was donated as a national park by the developers of Emu Park’s Seaspray Resort.
Cliff describes the land, situated about 3km from Emu Park as “a small but beautifully-diverse area of land, to which I am seriously attached.”
The national park preserves and protects five separate, but linked, coastal ecosystems: endangered beach scrub, beach ridge woodland, tidal wetland systems, beachfront dunes and the headland.
“Work started in 2006, and we’ve restored around 25 hectares of the park. It’s a small but beautifully diverse area of land,” Mr Bunn said.
“We had to use machinery to flatten weeds, do spot spraying, and physically chip out the last bits from the water’s edge. Weeds included lantana, and para grass and guinea grass.
“We also created tracks into the park for fire fighters to use. I was tickled pink when the mangroves started to emerge near a wetland. In that area we counted 3578 new native plants.
“When we work we might see birds such as figbirds, rose crowned fruit‐doves, honeyeaters and ospreys.”
“Most of my experiences seem to have been preparing me for the challenge of rescuing the national park. I already have a great sense of personal satisfaction – and I think I can pull it off, with Seaspray’s help.”
With Cliff’s passion for environmental rehabilitation and the Capricorn Coast area, there’s no doubt they chose the right man for the job.
“I love where I live because my family is in CQ, I can associate with a quite active and very friendly body of ‘bushcarers’, and there is plenty of damaged environment to challenge me.”
You can visit the Cocoanut Point National Park—it’s just past Zilzie, off Svendsen Road. If you want to lend a hand, contact Emu Park Community Bushcare Group.
