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Last Week's Meeting
A massive thank you to PP PHF Vicki Van Den Bergen for her assistance in writing up the notes from the evening. She doesn't miss a detail!! Thank you from Editor Kris :)
President Shalini welcomed guest speaker Bronwyn Koll, and our guest Chris McLeod for the last time hopefully, as we hope to induct her into the Club soon.
Announcements:
- Kerry has had his first round of chemotherapy and is feeling fine. His next session is in three weeks’ time at Box Hill Hospital. Kerry has been out and about notwithstanding.
- The new start time for Sunday’s Car Rally is 1:30pm. at Gemco. Thetheme is “Cops and Robbers” so try to dress in theme if you can.
Our Chairperson for the evening was PP PHF Gayle Barrot who introduced Bronwyn Koll to talk about the Queensland Fruit Fly.
- Bronwyn comes from an orchard background in Coldstream. Her father is a Rotarian. Her grandparents had a huge packing-shed where they hosted Rotarian events so she understands Rotarians’ penchant for nonsense and shenanigans.
- She trained at Dookie Agricultural Science College, and has received funding from a State Govt. grant until 2025 for fruit fly education.
- The Qld. Fruit Fly is endemic and can no longer be treated as an exotic pest by the Agricultural Dept.; it’s not practical to do so now.
- It’s commonplace in Northern Vic., even threatening S.A. around Mildura.
- The greater risk is that the affected fruit will get to the Vic. Market.
- With Climate Change, the insect changes and acclimatises to cold weather. Also, some suburbs don’t have frost.
- The QFF is a threat to Yarra Valley businesses and to backyard fruit trees alike.
- Home-growers aren’t planting in Nth. Vic. because the problem is too hard to manage.
- Bronwyn however believes in local food production and homegrown fruit.
- She wants to pass the knowledge on and we Rotarians can be the conduits.
- The fruit fly is recognisable by its two yellow stripes and its two yellow shoulder pads à la the Hawthorn Football Club (boo!).
- It used to be called the “white peach maggot”.
- The spoilage the fruit fly causes restricts our trade to S.A., Tas. and W.A. and internationally, e.g. to China.
Power Point Presentation:
- The fruit fly on the west Coast is the Mediterranean fruit fly.
- The female lays eggs into perfectly good fruit.
- The damage on the outside of the fruit is just a small mark.
- On the inside the fruit is rotten with a jelly-brown substance and maggots.
- The maggot is able to skip to escape danger.
- The QFF has been found in Avonsleigh.
- The larvae are buried under mulch, leaf litter and in the soil.
- The larvae develop into insects which eat protein from wild yeasts to enable mating.
- The lifecycle is from 28-32 days depending on the weather.
- There are many host fruits including tomatoes, chillies, rosehips, etc.
- The fruit fly problem affects time, cost and resources.
Integrated Pest Management - I.P.M.
- Good bugs are used to get rid of bad bugs.
- Sterile fruit flies can be bred with fertile flies to produce sterile young.
- If sprays are used, they could eliminate the good bugs and then cause more problems.
- It’s a risk when we have warm, humid weather such as in the last two summers.
- The Yarra Valley has fruit ripening for 11 months of the year, therefore the eggs can pupate.
Where are the risks?
- Roadside apples and plums and blackberries.
- Commercial enterprises because of the scale of their businesses.
- The QFF can easily get into your system; e.g., if you put the affected fruit into the compost bin, that environment is ideal for pupation.
Some councils offer free tree removals.
Netting
10ml. is now prohibited.
5ml. is what most people bought.
1.5-2ml. is what is really needed, but pruning is more difficult, plus mould can grow under the nets etc.
We need to
- Learn about the QFF.
- Look for it.
- Monitor it.
We have to protect our produce by using netting and by cleaning up in our own gardens
- Bag the affected fruit – freeze, boil or microwave it or do a combination.
- Run over the fruit with a mower, mulch it but keep it out of the compost.
- Share our knowledge.
- Various fruit fly traps are available.
- Make fruit fly wine.
- Use bait in an I.P.M.-friendly way.
- Plan your garden so you can net it properly.
- Don’t use cover sprays as the net gain is not worth the net losses.
- Chooks will eat the larvae.
Area-wide management is needed so we need to work in cooperation with our neighbours. Rotarians in Northern Victoria are teaching in schools, hosting BBQs, door-knocking and putting videos on their website.
We need to step up to keep the QFF out of the Yarra Valley.
As we are funding Emerald Secondary College’s VCAL Garden Project, Bronwyn said they need to have a “Pest and Disease Management Plan”. She suggested that we make such surveillance a condition of our funding, to raise the students’ awareness of the problem.
Here are the links to the Yarra Valley and Agriculture Victoria websites on Queensland Fruit Fly.
and here is the link to a great podcast
Committee Reports
Community Service Report: PP PHF Emma Clark
- Received an email from Lismore Rotary Club to whom we donated $2,000.
- Not much progress has been made.
- $34,000 has been given out via various types of vouchers.
- The children are being helped after their school was flooded.
- Non-perishable items are being bought and the Ballina Woolies is being very generous.
Market Co-ordinator’s Report: PP PHF Emma Clark
- The May Market raised $816.55, a good result given our target is to raise $1,000 monthly.
- Thank you to all who helped out.
- The next market is the 11th June on the long weekend and the same day as the Deb Ball - see below.
- Our linchpin Day Gowland is unavailable then so we need help to get the equipment from the container to Emerald Primary School Oval on Saturday morning.
- The survey of stallholders showed they were loving the market.
- Catherine and Kris Ash organised the 2 A-Frames and the 2 banners, and Marcus the very noticeable digital sign.
- Kris is continuing our Social Media advertising.
- Kris does a great job on FB, but we must share with all our groups: we need customers for our stallholders!
Vocational Service Report: Roy Bowyer:
- The McLeod-Murphy Scholarship is named after Emerald’s first doctor.
- The scholarship is awarded to students in the medical field.
- Last year 3 students received the award of $1,000 each, for two years.
- As the 3 students have provided proof that they are continuing their studies, they will receive the second payment in June.
- They are pleased they’ve got the support from our Club.
- They will be invited to attend a meeting to talk about their studies.
Deb Ball Report: PP PHF Lorna Shaw
- There are 3 dance practices still to go at ESC so it would be good if you could attend to show the wider Club’s involvement.
- Implications for the June Market: we will need additional helpers at the market as some of the regular helpers will be involved all day with the Deb Set.
- Even if you can only spare an hour at the market, that will help a lot.
- Chairperson Gayle said, “A willing horse is overridden”: if more members volunteer, it will save some others from having to do 7-hour shifts, which is a very big ask.
Gayle reminded us to book for Ken’s Changeover on the 25th of June, as Ken is the new District Governor for our region. He will be very appreciative of our support.
Closing Remarks: President Shalini
- Thanked Bronwyn for her engaging, informative talk on the QFF.
- Thanked Gayle for chairing the meeting.
- Club Assembly next week with P-E Marcus chairing.
A Blast from the Past
Greg Adams was looking through some of his dad's photos and came across our Club members volunteering to clean the athlete's village at the Commonwealth Games in 2006.
Letter from RC of Lismore
Afternoon Gloria
Suffice to say that not a lot has changed with, for instance, housing and the Lismore CBD.
Some folks are starting to get building supplies to their homes, but the shortage of trades makes any meaningful progress difficult.
The Lismore CBD is still just awful with some shops boarded up but with many just shells as they were immediately after the floods.
Power is being returned in dribs and drabs with any houses that can be accessed given light and 2 power points only. Much the same power conditions for the CBD.
Most of the displaced families are in a variety of temporary accommodations – mobile homes, housing pods or motels in other towns. Housing pods are being installed all over the Northern Rivers – I’m not sure how people will cope in them over winter. One assumes these families will be in this situation for quite some months – maybe even longer!!
We have finished distributing Coles and Woolies vouchers as it is especially difficult to find people at what is left of their homes.
A few are “camping” in their yards in tents and or caravans – not a good option.
Others are “camping” in the shells of their homes, mainly to secure what they have.
We have just finished distributing the $500.00 RAWCS vouchers.
We have just distributed $10,000.00 worth of $500.00 vouchers to some dairy farmers.
The vouchers are redeemable at Norco Rural Stores and whilst not a huge sum to a farmer, gives them some comfort that we are thinking of them.
I have to say that going to these farms, to see the death, destruction, and sheer mess, is truly heartbreaking.
How these people, and their livestock, will get through winter is totally beyond us – both Carol and I were raised on dairy farms and have been on the land most of our lives.
To experience grown men, break down when you hand them something is quite a challenge!
Just today we are embarking on a voucher program, through the local Betta Electrical and Harvey Norman stores, to give $850.00 vouchers to flood victims.
We were purchasing white goods in an ad hoc manner, but this plan will allow people to purchase what they want when they want.
The first tranche of that will be $34,000.00 with no doubt more to follow.
We are also putting some $11,000.00 into the children at the destroyed Lismore South Public School.
This assistance will be above, and separate to that, given by government.
We also supply, on a weekly basis, one of our resource centres with non-perishable grocery items.
That requires a “raid” on Woolworths in Ballina at opening time at 7.00 am.
The staff are wonderful and allow us to “strip” shelves if a certain item is required.
Canned soup is a huge “winner” now, and we might buy more than 100 cans some days!!!!!
Noodles are another big item!
With all this that we are doing, and what many others are doing, it is fair to say that not a whole lot has changed since those devastating events.
We are sincerely grateful to the likes of your members who have given of their time and resources to assist us to care for our local people.
It is sincerely appreciated.
I am more than happy to update you from time to time with our progress.
Kind regards,
Brian
