No. 10

Hello everyone,
 
ATTADALE ALFRED COVE FORESHORE MASTER PLAN (AACFMP)
In this Newsletter, we draw your attention to the opportunity available to the general community of the City of Melville to participate in consultations on the Attadale Alfred Cove Foreshore Master Plan (AACFMP) at the end of June. Please RSVP your attendance by 5pm on Monday 21 June 2021. Click this link to find out more Attadale Alfred Cove Foreshore Master Plan - City of Melville (melvillecity.com.au). We expect that the AACFMP will provide the platform for outcomes and future actions to be worked out for the Melville Bird Sanctuary.
 
We attended the first key stakeholders meeting for the AACFMP on 18 May 2021 at Tompkins Park. It was run by external consultants Element and was approximately half a day’s duration. Prior to this, a community Vision Survey had been conducted by Element in March/April 2021 to ascertain community views to help shape the vision for the Attadale Alfred Cove Foreshore.  We brought this to your attention in our Newsletter #8.    
 
THE FUTURE OF MELVILLE BIRD SANCTUARY (MBS)
The most recent emails we’ve received in late May from the City of Melville (Mick McCarthy) and the Dept of Biodiversity Conservation and Attractions -DBCA (Mark Cugley) indicate joint support for the boundaries proposed by FMBS for Stage 1 of the Melville Bird Sanctuary. Both are working to determine the best way forward in terms of partnership arrangements for management of the Attadale-Alfred Cove foreshore and believe that a positive and workable outcome can be achieved. As mentioned earlier, the AACFMP will provide a platform for outcomes and future actions to be worked out for the Melville Bird Sanctuary.
 
STATE GOVERNMENT COMMITMENT OF FUNDS
In the lead-up to the recent State Elections, our Member for Bicton, Lisa O’Malley made a commitment of $50,000 towards installing bird viewing platforms along the Attadale/Alfred Cove foreshore.  These funds will be used by the City of Melville for that specific purpose at the appropriate time.
 
BIRDWATCHING WALK
Our last Birdwatching Walk in May was fully subscribed at 15 participants.  We all had a most enjoyable time birdwatching and admiring the natural beauty around us at Alfred Cove and Troy Park.
Our next Birdwatching Walk will be at 4.30pm on Wednesday 14 July starting from the viewing platform at the entrance to Troy Park (opp 194 Burke Drive, Attadale). We will keep it to an hour’s duration. Margaret Matassa from SERAG will lead the group.  For those who wish to attend, please send us an email to confirm your place. Try and arrive before 4.30pm to complete registration details. Please bring your own pen to sign in, a bottle of water and hand sanitizer.  As we have limited spare pairs of binoculars, please try if possible to bring your own.
 
ATTENTION LOCAL ARTISTS!!  
A couple of local artists have set the ball rolling by sending us photos of their paintings of birds of Alfred Cove.  We’ve posted these photos on our Facebook page for all to enjoy. If you have a special talent or motivation to paint or draw birds of our locality, please send photos of your paintings to mailperson@melbirdsanc.com. We’d love to share them with our Friends of Melville Bird Sanctuary community at www.facebook.com/melvillebirdsanctuaryanddiscoverycentre.
 
Til next time! All the best,

Tom Lubin and Jenny Christenson
Friends of Melville Bird Sanctuary