Hawksbury Lagoon update April 2021

We held our AGM last week, I know there are many people out there who have an aversion to meetings, however an AGM is an opportunity to hear a summary of what has happened over the past year, and I generally find them quite interesting. Of course, I was the person writing the Lagoon annual report, so this one wasn’t quite as interesting to me. I had earlier indicated to the committee that it was my intention to stand down as chair after 11 years in the role and I was delighted that Ruth Ferguson agreed to take on the task.  After the formal part of the meeting Sandra Carlson entertained us with stories plus photos of her life growing up on the West Coast, it bought back many memories for us older members, ie long drop toilets, at least this year we were grateful to be able to hold a face-to-face meeting. 

Our usual Ki Uta Ki Tai planting days were cancelled during last year, but we did manage to achieve the printing of another 5000 brochures (thanks to the Community Board), our website was redesigned and a Facebook page added, thanks to Clarkson Design (local website designers). 

The Lagoon itself seems to be in reasonable health at present, although the water level remains quite low, which the wading birds prefer. There are a lot of small shoals of fish in PO Creek and as a result more Shags and Herons can be seen. While the lagoon is so low Ruth (newly elected chairperson) walked around the edge of the top lagoon, this resulted in the collection of over 11kgs of rubbish. Mostly bottles (including quite old ones), aluminium cans (all modern ones), and food wrappers. Some things were too difficult to remove ie old tyre. Please think twice before disposing of your rubbish at the lagoon, take it home and dispose of it properly. We await a decent amount of rain to fill the lagoon over the winter months and if the outlet needs to be opened it will be interesting to see if all the fish head out to sea. I suspect they will. 

Shirley McKewen

Committee member