Happenings at last weeks’ meeting
ith Greg’s continuing illness, Geoff stood in as President and Chair (even after a late arrival nearly saw him passed over. Ed.). Geoff welcomes our Guest Speaker, Geoff Holland, and got the meeting underway by for the Secretary’s and Directors reports.
Secretary Mark stepped up and his first subject was the discovery of a Trailer Registration notification from Vic Roads for Zero dollars. It was wondered if some cost savings could be applied by various Government Departments. Mark announced that the next Board Meeting would be on 9th February.
Treasurer Bernard now ran through the various financials from the Club’s recent activities:
- Anticipated Market profit of $1,866.47 (including $20.10 from the Market Spinner, $180.78 profit from the Vegetables, and $175.59 from the Market BBQ);
- Anticipated profit from the Bunnings BBQ of $1,780.26; and
- Australia Day Donations (Flood Relief) of $113.85.
Chris reiterated that the effort over the weekend had been “fantastic” and congratulated all those who were involved.
Director Joseph announced that there would be a Car Show at the Dromana Drive-In on the 8th April over the Easter Weekend. There will be a market and profits will go to the homeless fund.
Harry congratulated Ross Whitehead on 35 years with Rotary. He also mentioned that he had not been able to negotiate a price reduction on the Conference for those who would not be taking advantage of all there is on offer. His son is on the improve which was welcome news to the meeting.
Elaine announced that 75 boxes of aluminium collected from the blister packs had been sent to the recyclers.
Bob thanked all those who had helped out at the Australia Day stall (I’m still trying to get the paint out of my nails. Ed.)
Pete ran through the amount of vegetables that he and Marv had been able to grow and donate to the Dromana Community House. A tremendous effort.
Now it was time for Lotto ,won by Charles, and Fines. Pete’s fines were what could be called “wide ranging” and even included reference to an incident/accident that occurred at the Two Bays BBQ. (This just goes to show that nothing is forgotten and is grist to the Fines “mill”. Ed)
Geoff now introduced our Guest Speaker, Geoff Holland, whose subject was “Insects and Biodiversity in your back yard”.
What is biodiversity? It’s the number of species that we have in a given area. Why is it important? It means that we don’t have a single point of failure in the environment. How many species should we have in our back yards? 10,000 per Square Meter. Geoff had now a census in his, large, back yard and showed us the result.
He wanted to focus mainly on what he termed “Bugs” and divided them into the Pollinators and the Predators.
The Pollinators are the Bees, Flys, Beetles and Wasps that collect the pollen from our flowers and distribute it. The most obvious benefit that this group provides is in the pollination of our food crops which would be nigh on impossible without them. Geoff also pointed out that there are at least 1000 different Wasps on the Peninsular.
Predators look after our gardens by eating the “bad” things. We’ve got Spiders, Praying Mantis, Katydid, Ladybirds, Dragon Flies, Scorpions, Leaf Beetles, Bess Beetles and Land Hoppers. Of the 1000 spiders on the Peninsular only two are dangerous, so they are best left to do their job.
Geoff pointed out that not all things on leaves are the “bad” bugs, they could be the eggs of things like Katydids or Ladybirds, so are best left alone. Ladybirds eat aphids, and have voracious young. Dragon Flies eat mosquitoes, and there population has exploded since the mosquitoes plague earlier this summer. Scorpions eat the bugs in the soil and help aerate it. Bess Beetles eat wood and hep break it down into the soil and the Land Hoppers also help in creating healthy soil.
Geoff also spoke about how some insects have copied the shapes of other successful predators such as the Mantis Fly copying the Praying Mantis. “Nature Looks After Itself”
Finally, Geoff spoke about the causes of a possible Insect Apocalypse - Loss of habitat, the use of pesticides and, to a minor degree, climate change. He hoped that his talk had been able to bring home just how important biodiversity is in our back yards.
After taking questions from the members Geoff Hoskins, on behalf of the Club, thanked Geoff Holland for taking his time to present such an interesting talk.
An interesting meeting finished around 8:10.