City Farm reopens on January 9, 2018

City Farm, opposite the Community Centre, on Tin Can Bay Road, is open to the public for plant sales on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 8am-3pm, 07 54862304, ccfni09@gmail.com,

As you wander north along Rainbow Beach you may notice mature casuarinas or she-oaks high up in the dunes. Just in front of them, but harder to see, many young casuarinas are pushing their way through the sand dunes.

This particular species is Casuarina equisetifolia (Coastal she-oak, Horsetail oak) and it provides the area behind the dunes with protection from extreme weather conditions.

Many of the casuarinas are dead, because though they are very hardy trees, they have to cope with extreme weather conditions. However, as they die and fall, the trunks and branches get covered by sand and help hold the sand together. As the new trees have to replace dead or dying trees, their survival is very important.

The weather we have experienced in the last couple of months has pushed more sand into the hind dunes and covered up the trunks of some of these trees that are trying to establish themselves.

Hopefully, they will be strong enough to withstand the inundation, and grow to shield the variety of plant (and animal) species behind.

Plant of the month is Acacia hubbardiana, a shrub to two metres. This wattle has interesting, sharply pointed, triangular leaves and pale yellow flowers in winter and spring.