WELCOME TO THE OOLONG SANCTUARY NEWS!

October 2006-Januar 2007

Dear Friends,

This is the sixth year since our incorporation and we should all be proud of our achievements. Finances are tight and we owe to the family Trust of John D’Addario to be able to manage in a period where donations have been channelled to help people affected by calamities. Our neighbours up north needed all the financial support they could get with Tsunamis destructions all over and the unrest in Timor. Let us hope that we will be able to rise more funds this year to carry on our education program with the support and assistance of our patrons.

Below is part of the reply by John D’Addario Jr of the John and Joan D'Addario Foundation Inc. (USA) Trust:

“This year my family foundation has been really tapped out with donations. In fact with nearly one fourth of the year to go we have already exceeded our budgeted donations. I use my family foundation to supplement our company foundation so our their mission really becomes our mission. As funds for music education are sorely needed, we have been inundated with requests over this past year. That being said, as their budget reaches its capacity, I sometimes make matching grants to various recipients to increase their funding which has been cut by others. I will keep your organization in mind when we set our budgets for 2007”.

I have replied to John that our Treasurer is preparing a detailed budget and we will show to him how we have spent his donation and how essential that donation has been for out activities. My son Frank had a baby daughter on 11 August and her name is Lily. John has told me that he also has a six-year-old granddaughter named Lily so we have two Lily D’Addario in our clan!

We need to produced a detailed budget in two parts to be able to get some priority in John D’Addario Trust budget setting for the year 2007:

The budget as submitted by the Treasurer at the AGM is split in two parts:

Part one: About the management of the sanctuary.

The management will be restricted and concentrated on essential on-going projects with other projects carried out, as finance will permit. It will be mainly concerned with:
1) Admin: computer maintenance, paper, cartridge and server charges, phone costs, insurance, any other?
2) Vermin control (baits costs).
3) Weed control (brush cutters petrol and maintenance), water reserve lake and frog ponds water level and maintenance (petrol and pump requirement).
4) Reforestation (CMA work to expand sanctuary wildlife corridors and tree planting (In progress).
5) Some routine R&D projects (see list of projects and to be operated upon as budget permits).
6) Patrolling boundaries and electrified fences (petrol cost and some fence material).

This management is to be supported by donations, in kind contribution by full time and part-time volunteers (this is calculated on an hourly basis. See web site about this), and any other, including John D’Addario family Trust and my personal contribution: electricity to house volunteers, mobile telephone, 4x4 vehicle petrol and maintenance and any other incidentals.
The vermin baiting program has produced good results removing several foxes. Clearing of the sifton bush to be piled up to give protection to breeding fauna is
We have pumped sporadically – owing to the high price of petrol - some water into the ponds and the lake to counteract the extended drought.
The NPWS southern Directorate has completed a survey in November and we have received a Kit on the maintenance of Grassy woodland to be incorporated in the school program.
A volunteer from the NPWS, Southern Directorate, should complete the bats survey early in the year 2007.

Part two: About the education program.

We have officially a patron for each of the two sectors: Alby Schultz MP, member for Hume for the schools in SE NSW and Mary Porter AM MLA, member for Ginninderra for the ACT schools.
The education program will be the main activity for the next two years with other activities limited to the routine work listed under part one and it is to be implemented as funds permit.
Nicolette Pidcock coordinator is to prepare the main framework and it and will include budgeting with grants by the Education Departments of NSW and the ACT with some contribution by the patrons.
We have appointed Dr Tony Saunders as Honorary Resident Scientist in November and he has undertaken to prepare a syllabus on the environment to be proposed for introduction in the curriculum of schools in NSW and the ACT.
A pilot study was carried out at Oolong with tours for the Dalton and Gunning primary schools conducted by Dr Tony Saunders. Feedback was received and will be considered in the preparation of the program. We have also recruited two other volunteers as assistant coordinators Chloe Spear and Allan Price and we are waiting for another to accept the appointment so that Nicolette will be able to share the load.

I thank all volunteers for their support and contribution.

Gianni D’Addario
President
Friends of Oolong

Appendix: Report by Dalton Park landholder to the General Meeting for 2006.

The Upper Lachlan Catchment Coordinating Committee (ULCCC) has ceased to allocate funds for Landcare.
These funds are now managed by the Catchment Management Authority (CMA) and are subject to rigorous scrutiny. Any proposal, including earthwork, is to be discussed and viewed by the Catchment Coordinator, who will cost all part of the project. This is to be followed by a site inspection by the Senior Operation Manager of the Soil Conservation Service, who will also produce a detailed quotation. The quotation is submitted together with all other works such as reforestation, seeding, fencing etc. for approval and assessment of value of the project and a percentage contribution allocated accordingly by CMA.
I am very please to announce that the proposal put forward by me, as the owner of Dalton Park, on a: “Sediment and Nutrient Control and Riparian Revegetation” project, under the Water Quality and Vegetation Management Program, has successfully attained funding through Round 3 of the Lachlan CMA Incentive Funding. The value of the project has a very high score as an environmental project and, owing to that, the contribution by CMA will be $21,801 out of the total project cost of $28,985.

The CMA contribution to the management of Dalton Park, while is direct towards improving the general conditions of the land, is also an incentive to establish wildlife corridors on private land, hopefully followed by other landholders, allowing the so much needed extension of the network of corridors in our region.

Gianni D’Addario
Landholder