Chris Mobbs ‘Bragg Street Park, Hackett – Increasing biodiversity through water harvesting’

Chris, Convenor Bragg Street Park Volunteers, describes solving a drainage problem and creating an urban oasis with great increase in the diversity of native plants.

Abstract
Residents near a neighbourhood park in Hackett came together to solve a drainage problem. They ended up creating an urban oasis. Their project was funded with a Nature in the City grant in 2021.

It is now 4 years since the swales were built and they have been very successful in preventing minor flooding in gardens downhill from the park. There have also been great results in increasing the diversity of native plants in the park – many have been planted by the park volunteers but many self-seed eucalypts have grown up in the swales.

Our volunteer group was very pleased when the ACT Government used our park as a case study in the recently released Stormwater Management for Community Groups guidelines:

https://www.act.gov.au/open/stormwater-management-for-community-groups .  I am pleased that the photo on the cover of these guidelines is one of the swales in our park and there are more details on page 25.  As well as the swales successfully capturing water and the great growth of native plants, we had 5 species of frogs move into the park in the spring of 2023 and 2024. And in spring 2023 a lovely bearded dragon moved into the park. And last spring we counted 4 smaller ones – we think these may have been offspring from the first dragon.

Biography
Chris Mobbs has a Bachelor in Applied Science (1976) from the then Canberra College of Advanced Education (now Uni Of Canberra).  My first job was an interpretation ranger (1976-84) with the then Conservation and Agriculture department (later renamed the ACT Parks and Conservation Service). My activities included taking people on day and night-time walks through Canberra’s nature reserves like Tidbinbilla, Black Mt, Mt Taylor, Mt Ainslie and Majura and preparing brochures about Canberra’s wildlife. In 1983-84 I co-hosted, with Mike Braysher, the Wildlife Biologist, a 30 minute segment called Canberra Bush and Fauna once every 3 weeks on ABC local radio morning program (then known as ABC 2CN but today is ABC 666).  From 1984-96 I worked in the Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service Education Section and then helped manage programs including Save the Bush, One Billion Trees and the Waterwatch program. From 2000-07 I worked in the Chemical management program of the Federal Environment department before moving to energy efficiency programs until I retired in early 2017.

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