A day out with Gecko

Ideally I would like to be able to write a blog every day - but to do that I would have to be on holiday every day (I would love that!) Today I managed to get a half day holiday. A young friend invited me to check out the work she and her work mates were doing at Schuster Park at their open-day. The rain had held off and the sun was being kind so the camera was tucked into my shoulder bag for what I hoped would be a day of photography. It was!

f5.6     1/160    ISO 125   28mm

The park is partly cleared for family recreation with lawns, a children's playground, barbecues and shaded seating but the majority of the land is covered (more like smothered) with a tangle of trees, vines and many introduced garden plants that have washed over during high tides and taken root. It is this area that Gecko -  Gold Coast & Hinterland Environment Council - are attempting to clear. Not remove trees but to remove the stuff that they feel should not be there. The introduced and non native plants. In areas that have been cleared more trees have been planted - this time ones that are native to the area.
Colin and I joined a group as they walked through the park and I struck up a conversation with a sprightly "young" man who told me he was having his 86th birthday tomorrow! I asked him if he had grown up in the area and he surprised me by telling me he was a "Schuster" and this used to be his land!

F5.6  1/200  ISO 125  48mm

He was delighted with what Gecko was doing and showed enormous interest in their activities. My photo of him is not sharp, I dashed ahead and spun around to take it but everyone was moving and I obviously was still moving too! The picture is cropped from a larger group shot.

f/5.6  1/200  ISO 125  24mm

Here the group has stopped to be shown some of the recent work by the members of Gecko, picking up rubbish that had invaded the park and out of sight of the camera an area where many small trees had been planted. I am afraid I did not hear what the totem was in aid of.
Leaving the group who all returned to the mown area of the park for lunch, Colin and I wandered further into the "scrub" - but staying on the main track, with the 30 degree heat and high humidity of the day the snakes would have been quite active. We were not out to invite trouble!
Here is a shot of an area that has not been cleared of introduced plants and you can see just how much work this group has ahead of them!

f/5.6   1/100  ISO250  38mm

All that green is a mat of yellow daisy like plants.
As well as taking general shots of the trees and the park I did have some fun with the camera. There were no birds or animals willing to be near me for their portrait and the many different butterflies refused to stop anywhere near me so I had to rely on leaves and grasses for my close shots. Here is one of them. I found that I needed to use manual focus because, for some reason, holding down the shutter half way did not hold the focus when I moved the camera to put my subject to the side.

f/8   1/100  ISO 125  55mm

These grasses are very common but when isolated like this look very striking. The finches love the half ripe seeds on them. But there were no finches in this bit of scrub. Using the longest focal length possible with this lens (18-55) allows the background to be soft focus while the subject is sharp. A second less dramatic grass on the left balances the picture.
It was an interesting visit to what was an unknown area (only a few kilometres from home) - and I came home with a swag of interesting shots!
AJ

After reading this story, Carly wrote to me on Facebook with some more information. I asked her and was given permission to add it to the blog.
"...the Schuster was Reg Schuster...son of John Schuster who farmed the area...The kids used to get to school by flying fox which we all thought was really quite wonderful!!!Each year the Schusters have a get together one new years day in the park. The most intereasting thing is that the part which we are working on was not ever owed by the schusters but the Andrews, which sadly there are only 3 remaining, and all unmarried women. John Schuster sold the property in 1954 to the Shmits( or Smiths) to move to Burleigh Heads"