Getting the Bert Alsop Track back on track

THE Bert Alsop Track is a scenic walking track along the Lorne foreshore, linking North Lorne to the town’s centre and offering views across Louttit Bay and is a popular route for cyclists, walkers, and joggers.

Over the past six months, the Great Ocean Road Coast Committee’s conservation team has been busy with the woody weed removal that started with the Green Army program in 2016, and the end of 2017 saw all of the woody weeds from the start of the track to the ‘Fat Ladies’ car park removed. This was done with the generous help of a Ford corporate group, LorneCare volunteers, and Great Ocean Road Coast’s conservation and foreshore teams.

A big thanks also to the amazing efforts of Lorne P-12 College students who recently through sun, showers, and heavy rain helped to cut down and remove invasive tea tree along the track.

The group of Year 9 students are participating in Great Ocean Road Coast’s Coast Guardians environmental education program, which aims to foster environmental awareness and examine coastal issues whilst promoting and encouraging social responsibility and environmental stewardship.

Conservation supervisor Evan Francis said that the removal of tea tree and other weeds will help the foreshore site improve in biodiversity as indigenous plants are reintroduced and other plants and animals return naturally.

Most recently the conservation team have focused on the removal of dead trees and blackberries, spraying English ivy, and have cleared a large area around a drain to allow better water flow to the ocean.

LorneCare and Great Ocean Road Coast will continue to manage the site to ensure minimal regrowth of invasive weeds and to get on top of the English ivy that poses the largest threat currently. If all goes to plan the site will be weed free and ready to be revegetated in winter 2019.

Like to help out? LorneCare has working bees every third Sunday of the month from 10am – 12pm, and regularly works along this stretch of the coast. The working bee will be followed by a barbecue and new volunteers are always welcome. Contact Alain Purnell on 0417 031 905 or [email protected] for more details.

The Great Ocean Road Coast Committee is a not-for-profit organisation that manages 37 kilometres of public land and coastline from Torquay to Lorne. All dollars raised through our commercial operations are reinvested back into the coastal environment, caravan parks and the community.