The following article is taken from the Banksia Bulletin spring 2025 edition.
Words by Elizabeth Walsh Convenor, Friends of Native Wildlife Inc.
An ephemeral pond has become a wildlife habitat of increasing significance.
Friends of Native Wildlife (FoNW) Inc has monitored the pond for more than 20 years, recording regular frog activity. However, this was not included in the initial planning application for the new basketball courts. That plan would have isolated the pond from the golf course, limiting its value for wildlife.
Fortunately, a collaboration between FoNW Inc and Bayside was established, and the results speak for themselves. Notable recent fauna sightings include: January 2025 - the first Peron's tree frog (Litoria peronii) recorded at the pond, adding to the three frog species already listed in FoNW Inc records. June 2025 - at a community planting with Citywide, several people spotted the cryptic buff-banded rail (Hypotaenidia philippensis) for the first time, confirming a sighting by FoNW Inc in May.
An important part of our plan was to maintain the connection between Tulip Street Pond and the Sandringham Golf Course for frogs and other fauna. By setting the proposed basketball courts further back, a 25 metre-wide habitat corridor was created, enhanced with a frog-friendly swale containing rocks, logs and indigenous plantings.
This corridor is clearly working as intended. The buff-banded rail sighting was a wonderful surprise. One of these striking wetland birds was seen at George Street Reserve in 2024. We believe it was breeding in the golf course wetland and has now spread east to Tulip Street Pond.
Peron's tree frog had been recorded at the wetland around 2001-02, then again in 2017. It has been recorded annually since, with increasing numbers. In recent years, individuals have migrated into the tree patch on the eastern side of the golf course dam, and in January 2025 the species was recorded at Tulip Street Pond. Corridors do work!
As water recedes at Tulip Street Pond after another dry autumn and winter, wetland birds such as waders fossick for food. Regular sightings include a pair of purple swamphens (Porphyrio porphyrio), and mudlarks (Grallina cyanoleuca), which have bred at the pond in past years.
The bush patch and water also attract eastern rosellas (Platycercus eximius) and common bronzewing (Phaps chalcoptera). Families and pairs of Australian wood duck (Chenonetta jubata) and Pacific black duck (Anas superciliosa) also frequent the pond and grassy surrounds.
