2025: What we achieved together

Thank you for a wonderful and action packed 2025. It has been a busy year so I hope you take some time to rest and feel proud of all that we have achieved collectively this year.

This post covers the highlights of 2025, starting with one of our flagship projects the restoration of Mermaid Pools, a creek line downstream of the Manly Warringah War Memorial Memorial Reserve (Manly Dam) which started in 2002. Since then, numerous volunteers such as yourself have toiled to remove weeds and rubbish, plant native species and continuously monitor the area (as well as bake delicious cakes: Thanks Yvette & Carly). In 2025, we focussed on two major areas:

• Central area: Morning Glory (Ipomoea) has also been successfully targeted in the past year, though it always threatens to return. Also Freesia and other weeds such as Bidens pilosa and Fishbone Fern (Nephrolepis cordifolia) were targeted. Much of the work in the past year has been in this section. A contractor has also worked a bit here and planted some tube stock.

• Eastern End of the Pool: This rim area, at the bottom of the catchment, is where all weed propagules are funnelled and it is only in recent times that weeds - especially Paspalum and Morning Glory - have been brought under control and ferns have now established.

Led by Malcolm Fisher & Mick Houston, the weed maintenance has been successful. Without the efforts of the bushcare group, the Pool would soon return to weeds - as it constantly receives weed propagules through extensive drainage. 

• Jan: Manly Dam Biodiversity Project grows on iNaturalist

  ‘Manly Dam Biodiversity Project’ on iNaturalist has continued to grow thanks to the efforts of Vicky Heaton. By the end of 2025 - the project has grown to include:

  • 189 Members

  • Over 6300 Observations recording 1358 species

  Want to get engaged? iNaturalist ID-a-thon is taking place between Dec 15, 2025 - Jan 15, 2026 - So if you’re around Manly Dam, join the community and start ID’ing and add to the Manly Dam Biodiversity Project on iNaturalist!

• May: SMDCC wins Community Award

  The Save Manly Dam Catchment Committee won the “Community Group Award” in the 2025 Greater Sydney Landcare and Bushcare Awards category from among 933 Landcare and Bushcare groups in this region. Our organisation exists to protect, promote and preserve biodiversity in the Manly Warringah War Memorial State Park, plus connecting bushland. We also campaign for nature wherever it is under threat. Our signature “on the ground “ work is the Mermaid Pools Restoration Project at Manly Vale, Sydney

  In May, we also welcomed Greta Stevens from Clean up Australia for a combined Bushcare and rubbish removal session.

• July: Launch of the updated Manly Dam Biodiversity Project website

  Building on the initial work by Emily Fewster, the Manly Dam Biodiversity Project website was completed by Aditi Das Patnaik. Sections were added to the wildlife at Manly Dam as well as telling the story of the numerous campaigns undertaken to protect Manly Dam. A Blog has been added combined with upcoming events.

• Aug: Regent Honeyeater spotted at Manly Dam

  A Regent Honeyeater was photographed in Manly Warringah War Memorial Park. This is one of the rarest birds in Australia and critically endangered.

• Sep: SMDCC recognised in parliament & the Short Film "Manly Dam something incredible stirs" wins Environmental film award

  The work of the Save Manly Dam Catchment Committee was officially recognised in Parliament in a letter of acknowledgement by James Griffin, member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly.

  The short film “Manly Dam something incredible stirs” - offers a glimpse into the incredible biodiversity of Manly Warringah War Memorial Park and why it is so important to protect it. The film directed by Malcolm Fisher won the best Environmental short film at the Environmental Film Festival.

• Oct: Water Monitoring at Mermaid Pools & Fundraising

  Lauren MacRae, Ecohydrologist & Volunteer at Mermaid Pools, led the monitoring effort at Mermaid Pools to capture footage of aquatic fauna using Baited Remote Underwater Videos (BRUV). She discovered - Long Necked Turtles (Chelodina Longicollis), A Long Finned Eel (Anguilla reinhardtii) and many Gudgeons darting in and out at various times. If you’re curious there is a post about this effort here.

  In October we were invited to run the BBQ at the UNSW Water Lab open day - as a fundraising opportunity for our conservation efforts. Our gratitude to Chris, Tim, Kevin, Mike, Dale, Aditi and Vicky (together with Bronte and Emily) for all their hard work.

• Nov: Won the Northern Beaches Council Environment Grant for proposed "Backyard Biodiversity Project"

  This grant application, led by Aditi, supports our work of many years and recognises the immense biodiversity that exists in the Manly Dam Catchment. The purpose of this grant is to help us share this biodiversity with the community in an educational program that we call “Backyard Biodiversity: Explore, Learn, Protect”. Watch this space next year as we bring this grant to life.

We have a number of exciting projects lined up for 2026 and are eager to be working with you. We will be announcing more on the ‘Backyard Biodiversity’ project and more importantly in conjunction with the EPA and EnviroDNA will be keen to conduct surveys for the Climbing Galaxias, Giant Sydney Spiny Crayfish and the Sydney Spiny Crayfish in the creek waters.

We wish you a wonderful holiday season!