FRIENDS OF THE BLUFF – AGM
Thursday, June 5^th, 2008

PRESIDENTS REPORT
It has been another busy year for Friends of the Bluff. FoB continues to conduct regular working bees, present innovative education programs and support environment endeavors in our region.

WORKING BEES: We have continued to conduct regular working bees throughout the year concentrating on the removal of weeds and litter at selected sites on the Bluff. It is important that we continue to maintain sites previously worked. It is hoped that the woodland adjoining Ewing Blythe Drive can become a long term project for working bees as this is a floristically rich but weed soaked area.

FESTIVAL OF THE SEA 2008: Despite some extreme weather, Fob provided another strong environmental focus for this festival. We conducted a stroll of discovery through the Barwon Heads Primary School re-gen site with John Park. Our "Connection with the Sea" seminar highlighted our wonderful wetlands with outstanding speakers and 2 rewarding field trips. Our thanks to the Barwon Heads Bowls Club for the use of their facilities. The Sunday activities were cruelly sun blasted with extreme temperatures on the day yet many visitors availed themselves of information on the day. FoB remains committed to the Festival of the Sea and are looking to .J expand our program in 2009 ,

BARWON HEADS STRUCTURE PLAN: Friends of the Bluff prepared a submission to the City of Greater Geelong on aspects of the Barwon Heads Structure Plan. This submission articulated a range of conservation concerns arising from the structure plan. These included concerns with the potential impacts on Lake Murtnaghurt as a result of the proposed extension of the township's western boundary, the need to ratify management responsibility for the salt marsh within the Barwon heads Golf Club, as well as issues and initiatives concerning remnant vegetation in parks, roadsides etc.. FoB will continue to actively participate in the ongoing debates about the future plans for Barwon Heads and in particular provide a voice for flora and fauna.

LIFE ON THE EDGE: Work is continuing on our latest publication "Life on the Edge" a field guide to life in the rock pools. It is anticipated that we will launch the booklet in time for the anniversary of the marine sanctuary and the start of the summer season. We have applied for Parks Victoria community funding for the exciting project, Throughout the past twelve months Friends of the Bluff have conducted any number of walks and talks as well as participating in a range of functions and discussions. We continue to gamer strong support for our activities from the local community. Our members actively work for FoB as well as supporting other community environment initiatives such as the community garden, Estuary Watch and Friends of the Lobster Pot. The skills, talents and energies of our members are highly regarded and an important asset to our community.
I would like to thank everybody for their support, energy and efforts over the past twelve months.
We also acknowledge the support of Coast Care- Coast Action and Dianne Moore, Parks Victoria, Barwon Coast, the Anglican Church Op-shop, the Starfish Cafe, Talking Heads, and the many traders and residents who support our activities. We look forward to the challenges that confront our bit of the coast over the next year.

Jon Duthie

    Friends of The Bluf Treasurer's Report 01/05/07 to 30/04/08
    ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.
  We wish to thank all those who generously donated both time and monies to FoB over the past year
  Without request or application, City of Greater Geelong has given Friends of The Bluff generous financial support to assist with administration costs and on-ground works. This greatly relieves the strain on our budget as community group fees and running costs are an integral part of operating a successful community group such as ours. This is in addition to financial support given to Friends of Moonah Park and
   Friends of Gateway Moonahs toward the costs of the fantastic achievements of weed reduction and  plant restoration in these formally neglected but now thriving areas of Barwon Heads residential parklands. Special thanks to Jon Park from Parkland Solutions fur fulfilling much of  the contracted heavier work.
   It is gratifying to see that the valuable work being done by the Friends of The Bluff volunteer groups dose not go unnoticed. We appreciate this low profile assistance from the City of Greater Geelong that allows us to do what we do best without having to sell raffle tickets on Sunday mornings rather than 'on ground' productive work.
Once again Coast Care granted us #3000 toward our on-going commitment to the Festival of the Sea enviro activities. This is, and has been a fabulous boost to an essential part of what FoB represents. Festival of the sea is the annual platform where we can involve and educate our community in our unique environment. Hopefully most of us have experienced the wonderful programs and activities that
  FoB roll out every year during Sea Week in which the festival brings to us as a public event. The Enviro Day on the preceding Wednesday of the festival day continues to grow in success and never fails to impress all those who participate. With the invaluable help from a small, but committed group of our members, this financial support allows these fun and all-ages educational programs to be rolled out to our community each year. The children and their families of Barwon Heads and surrounding schools have been very enthusiastic beneficiaries of these on-going  programs which we roll out in their classrooms and at the waters edge.
 Many tanks to Coast Care, we are most grateful.
 Our gratitude goes out to the 'All Saints Anglican Church Op-Shop'. It's heartening to see another of our community groups supporting another with on- going 6 monthly donations from the proceeds of their Opportunity Shop. It is our duty  to use these monies raised within our community to be channeled back into such worthwhile project  within our community. We appreciate their trust in FoB  to fulfill this commitment We use these donations to fund the costs of re-generation of
endemic plants, weed eradication, weeding tools and safety equipment. As Treasurer" I get to see lots ofmill1bers and fig11res over the year, but it's the metal
and paper that land in the donations tin that make most sense to me, so many thanks to all those who have thrown the odd coin our way while passing or attending one of our many enviro functions

 Our thanks go out to those folk and businesses that just simply hand us a donation and  say "here, do something useful with this".      There are the regulars that offer support when required; Talking Heads, Starfish Bakery, Peppercorn Foods, Barwon Heads Pharmacy, At The Heads restaurant, to name just a few.
          Once again we thank the rest of us, members and friends of "the Bluff". To those who have inspired and worked toward past and up-corning projects. There are always plenty. of good ideas and projects before us and with the motivation and people amongst us; we can all do something toward the environment we live in. We are currently working toward producing a Barwon Bluff marine field guide booklet similar to the wonderful 'Plants That Clothe The Bluff' that has been one of our recent successes.
 We plan on building our own web-site built around the existing Award winning Living on the Edge  This web site will be a forum to post all our news ,publications   and upcoming events so as reducing the need to flood our individual email inboxes.
We salute Coast Care / Coast Action, Parks Victoria, City of Greater Geelong and  Barwon Coast for their on-going support.
To us, the faithful members who give and support this wonderful group of people who care enough to do something special towards our natural heritage.
           Thank You,
           Paul Clissold; Treasurer 2008