The corner of Markham and Erskine Streets has changed in appearance many times and is about to improve again on Saturday 24th March. Armidale Tree Group is seeking help from volunteers to plant trees and flowering shrubs there.
Long-time residents will remember the basalt quarry and stone crusher that Cochranes operated on the shoulder of North Hill until the late 1960s. Excavation of blue metal for roads and concrete changed more than just this site.
The stone crusher was removed in 1973. The quarry and a dam had already been partially filled with rubble from building sites, etc.
Local residents and a school students’ environment group proposed creation of a park with native plantings in quarried areas and regeneration of bushland areas. Council supported the plan. They spread available soil over the filled hollows. Australian Plants Society members grew hundreds of Australian trees and shrubs to plant around the top quarry and in a second eroded area where school groups did the initial planting. Many neighbours and others in the community came to numerous working bees to clean up the site, plant, water or kill weeds.
The area is now called Snow Gums Bushland Reserve.
Most of the plantings thrived and Council keeps two areas mown, but weeds took over some areas.
Reducing the weeds has involved much effort over years by New England Weeds Authority, Armidale Tree Group volunteers, and by contractors funded by HiCUB who killed and chipped the broom shrubs last year. There is a plan to limit weeds returning from seed but some funds and ongoing weed control will be needed.
More native plants are to be planted where weed control is achieved.
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