Cape Jervis Coastal Community Group
Carolyn Schultz

Carolyn became a coastal landcare volunteer in 2001 after her family bought a holiday home in Sorata Street. She realised the coastal heath land was a biodiversity hotspot.

Over 10,00 years ago there was a landbridge connecting Cape Jervis to Kangaroo Island. Dreaming stories and oral histories of Ngarrindjeri and Kaurna peoples also confirm this. The geology of the Cape is Kanmantoo Rock (a sedimentary rock) and calcrete or limestone. Post colonisation the landscape was modified. Carolyn showed aerial maps. A barren grazed landscape in 1949 opposed to a partially revegetated landscape in 2014. The Christie homestead, built between 1856 and 1863, featured on the maps. The 2014 map revealed a high failure rate resulting from weeds, low rainfall and non-beneficial wildlife like snails.

The first volunteer revegetation group was the Cape Jervis and Delamere Progress Association (c2005-14). Other groups involved have included Greening Australia, Conservation of Our Threatened Species (COOTS) and Cape Jervis Coastal Community Group which had its first planting in mid-2013.

The Community Group’s revegetation area, south of the ferry terminal and adjacent to the Heysen Trail, has over 350 species including 70 threatened plants and 16 fauna species. The focus is on rare, hard to propagate plants and 133 different species have been planted. In early 2024, the Group had their first working bee to plant orchids. In addition, since 2021 Rapid Bay Primary School has added a day of planting to its curriculum. The Group has also included bee hotels, logs to attract wildlife (echidnas, reptiles and insects) and seating and signage for humans to the revegetation area.

Carolyn has made available a PDF of the talk (see contact advice) and John Edmeades, volunteer with Friends of Aldinga Scrub, has provided his illustrated notes of Carolyn’s talk.