Magazine - Regional TGAA Vic Seminar in Colac

By Rob Jenkins in Shows and seminars on 17th Mar 2010 7:00

Last week Pitchcare Oceania had the pleasure of attending the regional Victorian Turf Grass Association of Australia (TGAA) seminar hosted in Colac at Central Reserve.

Colac is a town about 150 kilometres west of Melbourne with a population of over 10,000. As it was my first trip to Colac I was pleasantly surprised by the size of the town their sporting facilities. Central Reserve was located behind a large bowling club of 4 rinks which had a mixture of natural and synthetic turf. Central Reserve itself is a lovely oval home to the Colac Tigers, a proud club dating back to 1949.

TGAA in Victoria has been hosting these regional seminars for the past two years. Last year the seminar was in Morwell Gippsland. It is part of their ongoing commitment to bring the TGAA to parts of Victoria which otherwise might struggle to attend meetings in Melbourne it also helps to promote the organisation and hopefully attract a few new members. As it’s a non profit organisation members and their input are very important. The TGAA has come a long way and is celebrating its 21 birthday this year!

A good turn out turned up at the reserve despite the troublesome weather the state was continuing to endure. Just two days before the event many parts of the Victoria experienced one of the most fearsome storms in 100 years with flooding, hail damage and severe winds. Colac was still experiencing some harsh weather- it was bloody cold!

The day’s events were overseen by the tireless Sue Bailey who did a great job managing the day along with Victorian President Nathan Tovey who kept the day running like clockwork.

TGAA Vic Vice President Peter Todd from Glen Eira City Council, was the first speaker of the day. Peter gave an insight into the refurbishment works Glen Eira have been carrying out on past years on all their ovals including EE Gunn Reserve. Glen Eira Council are one of Melbourne’s leading councils to be pro active in drought proving all their sports surfaces. The council also undertakes regular Cleg Hammer drop tests on all their ovals as safety is at a premium. With 68 parks, 45 playgrounds and 45 sports grounds, Glen Eira has recreation well covered.


Next speaker was Darren Milverton from Barwon Water. His session addressed current issues for western Victoria; he also touched on the recycled water from the Black Rock treatment plant and its uses in sports and recreation. He mentioned future plans Barwon Water have in place for drought proving the community and improving the water class level that currently comes out of Black Rock treatment plant. The treatment plant supplies many a turf area, including the well know Anco turf farm in Torquay.


Luke Tresize from Turfcare and Hire, then spoke on work his company had carried out on oval reconstruction throughout Victoria. The company has done work on the Geelong Cricket Ground to name a few. Luke was a wealth of knowledge on questions on establishing sprigs and the methods to achieve best growing conditions for each oval. He was also a big advocate for regular soil testing before and during the reconstruction phases.


The final speaker for the morning was Daryl Stevens from Arris Environmental Consulting. Daryl talked on irrigation of amenity horticulture with recycled water and managing a changing climate. Daryl went into detail on how recycled water works and what goes into making the different classes. He also had a great power point presentation on the rising use of recycled water through out Australia. This detailed what each state's biggest user of recycled water was and the growing amount used each year around Australia. He also touched on why recycled water has become more expensive to the end user and how recycling our own water use will be the way of the future.




What everyone had been looking forward to the most about the day was the trip out to the Biogreen facilities in Swan Marsh about 15 minutes outside Colac. This was a chance for many of us to see first hand what goes into making the companies various peat products. Peat is a long-lasting certified 100 per cent organic matter with 28 trace minerals. It had a stable level of pH 5-6, is high in nitrogen, iron, magnesium and calcium, and also had a high percentage of humic acids to stimulate root growth.


Biogreen peat is being used on broadacre grains farms, rice properties, in citrus and stone fruit orchards, olive groves, vineyards, plantation forests, turf and mushroom farms, and in vegetable and flower growing operations. The results on all these farms, sport and rec services has been substantial. Greater yields, stronger root growth, improved shelf live for fruit, increased sugar content, more drought tolerant plants, improved colouring with no nitrogen drawdown that causes plant yellowing and less water and fertiliser use, are some of the benefits users of Biogreen have found.


Biogreen has also made news with the waterways they leave behind. Waterways are being created from what was farmland. Biogreen mine the land, after mining is complete Biogreen leave water filled wetlands, a natural habitat for wild water birds that used to be so popular in the Swan Marsh region. The company extraction licence covers 450 hectares and is more than 10 metres deep in places. The resource is expected to last 100 years or more.


Unfortunately due to the severe weather we all experienced in Melbourne a few days before we were unable to go out to the mines themselves, but we still had a great tour around the factory and a brief run down of the various machines that go into producing the various peat products Biogreen produce.


A return coach back to Central reserve and a beautiful lunch rounded out the day. Everyone in attendance agreed the day was a hit and we're already looking forward to July and the Cricket Wicket Seminar at the MCG

Pitchcare Oceania congratulates the TGAA on a successful day!

Read more articles in Shows and seminars, by Rob Jenkins or from March 2010.