WA Turf Industry E-News - SPORTS TURF ASSOCIATION (WA)

WA Turf Industry E-News
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Edition 2, September 2024<!–

Edition 2 – 13th September 2024

2024 What a year?

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to another edition of the WA Turf Industry E-news “On Ground”

Don’t forget that we would love to hear from you if you have a newsworthy story, a yarn, quality photos of jobs well done, movement on the station, case studies, advertorials, events or occasions to share. Please don’t hesitate to send these to our Executive Officer, Eva Ricci at eva.ricci@turfwa.com.au for inclusion in the next edition. We would also appreciate your feedback, and any other input along the way.

Please share this e-news with your teams/employees by onforwarding this digital newsletter. If you prefer though for them to receive the e-news directly, please just send through email addresses and we will ensure that they are included on the list. Don’t hesitate to share your new contact details too, if you move from your current place of employment. These can be shared with Eva at the above email address, and for the STA (WA) also with STA (WA) Treasurer Tony Guy at treasurer@sportsturfwa.asn.au and Andrew Thomson our Memberships Officer at andrew.thomson@spraymow.com.au for STA (WA) members. TGA WA members can contact Eva directly.

Valued industry sponsors, please forward news and adverts to share, to Eva also. We will allocate this according to your sponsorship level as per the magazine advertising agreement. Please refer to your sponsorship benefits here https://www.sportsturfwa.asn.au/sponsorship-information/.

We are looking forward to sharing pertinent, helpful and interesting information with you all into the future. You will be our eyes and ears on the ground, we will be relying on you all out there on the turf, to share news and stories with us, so that we can ensure that the E-news remains interesting and usable. Meanwhile, we will bring to you, local and national news and updates regarding OH&S, biosecurity, government policy and changes, and more with each edition. We do promise not to flood your email mailboxes!

We look forward to your feedback.

Take care and keep on turfing.

Eva Ricci

WA Turf Industry Executive Officer

M: 0422 120 990

The Future in Turf Seminar

PLEASE SUPPORT THIS IMPORTANT INDUSTRY EVENT

The WA Turf Industry is hosting a half day “FUTURE IN TURF” seminar on Wednesday 25 September 2024 at the recently completed Sam Kerr Football Centre in Queens Park. We have 7 fantastic speakers who will explore a various of topics related to the sustainable future of turf management, new turf varieties, groundwater ecosystems status and more. After a catered lunch delegates will receive a privileged guided tour of the Footfall Centre facility and pitches.

We hope you can join us on the day. This is a free event for STA (WA) and TGAWA members. Catering fee on for allied industry association members. Nonmember fee is $100.00.

NOTE: The next STA (WA) committee meeting will be held on Tuesday 8th October from 4:00pm at GreenWorkz, 21 Ballantyne Rd, Kewdale WA.

Members are most welcome to attend committee member meetings. If you are interested in attending, please advise our Secretary, Richard Gainsford by email at r.gainsford@mcson.com.au

Gnangara Horticulture Water Use Efficiency Grants and Voucher Program

The WA Government is providing funding for eligible commercial WA horticultural businesses for a suite of water use efficiency activities. This initiative will support horticultural groundwater users that are subject to the 10 per cent reduction to abstraction from 2028 under the Gnangara groundwater allocation plan.

The funding consists of grants to implement water use efficiency activities and a voucher program to engage a water efficiency expert for specialist advice to develop a plan to implement water use efficiency measures.

Further Information Here<!–

Further Information Here

Apprentices BBQ’s 2024

The time of year for our apprentice BBQ’s is coming around. Steve Jones, from GTS has offered to sponsor these BBQ’s by providing full catering, yet again. This is greatly appreciated. Thank you, Steve, for always being so generous with these occasions for the apprentices.

Steve has also offered to provide informative sessions on turf management topics that will be useful for the students, which is excellent.

Our South Metropolitan TAFE Turf Lecturers are keen to invite the managers/superintendents of the first-year students (to their first industry event), so they can visit TAFE and get an appreciation of the facilities that we are so blessed to have for the next generation of turf managers.

Dates below for these upcoming BBQ’s which are held in the gazebo down at the Turf area, on the east side of TAFE, from 11:30am – 1:00pm.

1st Years:

Tuesday the 29th of October

2nd Years:

Wednesday the 13th of November

3rd Years:

Thursday the 10th of October

Special thanks to Jeff Austen, Kaine Rogers and Simon Wood our wonderful Turf Lecturers for not only, always supporting industry events, but for being the best industry lecturers and mentors ever.

Polyphagous Shot-Hole Borer

Quarantine Area (QA) Expanded to include entire Metro Area

Quarantine Area Notice (QAN) restricting the movement of wood and plant material has been put in place to help stop the spread of PSHB.

The QA was extended on 6 September 2024 to cover the entire Perth Metropolitan area, extending across 30 local government areas.

The QA encompasses two zones.

Zone A covers an area with high numbers of infested trees and where intensive control activities such as tree removal are underway. This zone will have more restrictions on the movement of high-risk materials.

Zone B covers an area with fewer or no infested trees and where heightened surveillance is underway to identify and control new infestations. This zone will help create a buffer between areas of high infestations and the rest of WA, further protecting WA’s growing areas.

You can enter your address into the interactive map below to see if your residence is in one of these zones.

Residents in Zone A:

cannot move untreated or unseasoned wood outside Zone A, unless chipped to pieces that are 2.5 cm or less in diameter,

cannot move plant materials, including living plants, that are greater than 2 cm in diameter outside Zone A,

must ensure any machinery used to handle green waste is cleaned before it can be moved outside Zone A.

Residents in Zone B:

cannot move untreated or unseasoned wood outside the Quarantine Area, unless chipped to pieces that are 2.5 cm or less in diameter,

cannot move plant materials, including living plants, that are greater than 2cm in diameter outside the Quarantine Area,

can move wood or plant materials, including living plants, into Zone A,

must ensure any machinery used to handle green waste is cleaned before it can be moved outside the Quarantine Area.

The above restrictions do not apply to grass and lawn clippings as these materials do not host the beetle.

DPIRD Update September 2024<!–

DPIRD Update September 2024

Diploma of Sports Turf Management WA

We are very excited to share that the development of the Diploma of Sports Turf Management is still progressing, with delivery currently planned to begin Semester 1, 2025.

If you are interested in undertaking the Diploma through South Metro TAFE in 2025, please email your interest asap to eva.ricci@turfwa.com.au and kaine.rogers@smtafe.wa.edu.au

Sting Nematode Certification program

Local Government Authorities, private schools, Botanic Gardens, State Government departments, Managers of private and public open spaces and Sporting fields can now be assured that turf provided by accredited turf farms will be sting nematode free.

The accreditation regime is both rigorous, and transparent. All specified measures and requirements must be undertaken prior to sign off by the Turf Growers Association WA’s Executive officer. These include specific testing procedures and protocols, sampling qualification and criteria, procedures to mitigate, transportation requirements, and managing sting on farm.

Read more

Thank you to our valued and amazing Gold Sponsors:

Lawn Doctor

McIntosh and Son

T-Quip

Rosher

Statewide Turf Services

Kubota

New Ground.

Please support our valued sponsors.

Check out BOM’s Long range weather forecast October through to December 2024 – Video

Reporting and Environmental Incident in WA

To report an environmental incident in Western Australia, you can use the Environment Watch service provided by the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation. Here are the steps you can follow:

Call the Environment Watch hotline: You can report incidents 24/7 by calling 1300 784 782.

Online Form: You can also report incidents using the online form available on the Environment Watch website1.

When reporting, try to provide as much detail as possible about the incident, including:

The nature of the problem (e.g., pollution, illegal dumping)

The location of the incident

Any identifiable sources or responsible parties

The time and date of the incident

This helps the authorities respond more effectively.

https://www.wa.gov.au/service/environment/pollutant-prevention/environment-watch

Full Guide Here<!–

Full Guide Here

Welcoming Green by Nature as the STA (WA) new Silver Sponsor

We welcome Green by Nature as the newest STA(WA) sponsor. You can view their website here.

Landscaping Expert in Australia (greenbynature.com.au)

“We improve people’s lives by designing, building and caring for the remarkable green spaces that enable all of us to do more of the things we love.”

We very much look forward to working with you all into the future

RECOMMENDATION:

Check out the Turf Growers Association WA and Sports Turf Association (WA) social media pages on Facebook and LinkedIn. You will find some top-quality posts on both pages.

Also check out the “Turfies at TAFE” Instagram page, it’s a ripper.