Let's learn to be safe in the water

Classes for children at Council's leisure centres this week will focus on teaching how to stay safe in and around aquatic environments. The classes will provide plenty of fun with inflatable pool equipment.

Fairfield City Council will provide residents with the opportunity to learn water safety skills, including rescue and CPR techniques, during Water Safety Week 2014.

Water safety Week also coincides with the start of the 2014-15 swimming season, which officially started last Saturday. This also means all of Council's outdoor swimming pools at each of its leisure centres are now open.

Until Friday, Council's leisure centres will run a range of demonstrations and classes to help encourage water safety in the community and educate parents and guardians about their important roles in supervising children. Classes such as CPR demonstrations and adult learn-to-swim classes aim to teach adults basic and vital skills to ensure their children's safety.

As well as lessons for adults and guardians, the week provides opportunities for children to enhance their water skills and knowledge.

There will be numerous appearances from ActiveGator, the water safety alligator. Classes for children will focus on teaching how to stay safe in and around aquatic environments.

The classes provide plenty of fun with inflatable pool equipment.

Drowning is one of the major causes of death in NSW for children under five. The most effective way to prevent drowning is for children to be adequately supervised by a responsible adult.

This year's water safety activities include:

• CPR demonstrations
• Free adult learn-to-swim lessons
• Free disability learn-to-swim lessons
• Mums and Bubs lessons
• ActiveGator 'Open your Eyes, Be Waterwise' presentations
• Rescue and survival demonstrations at Prairiewood Leisure Centre
• Giant Pool Inflatables at Prairiewood and Fairfield
• Aqua Water Park at Fairfield Leisure Centre

For bookings contact the Fairfield City Leisure Centres: Prairiewood (9757 2433), Fairfield (9754 2078) and Cabravale (9723 4412). Visit fairfieldcityleisurecentres.com.au for a schedule of events.

WHO DESERVES RECOGNITION?

Mayor of Fairfield City Frank Carbone with Fairfield City's Australia Day awards winners: Citizen of the Year Saverino (Sam) Salemi, Sports Achiever of the year Stefan Pupovac, Young Citizen of the year Basim Shamaon, and Volunteer of the year Peter Moore

Recognising the people in our City who are dedicated workers or who inspire others within the community is arole for which Fairfield City Council takes pride.

One way Council recognises our community achievers isthrough the annual Australia Day Community Awards.

The awards are held by almost every local government area in NSW and are awarded at the same time as the Australian ofthe Year Awards.

Council cannot hand out awards, though, without having nominees – and that's where Fairfield City residents can help.

Council is calling on community members to nominate people in one of four categories for the 2015 Fairfield City Australia Day Community Awards:

• 2015 Fairfield City Citizen of the Year
• 2015 Fairfield City Young Citizen of the Year
• 2015 Fairfield City Sports Achiever of the Year
• 2015 Fairfield City Volunteer of the Year

Nominees for the Young Citizen of the Year must be aged 14 to 25 years of age as at 26 January 2015.

Nominees for the Sports Achiever of the Year must be aged above 14 years of age as at 26 January 2015.

All nominees must either live, work, study or volunteer in Fairfield City. Winners will be announced at Council's Australia Day ceremony in January next year.

All nominees will also be considered for Australia Day Achievement Awards. Visitwww.fairfieldcity.nsw.gov.au for more information and to download a nomination form. Nominations close at 4.30pm on Friday, 7 November 2013.

Biodiversity in the LGA - Powerful Owls

Powerful Owls (Ninox strenua) are the largest of the Australian nocturnal birds (night birds) and are listed as vulnerable under the NSW Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995.

The Powerful Owl is a large owl with a relatively small head and a rounded tail. It is dark grey to dark grey-brown above, with white barring, and off-white below, with distinctive dark V-shape chevrons.

The eyes are yellow, set in a dark grey/brown facial mask. The legs are feathered and the yellow to orange feet are massive, with sharp talons. The sexes are alike but the female is smaller, with a narrower head. Juvenile birds are downy white on the head and underparts. The underparts are sparsely streaked and they have much shorter tails than the adults.

The Powerful Owl is found in open forests and woodlands, as well as along sheltered gullies in wet forests with dense understoreys, especially along watercourses. They will sometimes be found in open areas near forests such as farmland, parks and suburban areas, as well as in remnant bushland patches. Powerful Owls need old growth trees to nest.

The Powerful Owl has been sighted in a few locations in lower Prospect Creek and Cabramatta Creek, where there are still remnant mature trees remaining available for them in which to roost.

The Powerful Owl is a carnivore, eating mainly medium to large tree-dwelling mammals, particularly the Common Ringtail Possum (Pseudocheirus peregrinus) and the Great Glider. It will also take roosting birds and sometimes small ground-dwelling mammals such as rabbits or small marsupials. It forages mainly in trees, swooping down on prey and taking prey with its feet.

The Powerful Owl mates for life (more than 30 years in some cases) and pairs defend an all-purpose territory year-round. The male prepares the nest, which is usually a vertical hollow in a large old tree, and provides the female and young with a constant supply of food during the early part of the nesting period. The female incubates the eggs and broods the young, emerging later in the nesting period to hunt for food as well. Young birds remain with the parents for several months after fledging and may stay within their parents' territory for more than a year.

The Powerful Owl is adversely affected by land clearing, but can live in fragmented habitats such as farms or suburban areas. Sometimes they are killed by cars. Young birds are sometimes killed by foxes, cats or dogs.

This video shows a few different behaviours of the Powerful Owl. One favourite is the chick nonchalantly sitting on the brick wall while it gets dive bombed by a Noisy Myna.

http://youtu.be/XNeRTJzzTVU

Again we see how mature trees that have developed hollows for habitat are so important for conserving our native wildlife.

Keep in mind if you have a mature tree that you see as a safety risk, you can have work done to reduce the canopy and deadwood pieces and leave the tree ‘totem’ in place with hollows intact. See a picture below of a tree ‘totem’ that was created in Council’s Community Nursery. Some local ducks have taken a liking to it!

Council is going to start installing wildlife habitat signs on trees that have been preserved in this way to educate the wider community on why we need to keep as many hollows as we can.