Dad's Army coordinator Chris Newton at a tree nursery built by the group in Cape Sanctuary, near Ocean Beach. Photo / Warren Buckland
Dad's Army coordinator Chris Newton at a tree nursery built by the group in Cape Sanctuary, near Ocean Beach. Photo / Warren Buckland
A "fellowship" of retiree volunteers have toiled eight years planting thousands of trees to revitalise Cape Sanctuary forest.
Dad's Army is a small group of mostly retired volunteers, founded in 2014 by retired GP Stuart Foote. They do a variety of work around the Ocean Beach side of Cape Sanctuary.
Foote recently stepped down as coordinator for a break and the current coordinator is now 70-year-old Chris Newton, a former CEO of several businesses.
"We have a lot of fun, we have a lot of laughs. We have a number of committee meetings deciding how we are going to do things, but it's all good natured, good spirited and the most important thing is we do get a lot done," Newton said.
He said they have about 46,000 native trees ready to plant this winter at the moment, which will increase to about 65,000 by July or August.
Volunteers Jocelyn Field, left, and Dawn Small, right, potting tree seedlings from the Dad's Army made nursery at Cape Sanctuary. Photo / Warren Buckland
He said there is a small core of members in the volunteer group at the moment.
"Regularly in Dad's Army there is probably about six or seven of us. It fluctuates a bit, people will go away and then they'll come back out."
He said they are always keen for more people to join the group and get involved.
"The fellowship out there amongst us guys is pretty cool."
He said most of the group is in their seventies, with him as the youngest.
"We're all reasonably fit. Not as fit as we used to be, but we like the activity because we're operating on pretty steep country that's not all nice and flat. When we're building this bridge that we literally just completed, all the timber has to be lugged up though the trees. There is only one way of getting it up there and that is carrying it."
He said they are currently working on completing a track through the bush that was planted a few years ago.
Dad's Army volunteer Joe Rimmer holding a wooden truck he made with the groups name on it at Cape Sanctuary, near Ocean Beach. Photo / Warren Buckland
He said the group takes on "all sorts of things", including building bridges, putting steps in the sanctuary, their work in the nursery growing native trees from seed, general maintenance and even an entire building last winter which he said they affectionately call the "Church Hall", where people can stay.
"We take account of a lot of the trees we are planting and growing that will encourage native birds. The theory is that in the future the birds will be doing the spreading of the seed.
"The whole vision that some of us older fellas have is that we won't necessarily get to see it, but future generations will have an established native forest out there"
