Not a lot of people hang around in the same place for 40 years anymore, says Geoff Lockwood, who has done just that at the Delta Park Environmental Centre in Delta Park, a huge open space, part park, part wildlife and bird sanctuary in Johannesburg's leafy suburbs.
Delta Park is also home to many invader plant species and these days vagrants and other unwelcome visitors.
Geoff says the centre is housed in what was originally a sewerage pump station serving the area. The art deco building dating from the 1030s was saved from almost certain demolition and repurposed as the centre housing, amongst other things, a natural history museum.
Geoff Lockwood in front of the centre during lockdown in a photo from the Randburg Sun
The centre, established by the antiques dealer Norman Bloom, concentrates on educating children in environmental matters, sticking with the formal school curriculum. It was Bloom who persuaded the Johannesburg City Council to lease the building housing the then defunct sewerage works for a nominal fee to help with the establishment of a bird sanctuary, which still exists.
He says he and his wife lived in the newly renovated building when they were first married and he's been there more or less ever since.
He says it gives him great pleasure when parents come to the centre with their children and tell him how they'd visted the centre when they were schoolchildren 20 or 30 years previously and saw the spotted eagle owls.
There is an abundance of wildlife in Delta Park, with 232 recorded bird species, Geoff said. There are regular sightings of genets and of the slender mongoose. Apart from his environmental work Geoff is also a bird illustrator and published the book Garden Birds of South Africa many years ago. He consults with corporates on environmental matters as well.
Invader plant species such as cosmos (very beautiful this time of year, but a South American import), inkberry bushes, verbena and black wattle trees provide a constant source of problems with limited funds to tackle it.
Vagrants and others who make the park their home are arriving in a steadily growing stream and provide a whole new set of problems that the municipality doesn't seem to have the will to tackle head on.
Geoff said there are a number of areas in which Rotary clubs could get involved, amongst them the teacher training programme which came to an end during Covid. The cleanup of the spruit which runs along the easter border of the park is another, as is the proper removal of invader plants.
Environmental matters are very much on the forefront and Brenda Sakellarides brought three pupils from the National School of Art to tell about the 1.5 tons of electronic waste they'd managed to get rid of, as well as other projects the school and its Interact club are tackling, such as trying to set up a proper recycling centre at the school in Braamfontein.
In the same vein Babette Gallard and Paul Chinn said they'd already started working on the next Clean the Spruit Day in September and that some 30 organisations are already involved.
Dates to remember: There will be NO MEETING this coming Wednesday, but there will be a fellowship gathering, along with the latest Power of Pennies draw, next Friday, 5 May as per the flyer above.
The board will be meeting for breakfast next Wednesday, at 9.30 am at the Country Club Johannesburg in Auckland Park for those who want to join in.
The function on Friday evening is at the Ferndale Bowling Club in Harley Street, just off Republic Road and quite easy to get to. The cost is R75 per person to cover the venue hire, but please bring along a plate of eats to share with fellow members. Get there by 6 pm. The bar will be open for your own pocket, but prices are extremely reasonable.
The week after will be a club assembly for a discussion of the club constitution that Carol Stier has been researching. The more members that are there, the better consensus will be possible.
Also make a note of the New Dawn Golf Day: Friday, 25 August. We're going to pull out all the stops to make it a whopping success.
And finally: Our thoughts are with Joan and Graham Donet on the passing of Joan's mom, Peggy, in East London last week.
A Thought for the Week: Poetry is the shadow cast by our streetlight imaginations. - Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919 - 2021)
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