Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

All welcome at our AGM, 6pm, Monday 8th September, Senior Citizens Centre, Mechanics Lane, Castlemaine. At 6.30 Tanya Loos will speak on living with wildlife. Then a light supper and the opportunity to buy; Tanya’s book ‘Living with wildlife’; FOBIF’s excellent field guides; raffle tickets for a gorgeous lithograph of either the anticlinal fold, hakea or banksia by local artist Bev Lewis.

You can read the 2024 minutes , 2025 Agenda.

Have you thought about joining the committee? You can with the nomination form here.

If you can’t attend and want someone to vote on your behalf, use this proxy form.

More about our guest speaker-

Tanya Loos loves sharing nature knowledge about how to live more harmoniously with the animals that live where we live – and how our homes and backyards can be safe havens in a time of climate breakdown. Whether you have a bird attacking a window, a possum in the roof, phascogales harassing your chickens, or a visiting venomous snake in the backyard Tanya believes there are simple steps we can take that are wildlife friendly and make sure your place is a haven! 

Tanya lives in central Victoria and is passionate about wildlife and nature! In her presentations, Tanya loves drawing from ecological science to educate and inspire people to care about wildlife and wildlife habitat. She has worked as a Woodland Bird Project Coordinator for Connecting Country and Biodiversity Projects Officer for Macedon Ranges City Council – and at present she is Avian Influenza Response Coordinator at BirdLife Australia. 

Bring some cash to win one of Bev Lewis’ beautiful stone lithographs.

$5 per ticket, 3 for $10

First prize gets first choice, 2nd prize second choice, 3rd prize the remaining print.

Bev Lewis; Anticlinal Fold

Bev Lewis, artist has donated some beautiful stone lithographs which we will raffle at our AGM, Monday 8th September, 6pm at the Castlemaine Senior Citizen’s, Mechanics Lane, Castlemaine. All welcome.

Event: talk by Tanya Loos: LIVING WITH WILDLIFE
Date & time: Monday 8^th September, 6pm
Venue: Castlemaine Senior Citizens Centre, Mechanics Lane, Castlemaine. 

Tanya Loos loves sharing nature knowledge about how to live more harmoniously with the animals that live where we live – and how our homes and backyards can be safe havens in a time of climate breakdown.  Tanya believes there are simple steps we can take that are wildlife friendly and make sure your place is a haven.

Tanya lives in central Victoria and is passionate about wildlife and nature! In her presentations, Tanya loves drawing from ecological science to educate and inspire people to care about wildlife and wildlife habitat. She has worked as a Woodland Bird Project Coordinator for Connecting Country and Biodiversity Projects Officer for Macedon Ranges City Council – and at present she is Avian Influenza Response Coordinator at BirdLife Australia. 

Tanya will be sharing her passion through an entertaining presentation at the Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests AGM at 6pm on Monday 8^th September at the Castlemaine Senior Citizens Centre, Mechanics Lane, Castlemaine. This will be followed by a light supper and the opportunity to buy Tanya’s book ‘Living with wildlife’, FOBIFs excellent field guides and a raffle ticket for  gorgeous lithographs of the anticlinal fold, hakea or banksia by local artist Bev Lewis.

Ever been irritated by the rubbish dumping thing? Of course, most people are—and most people wonder: what kind of person would dump rubbish in beautiful places like our bushlands?

But there’s another dimension to this problem: it starts at the source.

Plastic dominated rubbish pile at the Railway dam a few years ago. FOBIF has an extensive collection of photos of similar rubbish all over our region. Of course, dumpers are to blame, but the real problem starts at the production point.

Here are some fun facts: in 1950, the world produced 2 million tonnes of plastic. In 2022, the figure was 475 million tonnes; at present rates of increase, it will top 1000 million tonnes by 2060.

As if these figures weren’t bad enough, consider this: of the above quantities, 9% is recycled, about 50% ends in landfill, 19% is incinerated…and 22% slops around the planet, most dangerously in the oceans: it’s been estimated that 15 tonnes of plastic is dumped in the sea every minute!

And, of course, it’s hard not to notice that a large part of the stuff dumped in our bush is plastic.

How can such insanity persist? Guess what: it’s because plastic is ‘cheaper’ than alternative substances! And convenient, of course. If you have the stomach for some terrifying stats about Australia’s plastic use, check here.

There’s a UN conference in Geneva right now to try to hammer out a treaty to limit plastic damage: for more details check here.

And if you want to sign a Greenpeace petition urging Australia to commit to such a treaty, check here.