Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests (Mt Alexander Region) was formed in the late 1990s by people in the local community interested in working towards highlighting the significance of the Box-Ironbark Forests and Woodlands. There are over 100 members with a committee elected yearly at the Annual General Meeting.

We believe that the health of the land is intimately linked to its vegetation cover and the wildlife it sustains: that forests, soil and water are ‘an inseparable trinity.’ That’s why we work to encourage and support sound land management practices, on private and public land. Read more about us...

The Box and Ironbark Forests and Woodlands

The forests and woodlands of northern and central Victoria characteristically consist of a canopy of Box and Ironbark trees over a rich shrub layer of wattles, grevilleas, hakeas and many grasses and small flowering plants. The nectar rich canopy in particular sustains birds such as honeyeaters and lorikeets as well as mammals like possums and gliders.

Pultenea Pedunculata (Matted Bush-pea) in the Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park, October 28 2008

These forests once covered about 3 million hectares of the region. After 150 years of clearing, only 17% survives, and in this it is rare to find stands of mature trees. Though 72% of surviving forests are on public land, many good stands of Box Ironbark are on private land.

The biodiversity of the Box and Ironbark forests includes and maintains a unique and varied range of birds, mammals, reptiles, insects and plants—over 1500 different flowering plants have been recorded in the Box Ironbark region. However, numerous species have already disappeared and about 350 endangered plants and animals rely on these bushlands for their survival, including: