Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

This Silver Banksia, Banksia marginata, was photographed recently on the Campbells Creek Trail. The species was virtually wiped out in this region in the nineteenth century. The many healthy trees along the creek are testament to the work of Friends Campbells Creek Landcare.

You can check out more local nature photos on the FOBIF Instagram site and the FOBIF Flickr site.  

Silver Banksia. Photo by Bernard Slattery, 13 February 2019

FOBIF now has an Instagram feed and we would like invite members and supporters to send their local nature photos to info@fobif.org.au so we can include them on the site. To have a look at the site select the new Instagram button on the FOBIF website or search in Instagram for ‘boxironbarkforests’.

Vicroads engineers met again with residents in Newstead last week to go over objections to tree removals along the Pyrenees Highway [see our previous posts]. Numerous objections to the basis of the project were raised. Some were accepted as legitimate—statistics regarding traffic flow and accident occurrence, for example, were found to be flawed. Nevertheless, none of these objections were enough to change the nature of the project. Engineers present made it plain that in their view it will go on as planned, sooner or later, further consultations notwithstanding.

The crux of the matter, it seems to us, is that Vicroads is focused on one side of the accident equation. As we reported last week, road authorities attribute the rate of serious injury to two factors: likelihood of a crash, and impact if the crash occurs. Residents’ proposals have centred on the first: avoiding crashes altogether, by reducing speed limits and installing new signage with various road surface improvements. Vicroads works from the assumption that crashes will happen anyway, and we should work to soften their effects. Of course if a car veers off the road a wire rope barrier will soften the impact of the accident. But what if, owing to its lower speed, the car was not to leave the road at all? The two sides of the argument bounce off each other with no result other than the inevitable: the project will proceed…

One revealing moment in last week’s discussion: engineers claimed that for every request they have for a speed limit reduction, there are ten objections to it. We’re pretty cautious about this claim, which sounds a little self serving. We remember that we were offered the same reasoning ten years ago when we asked for a reduction on the Castlemaine Elphinstone road…and a few years after that, the limit was reduced, with little or no community objection…

Residents have sought the assistance of the Minister and the Member for Bendigo West, Maree Edwards, who has been co operative, so far. Consultations are ongoing.

Connecting Country is preparing a grant application to Mount Alexander Shire Council for an Eltham Copper Butterfly project, working with local ecologists Elaine Bayes and Karl Just, seeking funding to monitor and protect this threatened species. FOBIF has agreed to be a partner in the project.

The aim of the project is to raise public awareness about the butterfly, and help develop a small team of citizen scientists trained in ECB monitoring. Castlemaine’s Kalimna Park is home to the largest remaining population of the threatened Eltham Copper Butterfly. However, little is known about this fascinating species, which continues to be threatened by proposed fuel reduction burning. The project uses engagement tools to raise local awareness about the butterfly’s ecology, and builds community skills and capacity to monitor and protect the species into the future.

As we’ve noted below, insect populations worldwide are under pressure, and the more we know about them, the better we will understand how to keep populations healthy. It goes without saying that the presence of the Eltham Copper in Kalimna park is invaluable asset to the community. An example: the annual gathering of the South East Australian Naturalists Association will bring many visitors to this region in October, and one of the attractions will be the chance to see the butterfly…

DELWP is currently running an online survey to gauge community attitudes to forest management. According to a Department press release,

‘The Forest Reform Program is the bringing together of land and fire managers, Traditional Owners and Victorian communities to plan and deliver integrated forest and fire management across the state.

‘The aim of the program is to deliver great community value from our forests to all Victorians.

‘This process includes a clear commitment to work in partnership with Traditional Owners to deliver the Forest Reform Program and manage Victoria’s forests into the future.”

‘The survey is giving people an opportunity to provide their views on what they value in our forests, how forest management can be improved and what they would like from forests in the future.’

You can find the survey here. It suffers from the very serious fault of all voluntary surveys: namely, by definition it is not a random survey of a cross section of the population. Instead, it records the views of those most interested in promoting their views. All the same, it’s at least a partial indicator of what people think, and we recommend you have a go.

The survey closes on March 31.

FOBIF has just received the following communique from Newstead 2021:

Community group Newstead 2021 Inc today has been informed by Bendigo West MP Maree Edwards that VicRoads’ proposed Pyrenees Highway Safety Improvements project between Newstead and Muckleford South have been postponed.

N2021 Inc submitted a petition with 532 signatures to Ms Edwards today asking the work be deferred until community concerns are addressed.

The project proposes to install wire rope safety barriers and guard fences, seal some sections of road shoulders and parts of intersections and remove roadside vegetation including 146 mature trees from Swift Parrot habitat.

Members of the Newstead community acknowledge the importance of road safety, but have been questioning the modelling, data and evaluations – economic, social and environmental – behind the project since 2016.

Newstead 2021 Inc has written to the Roads Minister, Jaala Pulford, about the project.

The group is asking that work to remove roadside trees be halted and the project commencement is deferred until community concerns are fully addressed.

These include the accuracy and reliability of environmental evaluations, traffic counts (eg. VicRoads project quotes 6400 vehicles per day. Local community counts suggest the figure is closer to 3600 per day), road crashes (eg. The project selects 2009 – 2013 data only) and modelling.

N2021 is also asking that the cost:benefit analysis and workings be shared with the community and that speed limits on this section of road are assessed in line with other reductions put in place along the Pyrenees Highway locally.

Green Gully residents are particularly concerned about safety and speed along the stretch of road and especially at their Cemetery Rd intersection where the school bus stop is located.

“Community members believe signage, road edging improvement along the entire section, line marking and changing driver behaviour would be more cost-effective to improve safety and minimise risk without removing 146 native trees,” resident Janet Barker said.

Residents are concerned about this project in light of VicRoads extensive tree removal and overengineering along the Calder Highway at Ravenswood near the Maldon/Mildura exit.