Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

At the risk of stating the super obvious: it’s a great wildflower spring. If you’re looking for evidence, try walks 1 and 2 in FOBIF’s 20 walks in the Mount Alexander region. They’re both in Kalimna Park, , and they currently feature masses of Rough Mint-bush (Prostanthera denticulate)…as well as numerous other flowering plants, including Grey Everlasting, Grevillea and Pea plants.

Hillside on the Kalimna Circuit walk, October 9. The walk features masses of spring flowers, as does FOBIF’s Kalimna North End walk.

Further afield, for those taking the Castlemaine—Maldon road, Neville’s track (about 4 kilometres from Maldon) is a spectacular show right now, with masses of Common Fringe-myrtle and large carpets of Matted Bush-pea, as well as numerous other species, including Sun Orchids. If you go, it would be a good idea to take FOBIF’s guide to native peas of the region.

Carpets of Matted Bush-pea along Neville’s track, October 10.

Bernard Slattery

Leanganook/Mount Alexander has suffered catastrophic fire damage in the January Harcourt fires, especially at the North End. Some areas were thankfully spared.

Photos: Bronwyn Silver

This grid shows just some of the damage.

I wanted to illustrate the way the Harcourt fires have changed the Mount so I thought of re-visiting the location of a photo that I took about ten years ago.

The moss tells us that it was taken in winter and I remember a foggy morning, just after dawn. This time I went on a warm spring afternoon, so I expected many differences.

What I wasn’t prepared for was the extent of the changes. First of all it is now physically impossible to stand in the same place as I did before. A large tree has fallen from behind and now lies in a tangle. Beyond that, the number of badly burned and fallen trees was far more than I expected, and even though the mossy rock remains it isn’t so easy to orient yourself in the landscape. The widest tree in the above photo now appears to have fallen and many others have almost disappeared. The fire must have been intense here.

The photo below doesn’t do justice to the amount of destruction, and the angle is different, but at least the mossy rock hasn’t gone away. Plenty of weeds have seized an opportunity though. I think the two burned half-trees in the middle are most likely the two prominent trees on the left of the original photo. The fact that I can’t be sure even though I know this place says something. 

Bronwyn Silver 

Invertebrates are “flavour of the month”! Newstead Landcare is hosting a presentation on native bees six days before FOBIF’s presentation on what Alison Pouliot calls “the spineless”.

Sweat bees in a Digger’s Speedwell flower

Ecologist Lynda Wilson has developed a deep knowledge of native bees and has photographed over 70 species on her property near Drummond. Lynda is guest speaker at Newstead Landcare’s AGM on Tuesday 13th October at Newstead Community Centre, Lyons Street Newstead at 7.30pm. The AGM will be brief then Lynda will introduce us to these beautiful, gentle and extremely important insects. 

Gardeners in Shire of Mount Alexander hate introduced Oxalis,
but did you know the flowers provide sweat bees somewhere to doss down for the night?

Patrick Kavanagh, who is stepping down as Secretary after 20 years on Newstead Landcare Group’s Committee, provided these three beautiful images of native bees. 

Blue-banded Bee on Rosemary flower