Author Archives: fobif

ABC Television’s Gardening Australia program ran a segment on our local bushlands on August 20. The program, filmed on the Monk, packed a lot into its 8 minute duration. Local ecologist Cassia Read invited viewers to take a close up … Continue reading →

Here’s a curious note on slime mould research, from the London Review of books : ‘The mycologist Lynne Boddy once made a scale model of Britain out of soil, placing blocks of fungus-colonised wood at the points of the major … Continue reading →

Discussions have begun over the government’s Strategic Fuel Breaks program, set to come to this region in the next few months. The program is described here. There are two kinds of break: —Asset protection breaks, to be set up around … Continue reading →

FOBIF has made a submission to DELWP on the current fire management plan. The ‘fuel reduction’ burns currently planned can be seen on the Department’s excellent interactive map here. Our submission essentially related to the following: –We believe burns planned … Continue reading →

Forty participants logged in to last Monday’s FOBIF AGM by Zoom. They heard an inspirational talk by Ian Higgins on the disappearance of Australian native pea plants—the lost world of Mitchell’s Australia Felix—and their possible return to our landscapes. A … Continue reading →

We’ve seen them floating onto beaches in other parts of the world. We see them lying around in gutters…Maybe it was inevitable we’d see one flying through the air and landing in the trees: a small offshoot of virus conditions, … Continue reading →

Last week’s floods in Europe were horrific, and we must be moved by the sight of helpless people sorting through their destroyed homes. Victims must be helped, and lives rebuilt…and, of course, lessons should be learned. Already there’s a sense … Continue reading →

While Europeans count the cost of last week’s catastrophe, it might be worth while considering our own situation. Although we at FOBIF are a bit worried about our tendency to repeat ourselves, here we go again: this is from our … Continue reading →

FOBIF’s 2021 AGM will be held in the Senior Citizens Hall, Mechanics Lane Castlemaine  (that’s right next to the library), on Monday August 9 at 7.,30 pm. The guest speaker will be Ian Higgins, who will talk about native peas … Continue reading →