Author Archives: fobif

Readers of the Castlmaine Mail sports section on June 5 will be aware that there are plans afoot to create a mountain bike network of ‘about 50 kilometres’ in the Walmer State Forest. This forest is already networked by informal … Continue reading →

Anyone tried to look for useful info on the Parks Victoria website? Anyone had a go at finding the Castlemaine Diggings NHP management plan, for example? Forget it. Parks website does carry a number of management plans, but not for … Continue reading →

That persistent gold…is it gorse? Is it oxalis? Is it Cootamundra Wattle? Is it a pain? Yes to all four! Let’s forget about Oxalis and Cootamundra, and focus on gorse  (Ulex europaeus). Introduced to Australia as a hedge plant in … Continue reading →

When we published the photo below five years ago, the only features in this bleak wasteland were a single golden wattle, a pile of rubbish, one patch of Gold Dust Wattle, and two small bushes of Daviesia ulicifolia, Gorse Bitter … Continue reading →

As we’ve previously noted, the Kalimna Circuit walk originally devised by the late Ern Perkins and the Castlemaine Field Naturalists has been upgraded with new signs and wayposts. The notes for the walk have also been revised and reprinted as … Continue reading →

The following is part of the latest newsletter from Harley Douglas, Dja Dja Wurrung co ordinator of the Walking Together project. All of this is worth reading, and we recommend that readers take the survey referred to at the end: … Continue reading →

Looking for something to sharpen up a dull day? Try Marjorie Theobald’s recently released The accidental town: Castlemaine 1851-61. The business of this book is to show how a town and a community emerged from the mad scramble for gold … Continue reading →

The accidental town doesn’t deal directly with the environmental consequences of the gold rush, but the context of environmental destruction is made clear, and the consequences soberly summed up in a sentence like this: ‘The Pennyweight Flat cemetery is a … Continue reading →

One of the heroes in Marjorie Theobald’s narrative is Gold Commissioner Captain John Bull. The author builds on her previous research on one of the problems he faced: ‘As concern for the environment as we understand it today did not … Continue reading →