Author Archives: fobif

Mt Alex bike track on track, but land status uncertain

The 2015 State budget papers show that the Government’s Regional Infrastructure Fund is to be used to provide money to advance the design and construction of mountain bike tracks on the lower slopes of Mount Alexander. As we have previously … Continue reading

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Fire planning: safety, yes–AND healthy forests

FOBIF has made a submission to the Department of Environment’s fire planning process. In it, we’ve repeated a few of the concerns we expressed in our 2014 submission. We’ve received a number of assurances about these concerns–mainly to do with … Continue reading

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Green waste collection? Phasing out plastic bags?

FOBIF has made a number of specific suggestions in its submission to the MAS Shire council draft environment strategy. Readers will remember we criticised the draft strategy for being abstract and general…tending to waffle, in fact. The substance of the … Continue reading

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Eels, agro-forestry, banksias, fire: to find out more, go to…

Looking for  a few new ideas tossed up in good company? The 2015 Mount Alexander Landcare Forum and Dinner will be held at the Campbells Creek Community Centre on Friday 19 June from 3.00 pm. The program is as follows: … Continue reading

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Putting some facts on the table

Field Naturalist Richard Piesse met with DELWP officers last week to table surveys conducted by local naturalist Ern Perkins over the last ten years. The intention of the meeting was to highlight the necessity for burn operations to be conducted … Continue reading

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Our friends the blackberries?

Walkers along the Moonlight Creek edge of Kalimna Park in the last week have been puzzled by the fact that DELWP seems to have gone to a lot of trouble to protect a mountain of blackberries from its recent management … Continue reading

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Look again: there’s something there

Those interested in getting a better look at relatively obscure elements of our bushlands should get along to the Nature Abstracted exhibition at the Falkner Gallery in Templeton Street Castlemaine. The exhibition of photographs by Bronwyn Silver concentrates on lichens, … Continue reading

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Kalimna fire

The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Fire completed its management burn at Kalimna Park on April 23. The treatment area is shown on the map below.   Representatives of FOBIF and the Friends of Kalimna Park have examined the … Continue reading

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FOBIF walks

Walks for young people FOBIF are running lots of events for kids this year. We have bushwalks for small children with their families, youth walks for people who are secondary school age and a June School Holiday program based in the … Continue reading

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Bushfire review report postponed

FOBIF has been informed that the Inspector General for Emergency Management has postponed his report on fuel reduction programs, which was due this month. It will now be released at the end of April.

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