Author Archives: fobif

Rosella fledgings display their colours

Several Eastern Rosella fledgling recently fell out of a nest box in John and Marie’s yard at Golden Point. They landed in saltbush below where the adults fed them for a week before they finally flew off. A week or … Continue reading

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Comeback

The cup moth caterpillars have come in their millions and munched away, but it seems that they’ve gone to pursue their careers as moths, and the bush is responding accordingly. Green shoots are appearing everywhere, and things aren’t looking anywhere … Continue reading

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Catch this

North Central Waterwatch has released a handy Fish Field Guide for waterways in the area bounded roughly by Donald in the west, Creswick in the South, Heathcote in the east and Swan Hill in the north. Native fish are little … Continue reading

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How should we look after our waterways?

FOBIF has made a submission to DSE’s draft Waterway Management Strategy. Apart from suggesting that some of the policies in the document are a bit vague, our submission centred on two matters: the influence of management fire on catchments, and … Continue reading

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‘Due consideration’: does this mean, ‘Not interested’?

FOBIF has received a reply from the Minister for Bushfire Response, Peter Ryan. We asked him if he had considered Royal Commission Monitor Neil Comrie’s recommendation that the five per cent burning target be revised. It’s now clear from the … Continue reading

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Burning season under way

With DSE starting burns around Castlemaine, it’s worth clarifying what the Department’s targets are. The following has been supplied to us by DSE for land within the Murray Goldfields district: Zone: 1. Asset protection 2. Bushfire management 3. Landscape management … Continue reading

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We have the answer, but where’s the answer? [and what’s Hawkeye?]

FOBIF has had another go at finding out what if anything the Government intends to do about the Royal Commission Monitor’s suggestion that the five per cent target be revised. The letter we received from DSE Director of Fire, Lee … Continue reading

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State of the forests, 1870

Doug Ralph has supplied us with the text below, as evidence of 19th century attitudes to forest use. The report is from the Argus newspaper, and can be found on the National Library’s Trove website: “The following report of the … Continue reading

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What exactly are the pine plantations?

Amendment  C 65 before the Mount Alexander Council proposes to rezone the Moonlight Flat Pine Plantations to Farming Zone. FOBIF has opposed this rezoning as follows: ‘We believe the proposed rezoning of Crown land leased to Hancock Pine Plantations should … Continue reading

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Questions to the minister…and answers

In October FOBIF wrote to the Minister for Bushfire Recovery, Peter Ryan, the Minister for Conservation, Ryan Smith, and the National Party member for Northern Victoria, Damian Drum, regarding the government’s planned burning program. We asked how the Government was … Continue reading

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