Category Archives: Nature Observations

Water

Posted on 12 September, 2016 by fobif

Forty five millimetres of rain fell at the Castlemaine Prison over the two days September 9 and 10. After good winter rains [63 mls in June, 73 mls in July and 63 in August] the streams were ready to run, … Continue reading →

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Fire

Posted on 12 September, 2016 by fobif

DELWP seems to be expanding and varying its community consultation processes on fire. A ‘listening post’ was conducted by fire officers in Castlemaine on Saturday; and last Wednesday representatives of the Castlemaine Field Naturalists toured the district with the Department’s … Continue reading →

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Yes! It’s spring!

Posted on 5 September, 2016 by fobif

…And there are plenty of reasons to get out into the bush. Here are a couple:    

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What’s eating our red gums?

Posted on 15 August, 2016 by fobif

For some months now, local Red Gums, especially around Mount Alexander, have been looking pretty bedraggled, attacked by some leaf eating insect we’ve been unable to identify. It seems to prefer only Red Gums: many Australians are unable to tell … Continue reading →

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Find out about wetland plants

Posted on 20 June, 2016 by fobif

Local environment experts, Damien Cook and Elaine Bayes, are running two wetland plant ID courses this year: This course is aimed at anyone interested in wetland plant identification and ecology. The course will run over 3 days and each day will … Continue reading →

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Some dog park questions

Posted on 21 March, 2016 by fobif

FOBIF has written to the Mount Alexander shire regarding the off lead dog park proposed for the Botanical Gardens. The relevant parts of the letter follow: ‘While FOBIF believes that an off lead park is a good and common sense … Continue reading →

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A dump here, a dump there, but rainfall is well down

Posted on 1 February, 2016 by fobif

A summer storm caused flash flooding in parts of Castlemaine on Thursday, putting the railway station underpass under water, and creating a brief swamp on the Western Oval, but, like its predecessors, leaving plenty of areas dry. Figures for 2015, … Continue reading →

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A great local archive

Posted on 25 January, 2016 by fobif

Webmaster of the Castlemaine Field Naturalists Club, Chris Timewell, has put the newsletters of the Club from 1976 online. They can be found here. This archive is a fascinating record of Field Nats observations and reflections on our region over … Continue reading →

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Great response to our call for photos

Posted on 11 January, 2016 by fobif

We started off with 17 photos on our new Flickr page, Trees of the Mount Alexander Region, and after our call for photos in December we now have 73. The quality of the photos submitted has been impressive and, as you can see from the … Continue reading →

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How do they do it? [1] Making something out of nothing

Posted on 14 December, 2015 by fobif

It’s been a bleak period in our bushlands this year, but even in the bleakest of times, something surprising can be seen: and, as during the millenium drought, one of the most surprising is the sight of this delicate looking … Continue reading →

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