Category Archives: Nature Observations

Floods can be complicated, but the fundamental cause isn’t: water falls from the sky in volumes too big to be confined within watercourses. These overflow onto flood plains. That’s it. There can be additional factors, of course: if vegetation in … Continue reading →

Walkers in the local bush from Fryers Ridge to Porcupine Ridge and up to Castlemaine have recently been noticing a beautiful small moth hovering around spring flowers. Its very challenging name is Pollanisus viridipulverulenta–apparently we can blame the name on … Continue reading →

The idea of ‘land restoration’ suggests that the land can be restored to a better condition than the one it’s now in. The question is, what qualities might that ‘better condition’ have? For a partial answer to that question for … Continue reading →

The photo below shows old sluicing pipes in the Fryers Forest. As they decay, they provide shelter for the growth of seedlings which will eventually hasten their destruction. Is this decay the gradual fading of our heritage? Maybe–if we identify … Continue reading →

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 →

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 →