Category Archives: News

Parks Victoria: good ideas, bad ideas

Posted on 10 October, 2021 by fobif

Parks Victoria has released a draft Land Management Strategy for consultation. You can find it here, together with info on how to put in a response to the strategy. The consultation is open till November 1. The draft document has … Continue reading →

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Excellent spring reading

Posted on 10 October, 2021 by fobif

In case you’re not already in the loop: the September edition of the Wombat Forestcare newsletter is now online. You can find it here. Among many excellent articles is one by Tanya Loos on echidnas, with much useful info on … Continue reading →

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Looking for some garden info?

Posted on 10 October, 2021 by fobif

FOBIF has sets of Australian Plants magazine, dating from 1969 to 2009, looking for a good home. They’re a fascinating record of enthusiasts’ and experts’ reflections on the place of Australian plants in gardens and the environment. Interested? They’re free … Continue reading →

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Strategic Fuel Breaks 1: settlements

Posted on 4 October, 2021 by fobif

The draft map below shows the strategic fuel breaks proposed for the Castlemaine township area. Final decisions about the breaks are yet to be made, but the works are expected to be completed this financial year. The main fuel breaks … Continue reading →

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Strategic fuel breaks: is it necessary to flatten nature to make our forests safe?

Posted on 20 September, 2021 by fobif

As we reported on August 16, DELWP is planning to create fuel breaks in this region, both near settlements and through bushland: ‘Strategic Fuel Breaks are a strip of land where vegetation has been permanently modified to reduce the rate … Continue reading →

Posted in Fire Management, News | 2 Comments

September walk cancelled

Posted on 12 September, 2021 by fobif

We have decided to cancel Geoff Nevill’s September FOBIF bushwalk due to the current restrictions on group gatherings. Hopefully we will be able to offer the walk next year. The October walk in the Fryers Ridge will be led by … Continue reading →

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In case you missed it…

Posted on 30 August, 2021 by fobif

ABC Television’s Gardening Australia program ran a segment on our local bushlands on August 20. The program, filmed on the Monk, packed a lot into its 8 minute duration. Local ecologist Cassia Read invited viewers to take a close up … Continue reading →

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Ian Higgins: A world lost…A world to regain?

Posted on 23 August, 2021 by fobif

The nature and function of peas The lush grasslands Major Mitchell called Australia Felix in 1836 were the starting point of Ian Higgins’s inspirational talk to the FOBIF AGM on August 9. The park-like scenes which so excited Mitchell were … Continue reading →

Posted in Nature Observations, News | 4 Comments

Slime mould knows the way out of Ikea!

Posted on 23 August, 2021 by fobif

Here’s a curious note on slime mould research, from the London Review of books : ‘The mycologist Lynne Boddy once made a scale model of Britain out of soil, placing blocks of fungus-colonised wood at the points of the major … Continue reading →

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A walk on the high side

Posted on 16 August, 2021 by fobif

A small group took on FOBIF’s August walk in brisk sunny weather yesterday. The route started below the Expedition Pass spillway and negotiated the western end of the Reservoir and up to the highest point of Specimen Gully Road, then … Continue reading →

Posted in News, Walks | 3 Comments