Category Archives: News

Parks Vic 1: budget cuts and staff decline

Posted on 25 January, 2016 by fobif

Attentive readers will have noticed the brief kerfuffle in January on the release of the Parks Victoria 2014-5 Annual Report. You can read the report here. Interest has centred around the fact that Government funding to PV had been slashed … Continue reading →

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Parks Vic 2: ‘God’s in His heaven and all’s well’

Posted on 25 January, 2016 by fobif

Not that you’d know about pressure and stress by reading the Parks Victoria Report. As is the nature of these documents, it’s nicely illustrated, and full of good news. It might be unfair to call the general tone gaga, but … Continue reading →

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Parks Vic 3: so, what’s really happening in heaven?

Posted on 25 January, 2016 by fobif

In the meantime, what’s happening in the Parks themselves? We do have great parks, but this Report, though it does have some useful info, won’t give you a real idea of the serious challenges the park system faces. The Report … 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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Call for photos!

Posted on 14 December, 2015 by fobif

The theme of the next FOBIF photo exhibition is Trees in the Mount Alexander Region. TOGS in Castlemaine will host the exhibition in March 2016 and later in the year the Newstead Railway Arts Hub has kindly agreed host the same … Continue reading →

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Moss guide goes to reprint edition

Posted on 14 December, 2015 by fobif

FOBIF’s field guide to Mosses of dry forests in south eastern Australia has sold so well we’ve had to go to a reprint edition, adding a few improvements along the way. The new edition is on sale via this website, … Continue reading →

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It’s Australia’s only National Heritage Park: so, should it be managed in a unique way?

Posted on 14 December, 2015 by fobif

What is a heritage landscape, and what difference does the tag ‘heritage’ make to the way a landscape should be managed? Of course, all landscapes are ‘heritage’ or ‘cultural’ landscapes in one way or another: but there’s only one in … Continue reading →

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‘Risk management’: what does it mean, in practice?

Posted on 22 November, 2015 by fobif

The recently abolished ‘five per cent target’ policy aimed at burning at least 390, 000 hectares of public land per year. This target was never reached, and was probably never going to be possible. In the last five years, the … Continue reading →

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Lessons from Lancefield [1]: resourcing

Posted on 22 November, 2015 by fobif

The management burn which escaped from the Cobaw State Forest in October with disastrous results was the subject of an independent investigation led by Stuart Carter. His report was released last week. It can be found here. We won’t comment … Continue reading →

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Lessons from Lancefield [2]: public land, private land

Posted on 22 November, 2015 by fobif

A second point worth highlighting in the Carter report is the importance of integrating public and private land in fire preparations. The report says: ‘The Department must adopt a tenure-­‐blind approach to the management of bushfire risk including the planning … Continue reading →

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