Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

The State Government has announced a ‘major milestone’ in its management burning program: ‘more than 200,000 hectares of planned burning already carried out on public land this financial year.’ And there’s more to come: we’re heading for the biggest artificial burning program in Victoria’s history.  

What is most striking about the government’s press release [printed in full below] is the  absence of any detailed notion of what, exactly, has been achieved in this welter of burning: the statistic is everything.

'To reduce the risk of bushfires on our parks and native animals': Ashby Track area, six months after a management burn, 2012.

Readers will remember that FOBIF wrote to the responsible ministers last year asking whether serious consideration had been given to the Royal Commission Implementation Monitor’s recommendation that the five per cent burning target be revised. The Monitor suggested that the rush to burn lots of country might be compromising public safety by encouraging burns in remote areas.

Although the responsible minister, Peter Ryan, had said that the government would ‘consider’ the monitor’s view, all we got from his spokesman (and from the Environment Minister Ryan Smith] was a lot of patronising generalities about fire. At the time we took this to mean: ‘No, we’re not paying any attention to what the Monitor says.’ The latest press release confirms this view.

There are interesting research projects under way on the effects of frequent burning on bushland in various habitats. There’s no evidence that these projects are influencing government policy, though it’s clear that many DSE officers are concerned about the likelihood that these practices will radically alter bush environments for the worse. It’s a bit like deliberately burning down your own house, while carefully researching the effect of fire on residential amenity.

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Julian Hollis

On a perfect Autumn day, geologist Julian Hollis recently led fourteen walkers on the second FOBIF walk of the year, through Kalimna Park. We were lucky to be accompanied by Julian, who is often seen walking in the area and has studied it for some years.

Kalimna is well known for its variety of native vegetation, and particularly its spring wildflowers. It is less well known for its 400 to 450 million years of geological history, but Julian’s explanations brought that history to life for the walkers.

On the way to Kalimna we stopped at the cutting on the north-east corner of the intersection of Campbell and Hargreaves Street. There, Julian explained that the cutting was created in the 1850s so that horses would not be faced with such steep inclines. Two interesting geological features of the cutting were the quartz reef and anticline shown in the photos below. 

Quartz reef and Anticline on the corner of Campbell and Hargreaves Streets

Heading towards the Tourist Road we stopped to take in the view to the south, where Mount Franklin and other peaks could easily be seen.

View over Castlemaine and beyond from Kalimna

In the couple of hours that followed we walked on tracks to the north-east of the Park and then back to the Mount Alexander Golf Course. Julian discussed the large anticline on the Tourist Road, as well as some intriguing tube-like holes in a rock face, and he pointed out evidence of early miners’ cottages. We now know that some of those miners were unlucky, because we saw a shaft in excess of 35 metres, in which no gold at all was found. 

Anticline on the Tourist Road (left). Looking into the deep mine shaft (right).

Many will have driven over the Tourist Road but fewer would know that its original gravel surface came from quarries in Muckleford. 

We also saw evidence of a little known geological ‘shear’, and Julian showed how rocks can be dated according to the impressions left by graptolites known to have lived at particular times.

Thanks to Julian for leading another informative and authoritative walk in our local area.

Dominique Lavie has sent us some extra photos which highlight the stunning colour and texture of the many rock formations we viewed. Her photos can be found here.

Travellers across the Coliban River on the Taradale-Metcalfe road recently will have noticed that the river is looking terrible. Although there’s a very small flow,  the water is an unhealthy milky colour and there’s a peculiar scum on it.

The problem is that there’s been little rain since October and practically none this year. The Catchment Management Authority is aware of the problem, and is planning a small environmental release from the Malmsbury reservoir in the near future.

The Coliban at Taradale. An environmental release is planned to give the river a break: but maybe the Coliban would be in better shape if water wasted in the Poverty Gully channel in January had been put into the river instead..

There’s an interesting dimension to this problem. The water in the Malmsbury/Upper Coliban dams is managed by the Coliban Water Authority, mostly for community and licence holder use.. The CMA is entitled to a very small amount of this water for environmental flows into the river system.

The problem is that some of the water released to licence holders seems to be blatantly wasted. As an example: in January water was released into the notoriously leaky Poverty Gully water race. Although it’s hard to get a figure on it, Coliban water has conceded that a relatively small proportion of the water released at Malmsbury actually makes it through to Castlemaine. Sources at the authority tell us that they’d like to take the race out of commission–but for some reason or other they haven’t taken the necessary steps to do this.

The water released into Poverty Gully is relatively small, in the grand scheme of things: but when the Coliban river is sick, it would seem to be a better idea to give it a hand, rather than toss precious water into the air.

The CMA welcomes community feedback on river quality: write to info@nccma.vic.gov.au

On Thursday 25^th April Chris Tzaros will give a presentation on tips and techniques for photographing birds, at Newstead Community Centre at 7.30pm. “We are really looking forward to having Chris address our group again” said Frances Cincotta, President of Newstead Landcare Group.

Chris has maintained a strong interest in natural history since his childhood. Brought up in central Victoria, he has a particular passion for and knowledge of woodland and wetland ecosystems, particularly birds.

In 2005 Chris authored a comprehensive book on birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians of our local area titled, “Wildlife of the Box-Ironbark Country”.  The nature soundscape CD that comes with the book was recorded by Andrew Skeoch, a member of Newstead Landcare.

“I’m currently employed with BirdLife Australia” said Chris. “I co-coordinate a major woodland bird conservation project throughout Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania”.

Grey-crowned Babblers photographed by Chris Tzaros

Everyone is welcome to Newstead Community Centre next Thursday evening to learn how Chris gets the amazing shots that he produces. The presentation will go for about an hour and will be followed by supper. A gold coin donation from attendees helps the group cover costs.

On the following Saturday Chris Tzaros and Geoff Park will run a workshop on bird photography, but that booked out very soon after it was advertised on Geoff’s “Natural Newstead” blog.  Another talented member of Newstead Landcare, Geoff has been photographing nature and writing about it on-line since December 2008 and you can read and subscribe to this informative nature diary by clicking here.

The State Government’s decision to open National Parks to commercial development [see above] has its origins way back in the Kennett era, but surfaced more recently in a report published by the Labour Government in 2008. It’s called Victoria’s Nature based tourism strategy 2008-12 . This report was enthusiastically endorsed by then Conservation Minister Gavin Jennings and Tourism Minister Tim Holding in 2010. A critical account of it can be found here.

The report pointed out that over 28 million people visit our parks every year [a figure which puts paid to the idea that parks ‘lock out’ people]: the problem is that they don’t spend enough money. The strategy devoted its attention to ways we can attract rich people to our parks and get them to spend. Among other things it enthusiastically endorsed the idea of ‘products’: for example, it liked a ‘premium penguin viewing product’ available at Phillip Island. This involves getting people to pose for faked photos making them look as if they’re up close and personal with penguins. Similarly, the report talks, not of encourageing people to go for a walk, but of getting them to ‘buy a walk product’.

It’s worth comparing this kind of objective with the purposes of parks, as set out in the National Parks Act first passed by a Liberal Government in 1975. In this document Parks are

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A group of 20 eager bushwalkers emerged from their summer hiatus to participate in the first walk of the 2013 FOBIF calendar.  The walk was led by Chris Johnston, who has built up a considerable body of knowledge about the Maldon Historic Reserve and the Muckleford Forest. 

The walk commenced at the ruins of the Gowar School and wended its way through impressive box-ironbark forest up to Smiths Reef Dam, built in 1860.  A number of native under storey species were identified along the way.  Following a break for morning tea at Smiths Reef Dam, the group explored a number of the digging sites to the east of the dam.   

Hairy mullock heaps. Photo by Dominique Lavie

Photo by Dominique Lavie

A disturbed bottle dump was located with many fragments of old bottles still present.  The archaeological knowledge of one of the walkers (from Kyneton) was put to good use in describing the style of the bottles, the production processes and the possible uses.

The walk continued along the Spur Track with a marked contrast observable in the vegetation on either side of the track resulting from previous prescribed burns.

Photo by Frank Forster

A lunch break was taken in the lee of a large rocky outcrop providing an interesting micro-climate for small ground covers, ferns and lichen.

After lunch the group returned along Clarry’s Track and the Gowar Road, taking note of the areas designated for prescribed burns in autumn 2014.  Chris Johnston is coordinating a data collection exercise in the designated area and is seeking a few volunteers to assist in the process.  This is scheduled for Sunday 14 April;  please email mucklefordffg@bigpond.com if interested.

This walk was a great start to the 2013 program, and thanks are due to Chris Johnston for her detailed preparation and informed guidance. You can view more of Dominique Lavie’s photos by clicking on her Facebook page.