Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

How long should we plan for? An interesting hint can be found in the May issue of the newsletter of the Australian Forest History Society, in a story by Roger Underwood, about New College Oxford, founded in 1379:

‘The chapel is about 600 years old, and until this story unfolded, was famous for its massive oak beams. (In the late 1970s)… an inspection  of the New College chapel roof had disclosed the alarming fact that the old oak beams holding up the roof and spire were infested with wood boring beetles, and were on the point of collapse. The situation was dire, and the college authorities were at a loss. Where on earth would they find replacement oak beams for the urgent restoration work?

‘However, the college historian came up with the answer. It turned out that at the time of the building of the college in the 14^th century, the builders anticipated that one day the oak beams in the chapel would need to be replaced. So the college purchased land and arranged for a plantation of oak trees to be planted. A forester was appointed to look after the resulting forest. Over succeeding centuries, the word was passed along from one generation of college foresters to the next: ‘You don’t touch them oaks, they’s for the college chapel.’

‘And they were. Cometh the hour, cometh the trees. The oaks were felled, the new beams cut and installed, and the chapel roof was again secure and a thing of wonder. And another grove of oaks was planted, anticipating the need for the next refurbishment of the chapel 600 years hence.’

Unfortunately this story, which has circulated in a variety of forms, is a bit of a myth, although it is true that the college has forest reserves used for repairs of its old structures… but wouldn’t it be great if it were not only true, but unremarkable: that it was completely normal to look that far ahead in the management of our resources? Maybe the gold rushes would have panned out a little differently if that had been the case…

Parks Victoria has flagged the possibility of ambitious celebrations to mark the 170^th anniversary of the discovery of gold in this region. They would take place in spring 2021. Another celebration possibility could be the 20th anniversary of the opening of the diggings park in 2022. The celebrations could take the form of conference discussions, re-enactments, musical events, art shows and other activities. Social, technical, environmental and indigenous perspectives would be included. There is a definite purpose in the proposal to promote the Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park as a tourist destination, and the proposal so far has the support of Mount Alexander tourism officers.

As readers of this site will know, FOBIF is sceptical of the tendency of heritage events to glorify gold and everything to do with it, and to sideline or pay polite lip service to the collateral damage of the gold era: the outright trashing of the environment, and with it the completion of the dispossession of the Indigenous Australians.

So far, however, we are cautiously supportive of the idea. We’ll see what happens in the detail.

Users of Expedition Pass reservoir over the last year or so have noticed signs of serious stress in the Red Gums at the south western end of the dam wall, near the Golden Point Road.

Reasons for the stress are speculative, but drought and soil compaction from the parking of cars must have something to do with the problem.

Soil platform under one of the corner Red Gums at Expedition Pass. Will it solve the problems faced by trees at the popular beach? We don’t know…

Parks Victoria have had a small go at one side of the problem by building a soil platform in front of two of the trees. We’re not sure how this will work, given that it’s likely to be used as a platform for resting by swimmers in summer. We’ll see. An intriguing side of the problem is that Red Gums are notorious for dropping dangerous limbs without warning, a fact seemingly disregarded by the many who rest under these trees every summer. Fencing the trees off might be a good idea, but it would probably get a hostile reception by users, given the popularity of that ‘beach’ area.

A trickier problem is the cars. Parks have placed rocks to prevent these from parking too close to the trees, and compacting the soil further: but there’s a further problem: illegal and possibly dangerous parking along the road. This is more or less universal in summer. Parks seems to have made a start on this one by improving the walking track up to the Reservoir from Llewellyn Road. It’s a pleasant track, though definitely uphill. Will it tempt people to leave their cars below the Res and walk? One problem with that is that parking along Llewellyn Road is presently limited. We believe Parks has plans to deal with this…we’ll see about that one too.

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A few weeks ago FOBIF wrote to several responsible persons/agencies complaining about car advertising which promoted unsafe and environmentally irresponsible driving. Recipients included the state Minister for road safety, the Federal Council for Automotive Industries, local MPs and the Ad Standards Bureau. We’ve had answers from Maree Edwards (a politely sympathetic letter) and the Ad Standards bureau, the federal body supervising the voluntary code of the industry.

The bureau’s letter notifies us that our complaint ‘is scheduled for submission to the Ad Standards Community Panel. A copy of it will be provided to all members of the Panel in order to help them in their determination of your complaint. We will also send a copy of your correspondence to the advertiser in question for comment. Any comments we receive from the advertiser will be submitted to the Panel for consideration together with your complaint…details of your complaint may be made available to researchers from time to time to enable Ad Standards to remain up to date on community attitudes and concerns about advertising.’

The Ad Standards community panel is the ‘centre piece of the self regulation system.’ It consists of 18 people from around the country not directly connected to the advertising industry. They’re from an interesting range of backgrounds, though none of them list ‘conservation’ as a major interest. We are assured that ‘The Community Panel discharges its responsibilities with fairness, impartiality and with a keen sense of prevailing community values in its broadest sense. Its task is often a difficult one and the outcomes of its determinations will not and cannot please everyone.’

We wait with interest to see what ‘prevailing community values in its broadest sense’ means. A cynical glance over a range of current television commercials might lead us to conclude that the community puts great value on being yelled at by trashed up celebrities urging us to buy unnecessary stuff. But we’ll avoid cynicism for the time being.