Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

FOBIF and Connecting Country have produced a good quality colourful A2 poster containing 63 photos highlighting the beauty of our local bushlands. Members of FOBIF and/or Connecting Country can buy it for $15 from Connecting Country at The Hub 14/233b Barker St (entry through glass door on Templeton St— Please bring exact money). The poster is also available from Stonemans Bookroom and the Castlemaine Tourist Information Centre in the Market Building. Click here to see a larger version of the poster.

On Sunday November 20 a group of 26 people were conducted on a tour of mysterious rock patterns in the vicinity of Mount Alexander. The tour was organised by some local landowners.

The patterns are in the form of a long line ascending a hill slope, and culminate in a carefully constructed semi circular shape resembling that of a serpent. They are based on the natural rock formations of the mountain, filled out with rock additions. They were ‘discovered’ in the early 1990s, but older residents of the area have noted that they have ‘always’ been there.

Section of the rock patterns.

Nothing is known of the origins or construction of the patterns, and they are not part of the remembered traditions of the Jaara people, but it has been speculated that they were put there by Aboriginal people as part of the cult of Mindi, a powerful mythological serpent. This is certainly a plausible working theory, given that the area was known by early white settlers to have been used by indigenous people for ceremonial purposes, and that there are rock formations in other parts of Victoria which present similar problems of interpretation.

The stones are presently the subject of study by teams from Latrobe University, and further clarification is hoped for as these studies proceed.

This excursion through wonderful country underlined the complexity of the cultural as well as the environmental history of the area. One of the locals pointed out in the course of the excursion that every time he had visited the area he left with more questions about it, and participants in the excursion would all have experienced the same sense of exhilaration and bafflement.

A century ago it was common enough to see enormous flocks of Regent honeyeaters in woodland country from Queensland to South Australia. Habitat depletion has led to drastic decline in the numbers of this beautiful bird [see a photo and more info here]: it’s now extinct in SA and endangered elsewhere. When a single bird appeared in a Newstead Ironbark in 2003 it became an instant celebrity, and it’s been estimated that over a hundred people came to have a look at it [the regent appeared unphased by the attention and stayed for over a month.]

Efforts to save the Regent focus on restoration of its preferred box ironbark habitat. The model project for this is the one run by Ray Thomas in the Lurg Hills of North Eastern Victoria. Neville Cooper has written the following account of a visit to the project in late October:

Ray Thomas, the Regent Honeyeater’s Project Co-ordinator, took us to 8 different sites. On our travels he explained how the project is engaging the farming community in restoring the significant remnant Box-Ironbark habitat for the endangered species that are still living in the area. The Regent Honeyeater, the Grey-crowned Babbler, Squirrel Gliders and Brush-tailed Phascogales at the top of the list. Of the 150 species of birds known to reside in the area, 11 have been declared threatened in Australia.

The Regent Honeyeater, once seen flying in flocks of hundreds, are only spotted occasionally now (not on our trip). They have not returned in great numbers yet because the trees haven’t reached the optimum flowering age.

The main ecological problems the Project has had to deal with are fragmentation of the Box-Ironbark belt; loss of understorey;  dieback;  mistletoe infestations;  loss of roadside vegetation; unsustainable agriculture;  erosion;  salinity;  loss of bio-diversity;  and habitat loss.

We discussed and, where possible, were shown solutions to some of these problems. For example, restoring  the understorey to attract insect predators, which in turn helps restore the ecological balance.

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Along with other northern Victorian councils, Mount Alexander is currently in the process of getting together a Municipal fire management plan. These plans are part of the State’s integrated fire management policy mentioned in our post of September 5.

A draft plan is slated for completion for consultation by March 2012, and it is expected that the final plan will be finished by October.

From FOBIF’s point of view, the compilation of this plan is interesting in that it is intended to contain an overview of fire risk in the area, including the Moonlight Flat Pine plantations. In 2010 we wrote to the plantation managers, Hancock Plantations, enquiring after their fire prevention strategy and how it relates to the surrounding bushland, but have not been favoured with an answer. Although we have been assured by DSE fire planning manager Ben Matthews that ‘managers of these plantations must adhere to strict fire prevention guidelines’ we haven’t found anyone who knows what exactly the guidelines are: and in particular we don’t know how they relate to the management of adjoining public and private land, some of which is infested with flammable feral pines. We look forward to being enlightened when the draft plan emerges in March.