Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

After an extended dry period, Bells Swamp has now flooded so extensivley that it has swallowed up the main road as well. The large extent of water has encouraged a wide range of birds and the former main road provides an easy, dry walk right through the centre of the swamp allowing visitors to enjoy the watery environment without getting wet feet.

Side roads, however, have disappeared under the flooding waters.

A wide range of birds abound and the air is alive with calls and activity. A sample of common birds follows.

Long-billed Corella. Photos by Damian Kelly

Long-billed Corella Cacatua tenuirostris is typical bird of the open country and edges of the forests and swamps. Generally moves around in flocks, calling loudly. With large groups the noise can be deafening! These birds roost in the big gums around the swamp.

Australasian Grebe. Photo by Damian Kelly

Australasian Grebe Tachybaptus novaehollandiae is a small, but very cute diving bird. Often dives and appears a long way off after 30 seconds or more underwater.

Brown Treecreeper. Photo by Damian Kelly

At Bells Swamp the Brown Treecreeper Climacteris picumnu can be seen as often on the ground foraging as it is in the trees creeping up trunks in search of food.

Marie relaxing during the lunch break

Twenty-six people enjoyed sunny spring weather on the September FOBIF walk. The walk followed bush tracks to the north and east of Expedition Pass Reservoir.

Marie Jones provided a fascinating commentary on the changing landscape based on her intimate knowledge of this area where she walks every morning.

Some of the highlights were seeing water flowing over the Cascades near the start of the walk, finding out about the history of Dunstan’s Flat and viewing two scar trees near Golden Point Road.

Photo by Dominique Lavie

Photo by Bronwyn Silver

Photo by John Ellis

There were plenty of wildflowers and towards the end of the walk we found a Crimson Spider Orchid. Photographers were busy.

Photos by John Ellis (left) and Dominique Lavie (right)

One intriguing feature of Arn Tolsma’s Connecting Country talk on August 27 [see our post], was his reference to the 1853 Selwyn map. It’s quite an aborbing exercise to pore over this map and line it up against the landscape of 2011.

Click here to download map.

Apart from some puzzling omissions [the Muckleford area is largely blank], landscape presented on the map sits interestingly alongside the one we can see today. In the case of the Tarilta creek and Porcupine ridge, for example, the descriptions ‘grassy gully’ and ‘bold rocky scrubby ranges with stringybark and box destitute of pasture’ remain broadly accurate.

Some background to the map, and how it came to be produced by the Victorian Colony’s first geologist, can be found here .

POST SCRIPT 2013: For our review of the 2013 Bendigo exhibition of the map click here.

When walking along Forest Creek recently we came across a series of freshly dug holes that varied in shape and size.  Ones made by the hungry echidna (see below) were a delight to see as it meant that the rehabilitation work being done in this area was making this a healthier place for it to live.

August 2011, Photo by John Ellis

The other holes (see below) made by people who had heard about the increased price in gold made a mockery of a landscape in the process of recovering from previous gold diggings.  Prospectors should have a license and follow the Code Of Practice that requires holes to be filled in.  It would be even better if they dug up a gorse bush rather than a dianella!

August 2011, Photo by John Ellis