Smutta’s track, near Irishtown in the Castlemaine Diggings NHP, was burned by DSE in Autumn as part of the Bendigo Fire Protection Plan. The bush at the time was quite damp, so much so that we wondered at the point of the burning exercise. DSE are under severe political pressure, however, to ‘treat’ a target area of bushland with burning, and it was no surprise that the operation went ahead.
As expected, the effect was very patchy. It’s hard to see its value as a fuel reduction exercise, though it may have some interesting ecological effects, given the excellent conditions for regrowth in the area.
We were extremely disappointed by two aspects of this operation, however.
First: we had advised DSE that there are some big old trees in this zone which should be protected from fire. Although there was some raking around larger trees, we were surprised and disappointed by the probable destruction of a veteran red box right on Hunter’s Track, on the Salter’s Creek side. We measured this tree at about 125 cm diameter at breast height. and as far as we can tell it was a candidate for the title of biggest tree in the zone [see pic].
Hunters Tk, Castlemaine Diggings NHP: this tree probably won't survive the management burn. It might survive, but it’s taken a tremendous hit.
Its survival is doubtful.
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