Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

A curious feature of the Creekways Plan is its bland listing of ‘trees’ as one of the three main risks to humans from the creeks.

We all know trees can do a lot of damage when they fall or drop branches. You need to use your common sense when around old Red Gums, for example. But users of Forest and Campbells Creeks tracks in the last couple of months have been puzzled by what seems to be an amazing over reaction to this danger.

Blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon) cut down and painted near Forest creek: Blackwood are a long-lived species that have excellent timber. They typically do not drop limbs until very old (50 years plus). The pictured tree had no signs of any rotting and was located three metres from the edge of the track.. Photo and text: Karl Just

The photo above shows the kind of lopping which has been done along Forest and Campbell’s creeks. In many if not most cases it’s  hard to see the danger offered by the massacred trees. It’s also very clear that the kind of assessments which categorised these trees as dangerous paid no attention to their biodiversity role.

It’s a bizarre feature of our society that nature is very often seen as a menace out of all proportion to its real danger: so snakes are much more feared than motor cars. In the case of trees, a recent investigation found that in the ten years 2007-16 277 people died in Australia ‘struck by a thrown, projected or falling object’–presumably a small number of these would have been falling branches. In the same period 523 died falling out of bed. Figure that out.

Stinkwort choking the Colles Road footpath. This noxious weed appears to have been spread by council or Vicroads vehicles.

While this tree lopping was being done, the footpath linking the Forest Creek track to the Pennyweight cemetery was being overgrown (again) by Stinkwort (Dittrichia graveolens), more or less pushing people to walk on the road verge. A proper concern for safety might see footpath clearing, not hacking at small trees, as a priority.

And while we’re about it: as we’ve pointed out before, the roadsides of the shire are infested with this Stinkwort, very likely spread by council maintenance vehicles. This is a noxious weed, and under state law municipalities are required to ‘manage noxious weeds …on land they manage’. According to Ern Perkins’ Wild Plants of the Castlemaine District, Stinkwort ‘taints dairy products and meat, can cause stock death by poisoning and bowel damage by the fluffy seed heads, and can cause dermatitis in humans’.

Here’s another example of puzzling tree management, courtesy of Karl Just:

Prior to being pruned, this Silver Wattle was high quality habitat for the regionally rare Satin Azure butterfly, a small population of which occurs along Forest Creek. This butterfly species relies on an association with meat ants and Wire-leaf Mistletoe. The best habitat trees are wattles supporting mistletoe that have good access for the attendant ant species. This requires wattle branches that touch the ground next to meat ant nests, so that the ants can then easily access to the mistletoe in the upper branches where the butterfly larvae live. The pictured wattle was previously the best example of the wattle-ant association along Forest Creek but the weeping branches were removed, even though they posed no hazard. Photo and text: Karl Just

A new publication, Native plants and animals of the Chewton Bushlands, was launched on 17 March in the Tea Rooms of the Botanic Gardens. The authors are Karen Baker, Antoinette Birkenbeil and Hannah Nichols. Ian Higgins launched the guide with a speech that drew on his in-depth knowledge and experience with local regeneration and revegetation. Over 40 people attended the event. 

The guide is small in size but manages to cover 120 plants and 120 animals in its 144 pages. Although focussed on the Chewton Bushlands it will be a useful flora and fauna guide across the whole Mount Alexander Region. 

Attractively designed by local resident, Mark Carter, there are close to 200 images from 18 mainly local photographers. Leon Costermans drawings are also included. Funding for the guide was provided by the Mount Alexander Shire. If you would like a copy, contact Karen Baker on 0439 714 665, kamb@unimelb.edu.au

As Hanrahan might have said: ‘It’s dry all right’. A quick check of the map below will confirm what common observation has already registered: February was dry, and March so far hasn’t been much better. The 27 mls of welcome rain which fell this weekend hasn’t done much to change this picture.

And yet, there are signs of life. Many eucalypt species have been flowering through the dry, and currently it’s the turn of Long-leaved Box (Eucalyptus goniocalyx). The photo below was taken in an intriguing grove of very old trees planted along Farran Street. This species has a pretty sprawling habit normally, so it’s a bit of a mystery why they were planted along this roadway–but we can enjoy them all the same.

Long-leaved Box blossom on Farran Street Castlemaine: it’s dry all right, but there are signs of life about the place.

And while we’re on the subject of dry weather, one of the more peculiar aspects of our culture is the habit of radio and TV reporters to say how awful it is when rain is forecast, and to suggest that weekends are ruined if they’re not sunny.

It may be time for radio and TV executives to call in their weather reporters, and tell them: ‘Look, when you’re giving a forecast, stop saying that rain will ruin the weekend.  Instead, if it’s going to rain, say how great that is, and what a wonderful thing it will be to see that water soak in.’

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Fifteen brave takers drove out of Castlemaine through a driving storm on Sunday the 18th for the first FOBIF walk of the year in the Fryers Forest. The storm lasted ten minutes, but the wind came and went all day, making for a blustery experience: and the Coliban channel is bordered with many wrecked trees, reminders of the epic winds which rampaged through this area earlier in the year.

Candlebarks on the Coliban channel: the channel hosts many exceptionally large eucalypts, especially Candlebark, Long-leaved Box, Stringybark and Manna Gums

The channel is a curiously contradictory experience. Picturesque and easy walking, the reserve lined with fine old eucalypts, Candlebarks and Manna gums being the standouts: but rampant blackberry and gorse infestations suggest that weed control is not a high priority for the water authority.

Next month’s walk takes in Brown’s Gully, one of the jewels of the Diggings Park. Check the program for details.

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FOBIF’s 2018 walks program kicks off next Sunday with a stroll around  the Coliban Main Channel, with a return through sections of the Fryers Nature Conservation Reserve and the state forest. Check the walks program for more details.