Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

FOBIF has undertaken the production of a field guide to local Acacias, modelled on its guide to local Eucalypts. Like the Eucalypt guide it will be directed at beginners, and will be generously illustrated with photos to help identification.

The project is a tribute to the work of the late Ern Perkins, a fundamental figure in field naturalist studies in this region for many decades. At the launch of the Eucalypt guide last September Ern, though in frail health, was heard to declare, ‘Now for a wattle guide.’ The current project will start from the many leaflets and guides Ern produced over the years.

The wattle project is financed by FOBIF, and supported by donations from Connecting Country and the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria. It is supported by Castlemaine FNC and local landcare and Friends groups.

We thank members for their generous donations this year.  These funds will go towards the development and publication of the Wattle guide

Publication is set for April 2018.

FOBIF has written to the Mount Alexander Shire asking for a meeting to discuss the Council’s plans on roadside vegetation [see our Post]

Our concerns relate to work in progress maps we have seen which seem to completely overlook some ecologically important roads in the shire.

The relevant parts of the letter follow:

‘We understand that Council is preparing a planning scheme amendment to insert a Vegetation Protection Overlay (VPO) on some roadsides into the planning scheme.  We congratulate the Council on this project which aims to protect some of the Shire’s valuable flora.

‘However we are deeply concerned that the VPO mapping we have seen excludes many Shire roadsides with valuable flora, including Victorian-classified threatened species and locally rare species.

‘We have some questions about how the VPO has been planned, and the criteria for selecting roads, and so are requesting a meeting with the relevant Council staff to help us understand the methods used and to help get the best outcome for the project.  We think it would be useful to seek more input from other local environment groups, some of which have expert local knowledge of roadside flora.

‘From our previous experience with planning scheme amendments, we think it is vital to be able to have meaningful input before the amendment is exhibited, as once exhibited, any changes normally have to be re-exhibited.’

Of course, production of documents is one thing: they are only useful, however, if the material in them is persuasively presented to the public, and if council is prepared to follow up by paying close attention to what is actually happening on the roadsides. This is no easy task, of course.

This exercise is no trivial matter. Roadsides really do matter. As the Victorian Environment Assessment Council puts it: road reserves ‘support a significant proportion of native vegetation in Victoria’s fragmented landscapes. These linear reserves make a major contribution to ecological connectivity and in some landscapes provide key habitat for many species.’

 

On Sunday 7 May more than thirty people gathered to launch some new interpretive signage of Forest Creek. Part of the signage design can be seen in the photo here taken at the Monster Meeting site and we encourage people to have a look at this and the other two other signage sites at Chinamans Point and Expedition Pass. A tremendous amount or work and community consultation has gone into this project with terrific results. 

You can find a full account of the launch and more photos on the Chewton net facebook page. 

Our FOBIF Flickr site now has some stunning photos on this year’s exhibition theme, Mountains and Waterways. The exhibition dates have been moved to August/September but there is still plenty of time to send in your photos.

Details of how to be part of the exhibition either through Flickr or your photographs being chosen to be hung at TOGS Cafe can be found here. The closing date for photos is now 1 August 2017 and the show will run from 24 August to 28 September. If you have any queries about submitting photos, contact Bronwyn on 54751089 or bsilver@mmnet.com.au.

Teana Amor has just completed a film, ‘Doug Ralph Celebration Day‘, which is available through YouTube. This is a comprehensive film about the day people came together in the Botanic Gardens on 7 March 2015 to remember Doug who was the founding president of Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests. It includes the many speeches, crowd scenes, photos of Doug and has a great musical accompaniment. 

A 2015 FOBIF post on Doug’s life can be found here