Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

If you’re crossing the Forest Street footbridge over Campbells Creek this month, you might want to cast your eye down to the downstream edge of the bridge. Those nondescript streaks of shades of green are colonies of three different moss species. The remarkable thing about this apparently ordinary scene is that council staff regularly come along here and scrape the moss off…and regularly it comes back, colonising an apparently inhospitable concrete surface. In its way, it’s a kind of heroism.

Council versus moss, now in its umpteenth season: Silver Moss and Cushion Moss regrowing after repeated removals…

The grey green moss is Bryum argenteum (Silver Moss). It’s common in Castlemaine streets, and is found on every continent on earth, including Antarctica. In a few weeks it will produce some picturesque spore capsules—but you’ll have to get down on your knees to see them properly. The deeper green is Grimmia pulvinata (Cushion Moss). It’s found from Siberia to the southern regions of Chile. Its spore heads are visible already.

Grimmia pulvinata with new spore capsules, Campbells Creek footbridge: it doesn’t matter how often it’s scraped off, it comes back as good as ever.

FOBIF’s field guide, Mosses of dry forests in south eastern Australia, has just been reprinted in a revised edition, including for the first time common names to go with those ferocious scientific tags. This guide, produced as an experiment in 2014, has proved tenaciously popular, and has now gone through 6 reprints.

Walkers on the newly opened section of the Campbells Creek track can’t fail to have noticed the substantial patches of flowering Hakea by the trackside. Hakea is a highlight of the track, and of the hillside on the side track leading up to Campbells Creek suburbia. When it’s in full flower, the aroma of honey in the air is unmistakeable.

Hakea decurrens (Bushy Needlewood) beside the newly opened section of the track, July 7: the aroma of honey is in the air.

The new section of track is a welcome improvement to this outstanding example of creek regeneration. And another welcome change: it’s proposed to change the name of the track to ‘Watjarang Baring’, meaning ‘Platypus Track’ in Dja Dja Wurrung language.

FOBIF is about to do a new edition of its Twenty Bushwalks in the Mount Alexander Region, incorporating several changes in on ground conditions, including the new Campbells Creek route and new Parks Victoria ventures in the Diggings Park.

The Loddon River is central to much of Central Victoria and the Northern Plains. As it has wended its way from the highlands to the Murray for countless millennia, it has shaped the land, its fauna and flora, the people (both First Nations and those that came after colonisation) and the history of all of the above.

Newstead Landcare is excited to announce that renowned local geologist, Clive Willman will take us on a journey through the deep history of this important river and its catchment. This is a story of cataclysmic upheavals and volcanoes. Clive will take us through the formation of the Guildford Plateau and the story of the deep deposits of gold that eventually upended the landscape. Don’t miss this remarkable story.

The presentation, organised by Newstead Landcare is on Tuesday June 17th at Newstead Community Centre at 7.30 pm. 

All are welcome to attend. Gold coin donations would be appreciated.

Clive Willman