Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

Elaine Bayes and Damien Cook who led our last FOBIF walk in Chewton have produced two terrific youtube videos:’Frogs and their Calls’  and ‘Frogs and their Habitats’. The information is well presented and relevant to our local area. Each goes for about 30 minutes. Click on each image below to view.

Muckleford Landcare has organised an excursion for November 14 which will take in Mount Gaspard and the Muckleford Gorge. FOBIF members might remember a fascinating walk we had in the Muckleford Gorge in 2011. The following text is taken from the Muckleford Landcare website:

There are still a few places left on the bus next Saturday for our geology excursion.

This should be a fascinating and revealing experience. Our first stop will be the summit of Mount Gaspard at the north of the valley. Mount Gaspard is on private land and the view is immense. Thanks to the generosity of the Huzzey family we will have access to a spectacular panorama of the whole valley and its larger geological setting.

We will travel down the Chinaman’s Creek valley until it connects with the main Muckleford valley and then follow the famous and significant Muckleford Fault south until we conclude our journey at the Muckleford Gorge. Once again we will have access to private land to view this beautiful and surprising place and for that privilege we thank the Garsed family.

To find out more about the day click here.

Frank Forster took this photo of the Muckleford Gorge on the FOBIF walk in 2011. Unfortunately with the current drought we are unlikely to see much flow this year.

The Guildford Progress Association has received news that their concerns about the proposed work on The Big Tree have been heeded. The following is an excerpt from a recent letter to the Association from the Shire:

Due to the continued concerns of the Guildford Progress Association regarding the arboricultural works proposed by Council on “The Big Tree”, I wish to inform you that these works have been postponed.

 Council has commissioned an independent arboricultural assessment of the tree.  The consultant will provide Council with a report and any recommended works.  I will ensure that the Guildford Progress Association is kept informed of any intended works on or at the site of “The Big Tree”.

We will keep you informed about any further developments on this issue.

Whatever its merits, VEAC’s draft report on heritage places is notable for one baffling deficiency: its failure to consider landscape as a heritage ‘place’. More specifically, it’s clear that the Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park is considered, in this report, to be a collection of mining sites, not a landscape.

How can we tell this?

Table 2.2 of the document lists heritage places by type. ‘Landscape’ is declared to have only one sample of this type. What is it? To find out, we go to Appendix 2, where the only example listed is Tower Hill State Game Reserve.

How has VEAC, whose responsibility has largely been in environmental matters, managed to exclude landscape from its considerations?

The answer is to be found on page 30, in a discussion of Indigenous views:  ‘It is important to note that although VEAC’s focus is on the management of specific places on public land, Traditional Owners customarily have a broader view that every part of the landscape is of significance, including landforms and the whole landscape itself, not only those places where associations are evident or documented.’

It seems that VEAC hasn’t been able to adopt something like this broader view itself. It looks like the Diggings Park, as a landscape, has slipped into the too hard basket.

This is a curious deficiency. The Park is described by Parks Victoria as ‘the largest non-indigenous protected cultural landscape in Australia.’ Its National Heritage listing, bland though it is, offers this: ‘Situated within regenerating box-ironbark forest, the mining remains and habitation sites immediately convey to the visitor a feeling of passed [sic] ways of working and living. The great number and extent of remains reinforces to the visitor the historical significance of the goldfield. The degree of alteration of, and intervention in, the natural landscape makes a strong impression on visitors. The Castlemaine diggings are a place of strong aesthetic significance. The attributes include the wide expanses of regenerating box-ironbark forest, the landforms of hills, ridges, gullies, creeks and rivers, together with the multitude of mining and habitation remains…’ The Victorian Heritage listing says: ‘The land and its regenerating Box-Ironbark forest is important scientific evidence in its own right in demonstrating a spectacular event of transformation of the pre-gold rush environment.’

Why does all this matter? Continue reading →

1. In the first session (November 5) Andrew will present ‘beautiful and fascinating recordings from wild places around the world’. Andrew gave a similar presentation in the Castlemaine library earlier this year but this time he will concentrate more on our local birdlife, and show how their vocalisations illustrate patterns of birdsong evolution. Have a look at this flyer to find out more. 
2.  Andrew is now offering workshops in nature sound recording. They are pitched at beginners, but once he knows what people want to cover he can be as specific as required. The first weekend workshop will take place on 28/29th November out at Newstead.  Click here for more information.