Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

FOBIF has made a number of specific suggestions in its submission to the MAS Shire council draft environment strategy. Readers will remember we criticised the draft strategy for being abstract and general…tending to waffle, in fact.

The substance of the FOBIF submission is set out below:

‘We understand that a strategy designed to direct council activities for 10 years should be general and flexible enough to accommodate changed circumstances. Nevertheless, we are disappointed by the extreme vagueness of parts of the document.

Green waste dumped near Morgan’s Track: green rubbish is potentially more harmful than other types because of its capacity to spread. We suggest that Council should check out specific ways of reducing this problem.

‘We would like to make the following points:

1. ‘On pages 10 and 12 reference is made to the ESD [‘ecologically sustainable development’] leadership, the ESD team, and the Council’s Green Team. Who are they? The fact that these terms are not defined makes the authority structure of the document quite vague.

2. ‘Page 11: Council leadership by example: ‘appropriate ecotechnologies such as LED streetlights, and using Council’s unique statutory responsibilities to further ESD aims e.g. rate rebates for properties with a conservation covenant in place.’

‘We believe such aims need to be carefully thought through in the detail. For example, we would suggest that rate rebates should be considered for any landholder with positive conservation practices. The singling out of covenanted properties is certain to create counterproductive social tension, and would effectively penalise farmers with good land management practices.

Continue reading →

Looking for  a few new ideas tossed up in good company?

The 2015 Mount Alexander Landcare Forum and Dinner will be held at the Campbells Creek Community Centre on Friday 19 June from 3.00 pm.

The program is as follows:

–3:00pm Welcome

–3:30pm Agroforestry & Landcare – A productive partnership? With Ben Boxshall from the Northern United Forestry Group and Wood 4 Good.

–Afternoon Tea

–4:30pm Applying Indigenous Fire Knowledge to Pasture management With Brendon Kennedy, Indigenous Facilitator from the North East CMA

–5:30pm Saving the Silver Banksias of Baynton Sidonia With Clare Claydon from Baynton Sidonia Landcare Group

–6:15pm Dinner and presentation on The Lake Bolac Eel Festival & Healing Walk with Una Allender & Brett Clarke – who will be performing some of his own songs at the forum.

The event is free to Landcare members and $10 for non members. RSVP to Max Schlachter by June 12 at max@connectingcountry.org.au or 5472 1594m

The weather on Sunday (17th May) was perfect for our FOBIF walk into the Nuggetty Range. Thirty-three people came along and it was good to see some newcomers to FOBIF on the walk.

Walkers enjoying the sun and morning tea at a high point on the Range.

The group was ably led by geologist, Brian Cuffley, who had prepared maps and an introductory handout. The Nuggetty Range, he explained

is part of the metamorphic aureole surrounding the Harcourt Granite to the north. The granite has heated and hardened the slate and sandstone bedrock and has produced a hard flinty rock called hornfels. Hornfels is very resistant to erosion, thus it has formed a range about the granite which has weathered away more rapidly.

This rock from the Nuggetty Gold Mine shows the contact between granite (right) and hornsfel (left).

Looking into the Nuggetty Gold Mine.

From the Nuggetty Gold Mine, the walk continued in a westerly direction to the lunch spot at the Rock of Ages (Mt Moorul). This location also had a terrific scenic outlook. Walkers then proceeded along the Rock of Ages Track to the beginning point on the corner of Church Street and Davies Lane, Maldon.

Our next walk will be led by Bernard Slattery in the Goughs Range. See walks page for more info.

Walkers along the Moonlight Creek edge of Kalimna Park in the last week have been puzzled by the fact that DELWP seems to have gone to a lot of trouble to protect a mountain of blackberries from its recent management burn. This involved carving a fire break around the area, about 50 metres long, and grooming surrounding areas of vegetation.

The mountain of blackberries is more than it seems, however: it conceals–or mostly conceals–a nineteenth century ruin, with adjacent orchard. Looked at with that in mind, it’s quite an evocative sight.

You could walk past it and see only blackberries, but it’s actually a historic site, probably dating from the 1870s. The wall of the ruin is to the right.

FOBIF had assumed that after the fire exercise had been finished, Parks Victoria would go back and remove the blackberries from the ruin. This is not the case: it’s a depressing fact that the weed is being left there, because it is seen as a deterrent to vandals who might be inclined to come and steal stone from the building.

This isn’t great news, given that there’s a big infestation of blackberry in nearby Moonlight Creek, and this particular weed has expanded its range dramatically since the breaking of the drought. But there’s logic in the managers’ position. Vandalism, in the form of graffiti on historic sites, and removal of relics and building materials, is an international problem. And, believe it or not, weeds have some kind of a record in protecting historic sites: as an example, an Aboriginal stone arrangement in the Western District was protected for many years by an infestation of thistles!