Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

Since 2013, Connecting Country, local Landcare, and other community groups have organised a free ‘Camp Out on the Mount’ event on Leanganook/Mount Alexander. This year, to reduce the risk of having to cancel or reschedule, they have decided to jump the gun, get creative and plan for a virtual ‘Camp Out on the Mount’.

When: 3 – 18 April 2021
Where: Online at www.connectingcountry.org.au/landcare/camp-out-on-the-mount-2021/

Asha Bannon, Mount Alexander Region Landcare Facilitator, says, “We hope to capture the ‘Camp Out on the Mount’ spirit by encouraging everyone to engage with our special ‘Camp Out 2021’ web pages, and inviting you to contribute to our ‘Camp Out Collage’.”

Each web page focuses on one of the elements that make the Camp Out special: ‘Camping out’ (of course!), ‘Caring for the land’, ‘Loving Leanganook’, and ‘Connecting with Indigenous culture’.

For each contribution you make to the ‘Camp Out Collage’ you will be entered into the draw to win one of several special prizes (maximum four entries per person), including a nest box, tubestock plants, and a native plants book bundle. Please note that you are only eligible to win the prizes if you live in Australia, and some of the prizes (such as the nest box and plants) will only be available for properties in the Mount Alexander region (central Victoria).

Anyone and everyone is welcome to participate, so hop online and join the fun! If you have any questions, please contact asha@connectingcountry.org.au

This event was made possible by the Victorian Landcare Facilitator Program, funded by the Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water, and Planning.

The FOBIF geology tour will still take place today despite the rain. For people who have registered we are meeting at 9,30 at the Community House. 

Is public land management governed by science? Or is it by a chaotic mix of politics, self interest and old habits?

Let’s not by cynical about this, and see what researchers on public land are finding out. This week the Victorian Environment Assessment Council is running a series of five-minute talks, by twenty postgraduate students, public land managers and scientists who conduct research on public land. The talks will take place from 10 am to 12.30 pm next Tuesday March 23.

This symposium is part of VEAC’s program of online events throughout 2021 that celebrate the 50th anniversary of VEAC and its predecessors. To register go to https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/science-into-management-research-on-victorias-public-land-registration-140720664295

This event is being co-sponsored by the Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research, Museums Victoria, the Royal Society of Victoria, and the Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability, Victoria.

The announcement of a new year of fuel reduction activity by DELWP provokes the usual thoughts: will the program be effective in actually reducing fuel? Will it be properly monitored? Will there be negative effects environmentally and economically (over-hot burns, smoke damage to wine grapes, etc)?

In that context, it’s worth drawing attention to the growing interest in indigenous cultural burning, and in particular to the Victorian traditional owner cultural fire strategy, produced by the traditional owner cultural fire knowledge group. You can find this 28 page document online here.

The six principles outlined in the document are as follows: 

1. Cultural Burning is Right Fire, Right Time, Right Way and for the right (cultural) reasons according to Lore. There are different kinds of cultural fire practices guided by Lore applicable across Victoria’s Countries.
2. Burning is a cultural responsibility. Traditional Owners lead the development and application of fire practice on Country; the responsibilities and authority of Traditional Owners are recognised and respected.
3. Cultural fire is living knowledge. Aboriginal fire knowledge is shared for continual learning and adaptive management. Traditional Owners will work together on each other’s Country to heal Country and guide practice development. Knowledge and practice are shared.
4. Monitoring, evaluation and research support cultural objectives and enable adaptive learning. MER will be used to build a body of evidence that allows cultural burning to occur and grow.
5. Country is managed holistically. Traditional Owners manage Country holistically to address multiple values and objectives, healing both Country and culture. Partnership arrangements and management objectives are tailored to each regional and cultural landscape context. This includes analysis of the tenure, regulatory and operational arrangements to support cultural fire application, other beneficial Indigenous management practices, together with a process of learning to continuously improve planning, management and action.
6. Cultural Fire is healing. There are substantial positive impacts to Traditional Owner wellbeing and confidence through providing access and authority to practice on Country.

The whole of this document is worth an attentive reading. The authors acknowledge that the strategy has limitations: ‘Traditional Owners have limited authority, resources and capacity to develop and apply cultural fire practices on Country according to the principles described in the strategy.’ Therein lies a particularly interesting challenge.

We have taken some of photos from the new Native Pea book and made them into greeting cards with detailed species notes on the back. They are now available in a set of 8 with envelopes for $20.

The cards and our field guide, Native Peas of the Mount Alexander Region, are now available at Stoneman’s Bookroom, the Tourist Information Centre, the EnviroShop in Newstead and the Book Wolf in Maldon  Or see the links on the right hand side of this page to purchase directly from FOBIF.

In what might be a world record short time between announcement and cancellation, FOBIF has been forced to call off its Zoom launch of Native Peas of the Mount Alexander Region.

The timed launch clashed with an important Connecting Country event on farm dams, and we were reluctant to interfere with this program.

Further, COVID 19 restrictions on attendance, the upcoming Castlemaine State Festival, and Easter, have all conspired to drastically limit the number of possible windows of opportunities for a launch…so we’ve decided to abandon the idea altogether. Our apologies for any inconvenience to members.

However, you can still buy the book: it’s available at the usual outlets from tomorrow [Thursday 10 March]. And Ian Higgins will be giving his talk on native peas at the FOBIF AGM later in the year, when, hopefully, we’ll be able to gather in reasonable numbers in the same place!

‘Native pea plants in the bush: they’re hard to see when they’re not in flower, and hard to miss when they are. They’re spectacular, but it’s hard to deny that they’re very occasionally hard to identify. The good news is that a solution to the ID problem is at hand…

Launch is now cancelled. Check out this post for information about the cancellation and how to buy the new book.

FOBIF’s latest publication, Native Peas of the Mount Alexander Region, will be launched via Zoom on Thursday March 18 at 7.30 pm. Covid 19 restrictions have unfortunately prevented us from staging our preferred launch, with real physical presences…The book will be launched by Ian Higgins, one of the region’s most noted ecologists.

To register for the launch email us at info@fobif.org.au

The guide will be available for sale immediately after the launch, from the usual local outlets–Stoneman’s Bookroom, Castlemaine Visitor Centre, the Enviro Shop Newstead and The Book Wolf in Maldon. It will also be available by order from this website, and other outlets in Melbourne and interstate. The recommended retail price is $10.00.

There are now 25 people booked into our FOBIF geology tour led by Clive Willman on March 21. If you would still like to come contact us (info@fobif.org.au) and we will put on the waiting list.