Final 2022 FOBIF walk

Posted on 17 October, 2022 by fobif

A sizeable group attended the last FOBIF walk of the year in a remote part of Fryers Range State Forest. Starting at Sugarbag Track, Alex Panelli led the group for 5 km of off track walking. The understory had an abundance of wildflowers and highlights included finding Brown-clubbed Spider Orchids, Plumed Greenhoods and a small waterfall that had benefitted from recent rains. 

Waterfall (Bronwyn Silver)

Plumed Greenhood Pterostylis plumosa (Bronwyn Silver) Brown-clubbed Spider Orchid Caladenia parva (Euan Moore)

We saw flowers of every colour of the rainbow, plus some!
RED – Downy Grevillea;
ORANGE – Dwarf Bush-pea;
YELLOW – Gold-dust and Hedge Wattles, Erect Guinea-flower, Yam Daisy (Myrnong), Primrose Goodenia, and Handsome Flat-pea;
GREEN – Plumed Greenhood and Greencomb Spider-orchids;
VIOLET – Wax-lip Orchid and Native Violet;
PURPLE – Rough Mint-bush;
MAGENTA – Pink Bells;
PALE PINK – Pink Beard-heath and Pink Fingers (orchid);
CREAM – Creamy Candles and Red Box:
WHITE – Early Nancies, Common Beard-Heath, Caladenia (orchid) and Fairy Wax-flower.
List compiled by Frances Cincotta

Thank to Alex for planning and leading the walk;  Frances Cincotta and others for help with plant identification; and Euan Moore, Liz Martin and Bronwyn Silver for photos.  

The 2023 walks program will be sent to FOBIF members and posted on the website in January.

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Great Southern Bioblitz

Posted on 17 October, 2022 by fobif

The Great Southern Bioblitz on iNaturalist runs from midnight on Thursday 27th October to midnight on 31st October. The idea is for the community to capture as many records (photo or sound recording) of life forms in the wild i.e. no farm animals and pets, people or garden plants; within our region.  Our region is Mt Alexander Shire and the eastern half of Hepburn Shire so extends south to the Great Divide near Daylesford. Observations must be made within the dates but can be loaded to iNaturalist and have identifications confirmed up until 13th November.  Once the identifications have been confirmed the records flow through to Atlas of Living Australia where they are available for research purposes.

The whole idea is to get people out looking and recording the natural world around them and to have fun at the same time. Things can get competitive as different people try to make more observations than their peers. There is also a friendly competitive element between the different regions taking part.

You can find out more about GSB22 here and here. Our local project is here.

Local training session
On Wednesday 19th from 7pm – 9pm Euan Moore will be running a training session for anyone who wants to take part in the GSB or simply wants to learn more about the iNaturalist platform. This will be at the introductory level and provide enough information to enable people to load sightings and identify the sightings made by others. If anyone wants to come along please email Euan at calamanthus5@bigpond.com

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Houses, people, nature

Posted on 16 October, 2022 by fobif

In case you missed it: the Mount Alexander Shire is doing a housing and neighbourhood character study for the townships of Castlemaine, Campbells Creek and Chewton.

It’s looking for your input. The date for submissions is Sunday November 6. You can find the details here

The population of the shire is expected to rise from 20,253 to 24,316 by 2041, more than half of them in those three townships.

Obviously there is a tangle of complicated issues here: heritage, environment, social justice, natural hazards in the form of fire and flood, …We believe it’s important not to be intimidated by the apparent complexities, however. There are some things which are worth emphasising.

First:  MASC’s Council Plan 2021-5 states as its objective ‘Our community is growing in harmony with nature.’ [FOBIF emphasis] Pressure for more housing can make this objective a hard one to keep, and it’s worth a submission just to underline community support for biodiversity, and a housing policy which works with it, not against it.

Secondly: State planning policy recommends ‘Directing population growth and development to low risk locations’. [FOBIF emphasis] Australia has an unfortunate history of challenging nature to do its worst, as the 2020 Royal Commission pointed out, when it noted, ‘Currently, all states permit homes to be built in bushfire and flood prone areas, and the degree to which planning or building standards act to mitigate risk varies across jurisdictions’. It’s worth putting in a submission urging development to be centred on safe areas not requiring destruction of bushland.

These two themes are linked, of course.

The Shire wants to know what you think: have a go!

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Grevillea obtecta talk and walk cancelled

Posted on 14 October, 2022 by fobif

Castlemaine Field Naturalists have informed us that the planned Grevillea obtecta talk and investigation walk planned for tonight and tomorrow have unfortunately had to be cancelled. Readers looking around them will not be surprised to find that the reason for the cancellation is that Georgie Custance is unable to make it to Castlemaine because of flood blockages on the roads. Our apologies.

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The way things used to be?

Posted on 10 October, 2022 by fobif

Here’s a good reason to make it into the Bendigo CBD: go to the library! OK, there are libraries elsewhere in the region, but the one in the CBD has a trump card right now. It’s an aquarium, more than three metres wide, celebrating Bendigo Creek: not the gutter prominent in the city, but the creek as might have been…and could be? The aquarium features more than a dozen species of native freshwater creatures, and is a bit of a wonder.

Part of the aquarium celebrating Bendigo Creek…the view is even better under the water.

The creek’s history is an environmental horror story: if you haven’t seen it, check out the late Gerry Gill’s short history in his ‘The map and remembrance’ film series. You can find it here or here.

Gerry’s film compare’s the idyllic images we have of the creek before the gold rush with the depredations of the golden age, and celebrates the efforts of landcarers and managers trying to restore the creek. The aquarium is not only an eye opener for what it shows of under water life, it offers a bit more motivation to ‘care for country’.

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