Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

The inaugural Annual General Meeting of the BirdLife Castlemaine District Branch will be held on 27 October. This historic occasion includes a presentation by local bird expert and photographer, Geoff Park, and a short guided bird walk.

BirdLife Castlemaine AGM and Geoff Park presentation
Saturday 27 October, 2018 at 2.00 pm
Campbells Creek Community Centre, 45 Elizabeth St, Campbells Creek VIC

Interested people can nominate for the committee. Positions vacant are Chair, Secretary, Treasurer and three general committee members. Nomination forms and proxy voting forms can be obtained by emailing castlemaine@birdlife.org.au or by phoning Judy Hopley (Acting Secretary) on 5472 1156. Nominations will be accepted at the meeting.

The Allure of Fungi by Alison Pouliot has recently been published by the CSIRO.  

Alison’s press release:

“Although relatively little known, fungi provide the links between the terrestrial organisms and ecosystems that underpin our functioning planet.

A few weeks ago we included a post on The Victorian Environment Assessment Council draft report on its Central West Investigation.

The report recommended that a significant part of the Wombat forest be included in a new Wombat-Lerderderg National Park. A further recommendation was that the western part of the Wellsford State Forest be absorbed into the Bendigo Regional Park, and the eastern and northern section of the forest be created as a nature reserve. The main impact of these latter changes would be the protection of the Wellsford from logging. Readers will remember that Vicforests was proposing renewed logging in this magnificent box ironbark area.

Although the report does not directly cover the Mount Alexander shire we think that it is important for as many people as possible to forward written submissions supporting the positive features of the report.

The closing date for submissions has been extended from 31 October to Monday 10 December.

It’s spring! Wildflowers are a bit slow to emerge this year, but there are signs–plenty of orchids, for example. And we can always hope, though it’s been dry, and doesn’t look like it’s going to improve. Here’s the Bureau of Meteorology predictions on the chances of above average rainfall to November:

The recent VEAC Central West report puts it this way: ‘As with most of Victoria, the Central West Investigation area has already experienced some effects of climate change. For example, since the 1950s average annual rainfall in the investigation area has declined by 100 to 200 millimetres and average temperatures have increased by approximately 1.2 to 1.4 degrees. These trends are projected to continue with more hot days, increased fire weather and more frequent extreme weather events.’