Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

A curious feature of the Creekways Plan is its bland listing of ‘trees’ as one of the three main risks to humans from the creeks.

We all know trees can do a lot of damage when they fall or drop branches. You need to use your common sense when around old Red Gums, for example. But users of Forest and Campbells Creeks tracks in the last couple of months have been puzzled by what seems to be an amazing over reaction to this danger.

Blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon) cut down and painted near Forest creek: Blackwood are a long-lived species that have excellent timber. They typically do not drop limbs until very old (50 years plus). The pictured tree had no signs of any rotting and was located three metres from the edge of the track.. Photo and text: Karl Just

The photo above shows the kind of lopping which has been done along Forest and Campbell’s creeks. In many if not most cases it’s  hard to see the danger offered by the massacred trees. It’s also very clear that the kind of assessments which categorised these trees as dangerous paid no attention to their biodiversity role.

It’s a bizarre feature of our society that nature is very often seen as a menace out of all proportion to its real danger: so snakes are much more feared than motor cars. In the case of trees, a recent investigation found that in the ten years 2007-16 277 people died in Australia ‘struck by a thrown, projected or falling object’–presumably a small number of these would have been falling branches. In the same period 523 died falling out of bed. Figure that out.

Stinkwort choking the Colles Road footpath. This noxious weed appears to have been spread by council or Vicroads vehicles.

While this tree lopping was being done, the footpath linking the Forest Creek track to the Pennyweight cemetery was being overgrown (again) by Stinkwort (Dittrichia graveolens), more or less pushing people to walk on the road verge. A proper concern for safety might see footpath clearing, not hacking at small trees, as a priority.

And while we’re about it: as we’ve pointed out before, the roadsides of the shire are infested with this Stinkwort, very likely spread by council maintenance vehicles. This is a noxious weed, and under state law municipalities are required to ‘manage noxious weeds …on land they manage’. According to Ern Perkins’ Wild Plants of the Castlemaine District, Stinkwort ‘taints dairy products and meat, can cause stock death by poisoning and bowel damage by the fluffy seed heads, and can cause dermatitis in humans’.

Here’s another example of puzzling tree management, courtesy of Karl Just:

Prior to being pruned, this Silver Wattle was high quality habitat for the regionally rare Satin Azure butterfly, a small population of which occurs along Forest Creek. This butterfly species relies on an association with meat ants and Wire-leaf Mistletoe. The best habitat trees are wattles supporting mistletoe that have good access for the attendant ant species. This requires wattle branches that touch the ground next to meat ant nests, so that the ants can then easily access to the mistletoe in the upper branches where the butterfly larvae live. The pictured wattle was previously the best example of the wattle-ant association along Forest Creek but the weeping branches were removed, even though they posed no hazard. Photo and text: Karl Just

A new publication, Native plants and animals of the Chewton Bushlands, was launched on 17 March in the Tea Rooms of the Botanic Gardens. The authors are Karen Baker, Antoinette Birkenbeil and Hannah Nichols. Ian Higgins launched the guide with a speech that drew on his in-depth knowledge and experience with local regeneration and revegetation. Over 40 people attended the event. 

The guide is small in size but manages to cover 120 plants and 120 animals in its 144 pages. Although focussed on the Chewton Bushlands it will be a useful flora and fauna guide across the whole Mount Alexander Region. 

Attractively designed by local resident, Mark Carter, there are close to 200 images from 18 mainly local photographers. Leon Costermans drawings are also included. Funding for the guide was provided by the Mount Alexander Shire. If you would like a copy, contact Karen Baker on 0439 714 665, kamb@unimelb.edu.au

As Hanrahan might have said: ‘It’s dry all right’. A quick check of the map below will confirm what common observation has already registered: February was dry, and March so far hasn’t been much better. The 27 mls of welcome rain which fell this weekend hasn’t done much to change this picture.

And yet, there are signs of life. Many eucalypt species have been flowering through the dry, and currently it’s the turn of Long-leaved Box (Eucalyptus goniocalyx). The photo below was taken in an intriguing grove of very old trees planted along Farran Street. This species has a pretty sprawling habit normally, so it’s a bit of a mystery why they were planted along this roadway–but we can enjoy them all the same.

Long-leaved Box blossom on Farran Street Castlemaine: it’s dry all right, but there are signs of life about the place.

And while we’re on the subject of dry weather, one of the more peculiar aspects of our culture is the habit of radio and TV reporters to say how awful it is when rain is forecast, and to suggest that weekends are ruined if they’re not sunny.

It may be time for radio and TV executives to call in their weather reporters, and tell them: ‘Look, when you’re giving a forecast, stop saying that rain will ruin the weekend.  Instead, if it’s going to rain, say how great that is, and what a wonderful thing it will be to see that water soak in.’

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Fifteen brave takers drove out of Castlemaine through a driving storm on Sunday the 18th for the first FOBIF walk of the year in the Fryers Forest. The storm lasted ten minutes, but the wind came and went all day, making for a blustery experience: and the Coliban channel is bordered with many wrecked trees, reminders of the epic winds which rampaged through this area earlier in the year.

Candlebarks on the Coliban channel: the channel hosts many exceptionally large eucalypts, especially Candlebark, Long-leaved Box, Stringybark and Manna Gums

The channel is a curiously contradictory experience. Picturesque and easy walking, the reserve lined with fine old eucalypts, Candlebarks and Manna gums being the standouts: but rampant blackberry and gorse infestations suggest that weed control is not a high priority for the water authority.

Next month’s walk takes in Brown’s Gully, one of the jewels of the Diggings Park. Check the program for details.

Continue reading →

FOBIF’s 2018 walks program kicks off next Sunday with a stroll around  the Coliban Main Channel, with a return through sections of the Fryers Nature Conservation Reserve and the state forest. Check the walks program for more details.

FOBIF has completed a preliminary report on its project to control Needlegrasses in Castlemaine. These weeds—related to Serrated Tussock— threaten to cause serious damage to pastures and native environments. They were probably introduced into Victoria from the 1930s, and have the potential to dramatically reduce land value because infestations reduce stock carrying capacity on farmland.

FOBIF gained a small grant from the Mount Alexander Shire to attack the needlegrass problem in 2017. Over the last twelve months project has involved a FOBIF coordinator,  19 volunteers who dug up and removed the weed, one paid weed remover, numerous other residents, council and DELWP staff, as well as landcare groups and Connecting Country.

Progress of the project is shown on the map. The volunteer commitment to further monitoring and removal will continue.

Please note that this is a revised version of the map that was posted on February 2.

The project has been a learning experience. A promising experiment has been made with control via woodchip mulching, and much has been learned about the identification and life cycle of the weeds, and how they spread. It seems very clear that Needlegrass can be spread when infested areas are mown or slashed. Seeds attach to the mower, and unless this is cleaned it spreads the seeds when it  moves on to its next job. It’s important therefore that infested areas are clearly identified, and not mown till the weeds and/ or their seeds are removed. Council workers have been increasingly helpful in this respect, but it seems that a more systematic approach to managing roadsides is needed. Not only do council staff need to be well informed about roadside weeds and control methods, but private citizens—residents and contract mowers—need to be better informed about ways to avoid spreading pests.

Roadsides are a long term and ongoing challenge: FOBIF has had occasion before to draw attention to the spread of weeds via dirty machinery, and we notice recent outbreaks of St John’s Wort along roadsides which may have come in this way. We hope that projects like the Needlegrass one will improve cooperation between managers and environmentalists, with better results in the future.

In the meantime, our thanks go to our modest coordinator and the other volunteers for the enormous amount of work they have put into this project.

Sorry folks: at some point in the production of the newsletter posted to members this week our walks program became scrambled. The details of the April and May walks became inextricably mixed up, making for an interesting geographical challenge to anyone trying to make sense of the routes in question.

Our apologies to readers and to the relevant walk leaders. The correct version of the program can be found under the walks heading on this site. We suggest for those who use a paper program that they print off this corrected version.

The FOBIF committee wishes all friends of our forests a happy Christmas and a great new year. Our 2018 walks program will soon be available. We’ll see you in the bush in the new year!

And on a sadder note: it’s farewell to the Castlemaine [Windarring] Copy Centre, closing for good tomorrow. The Centre has been giving FOBIF — and the community– efficient and cheerful service for many years. We wish the staff well in their new roles.

A Christmas hero: this Mitchell’s Wattle blooms in the middle of the Fryers Ridge Road, December 2017