Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

At the junction of the Old Coach Road and the Fryers Ridge Road there’s an old fenced area, about 200 metres square. The fence isn’t in bad shape, but has been knocked down in a couple of places by falling tree branches, and tussocks in the enclosed area are clearly being grazed. Otherwise the vegetation in the enclosure is in pretty good shape.

Who put Who put up the fence? When?

There have been a few initiatives in the past to protect patches of our bushland from overgrazing, mainly by sheep. One such was a proposal by Castlemaine Rotary in 1936 to establish wildflower sanctuaries around the shire. It seemed to run aground in the face of reluctance on the part of foresters to do anything about it. Could this fenced off area be the result of a community initiative which did get somewhere? We’d be interested in any informed answer.

It’s always good to have an excuse to mention Silver Banksias. This time it’s the fact that they’re flowering on the Campbells Creek track right now.

Readers will remember that the once abundant species was almost wiped out in this region. Populations have been re-established by the Friends of Campbell’s Creek, and by Castlemaine Landcare on Forest Creek.

When does it flower? Indigenous plants of Bendigo says between September and April. The Bendigo Field Naturalists’ Wildflowers of Bendigo says March to May. Leon Costermans  Native trees and shrubs says October to March. The Australian National Botanical Gardens says ‘can flower throughout the year, but mainly February to July.’ And they’ve been seen flowering on Forest Creek in January. That just about covers the options.

FOBIF’s guide to mosses of dry forests in south eastern Australia is being tabled at the International Bryological Congress in China this month as a model of public education efforts to bring scientific knowledge to the wider community. The presentation has been a joint effort, involving bryologists from Macquarie University, the botanical gardens at Canberra and Melbourne, and the South Australian herbarium. Our publication sits modestly with some pretty impressive efforts by educational and community groups, and we’re flattered.

The moss guide continues to sell well, and at the present rate we’ll be into a third edition next year.

The site of the 1851 Monster Meeting near the junction of Golden Point Road and the Pyrenees Highway has been placed on the state heritage register. The Monster Meeting is recognised as the first time workers had stood united in protest against the government. This meeting was the precursor to the Red Ribbon Rebellion (1853) and the Eureka Stockade (1854) which led to the introduction of the more democratic Miners Right.

Late FOBIF President Doug Ralph was a leading campaigner for the recognition of the importance of this protest, and it was a nice touch that the declaration was made on his birthday. Doug was adamant that concern for the environment did not preclude due respect for cultural history.

The monster meeting was notable for the eloquence of the speakers, and for its forceful yet peaceful conduct. In that sense the metal statue on the highway nearby is quite misleading in representing a miner brandishing a gun.

The exact site of the meeting is difficult to determine with certainty. The Heritage Committee decided that ‘by reference to comparative analysis of the documentary sources available, the recommended extent of registration includes the most likely location of the Shepherd’s hut, the most likely location of the dray which stood nearby and upon which speakers stood, and, on the evidence, enough land to accommodate the approximately 10,000 to 15,000 diggers who gathered on 15 December 1851 for the monster meeting…the Committee is confident that the land of the proposed registration includes the epicentre of the Monster Meeting site…’

This week the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change Lily D’Ambrosio joined Aboriginal Elders from the Dja Dja Wurrung community to hold a ceremony celebrating the return of traditional burning to their lands.

Cultural burns were conducted in two zones, one in the Greater Bendigo National Park, and the other in the Timor forest, near Maryborough. Both were patch burns, each in areas of 20 hectares; the places were chosen by Jaara elders for their cultural significance, and will be revisited with fire as necessary.

In advance of the two traditional burns, Dja Dja Wurrung Elders had visited both sites and granted their approval — Wednesday’s ceremony marked their return to the site to perform a ceremony of celebration.

The return of Aboriginal cultural burning to this region after a break of 170 years is a historic event, and fulfils part of the objectives of the Dja Dja Wurrung Country Plan: ‘Develop and trial a methodology for cultural burning on Dja Dja Wurrung Country that reduced threats to our living resources’ and ‘Increase the number of Dja Dja Wurrung Traditional Owners employed as project fire-fighters.’

The CEO of the Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation Rodney Carter said this week that “Our Elders are, rightfully, proud of the work our young leaders have done in their roles here with Forest Fire Management Victoria to return traditional burning to our lands.”

A healthy crowd of 35 people turned up to the FOBIF AGM on a bitter winter night last week to hear Brian Bainbridge talk on revegetation of Melbourne’s Merri Creek. Brian’s presentation was a model ecological narrative, focusing on efforts to reestablish local populations of Matted Flax Lily and Plains Yam Daisy. A feature of his talk was the account of increased community involvement connected to the revegetation efforts; and the audience was greatly intrigued and entertained by details of the involvement of the Blue Banded Bee in the process, and the construction of bee hotels to enhance this involvement.

The FOBIF committee was reelected, as follows:

President: Marie Jones; Vice President: Neville Cooper; Secretary: Naomi Raftery [on leave]; Treasurer: Lynette Amaterstein; Committee members: Frank Panter, Jeremy Holland, Bronwyn Silver, Bernard Slattery

Acting secretary Bernard Slattery reminded members that committee meetings are open to all members, and that FOBIF is pretty keen to see new participants in meetings. All meetings will from now on be advertised on this site a week in advance.

 

Fourteen heroic walkers braved bitter winds to do a 7 kilometre circuit in Faraday for FOBIF’s July walk on Sunday. The walk covered a section of the Coliban water race and adjacent lanes. Features included some magnificent Candlebarks and a large population of Narrow-leaved Peppermints, as well as cultural heritage in the form of interesting granite structures from the 19th century race.

Noel Young took the photos above. Click on each to enlarge.

August’s walk will be led by Richard Piesse through the Poverty Gully area. Check the walks section of this site for details.

…But we think it’s worth drawing attention to the upcoming Castlemaine Documentary film festival. The program can be found here.

In particular, The salt of the earth, Wim Wenders’ film about Brazilian photographer Sebastiano Salgado, is worth anyone’s attention. It’s on this coming Saturday afternoon. Salgado isn’t just a great photographer: he has serious environmental credentials. The trailer for the film can be found here.

What is four metres square, alive, and can reduce as much air pollution as 275 trees?

Answer: a Citytree,  ‘a vertical structure filled with moss cultures and other vascular plants that clean pollution from the air. The structure also contains sensors that are able to control all the moss cultures in real time, to let operators know if they have enough of water, nutrients and salt.’ Citytrees are being installed in Berlin and other places as part of a range of solutions to air pollution.

We don’t have them in Castlemaine, but we do have plenty of moss on our streets, at least in the cooler part of the year.

Street Moss is the subject of an exhibition about to open at Falkner Gallery, 35 Templeton Street, Castlemaine this week. The exhibition opening is on this Saturday (22 July) between 2 and 4 pm and the show runs from 20 July to 3 September 2017. The gallery is open each week between 11 am and 4 pm, Thursday to Sunday.

As we’ve previously reported, Vicforests is keen to open some forests on the margins of our area to renewed logging, including the Wellsford, a magnificent Ironbark forest north of Bendigo, and the Wombat, to our south.

An analysis of Vicforests’ proposal can be found here.

For a comment about logging the Wombat, see Gayle Osborne’s article in the latest Wombat Forestcare newsletter.

At first sight, plans to extend logging in the Wellsford seem to lack sense. A campaign to give this bush National Park status has been going on for some years, and has wide community support, including from the City of Greater Bendigo.

Written submissions will be accepted until 21 August 2017.

Community drop-in sessions are being held in regional locations during the submission period. Come and find out about the investigation and talk to VEAC about public land in and around the Wellsford forest, Wombat forest-Macedon Ranges, Hepburn area, Cobaw forest, and Mount Cole and the Pyrenees Range.

You are welcome to arrive and leave at any stage during the listed times.  Prior registration is not required. The nearest drop-in sessions to our region are:

Bendigo Library
Tuesday 18 July 2017, 3pm – 7pm
251-259 Hargreaves Street, Bendigo

Woodend Community Centre
Thursday 27 July 2017, 3pm – 7pm
High Street and Forest Street, Woodend

Daylesford Neighbourhood Centre
Tuesday 1 August 2017, 3pm – 7pm
13 Camp Road, Daylesford