Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

FOBIF has written to Vicroads regarding its September update on the Pyrenees highway project. Part of this update reads: ‘A reduction of the speed zone would not lead to a decrease in the amount of barrier treatments used in this instance. The impact of an errant vehicle with a roadside hazard (tree, power pole) at 80 kmh can still lead to a serious injury or fatality. The Installation of safety barriers provides the safest option.’

Pyrenees Highway between Newstead and Green Gully: is this stretch of road safer at speed than the Midland?

Our questions are:

1. Does this statement imply that there is no difference in the likelihood or nature of a run off road accident at 80 kph, compared to 100 kph? If so, it would seem to contradict campaigns like the ‘wipe off five’ campaign.

2. We understand that recent limit reductions on the Midland Highway between Castlemaine and Harcourt and on the Pyrenees between Chewton and Tunnel Hill were made for safety reasons. Does Vicroads believe that the stretch of road between Green Gully and Newstead is more manageable at speed than those two stretches of road?

3. Are we to understand from this document that plans for vegetation management are the same as originally proposed?

We’ll publish Vicroads reply when it comes./.

Fathers interested in taking their children for bushwalks this year might be interested in the Bendigo Dads Walking Group. The group goes out on a ‘Walk-Explore-Share-Play-Discover-Talk-Connect on a weekly kid’s adventure’. There are about 30 walks a year, on Sundays from 9.30 to 12.30, and many of the routes are in the Castlemaine region. For more details click here…Or email bendigodadswalkinggroup@gmail.com

FOBIF’s 2017 walks program will be mailed to members around the end of this month. Walks start on the third Sunday in March.

The Wombat Forest is our southern neighbour, but a very different environment from the drier forests and woodlands of our region. If you want to keep informed about the great qualities of the Wombat, you should check out the Wombat Forestcare Newsletter.

The latest issue contains a beginners guide to that frustrating subject, egg-and-bacon plants, great items on bird life and a terrifically interesting argument, ‘Reconsidering commonness’. This article persuasively hammers the point that our concern for rare and endangered species shouldn’t make us indifferent to the fate of common species: ‘Common species often represent the more hardy or adaptable species in an ecosystem so when they start to dramatically decline, it might indicate that something is seriously wrong. While common species often comprise a relatively small proportion of overall species richness, they usually contribute greatly to the structure, biomass and dynamics of ecosystems. Moreover, when habitats are burnt, fragmented, degraded or otherwise damaged or lost, it is common species that often suffer most.’

Check it out online here.

FOBIF’s field guide to the eucalypts of the Mount Alexander Region has sold out its print run of 800 copies in two months, and a reprint edition is now available.

The reprint contains some minor changes, but the most significant addition to it is a dedication to its co-author, Ern Perkins, who died in early November.  The dedication reads

This book is dedicated to the memory of Ern Perkins
teacher, botanist, field naturalist
(1934-2016)

Ern was a great supporter of the eucalypt project from the beginning. Without his knowledge of the genus, and his amazing familiarity with the location of different species in different corners of the region, the book would never have been finished. He overcame serious health problems to come on numerous excursions around the district in search of good tree specimens, and his enthusiasm and good humour never failed him.

Ern’s contributions to the understanding of the natural history of the region were numerous. He was an inspiration to many in the district, and we urge any who have not already done so to read Chris Timewell’s obituary for him (and related links) on the Connecting Country website.

Ern and Lesley Perkins checking out a Candlebark with Bronwyn Silver at Green Gully, Winter 2016

Want to have a say on the way heritage is presented in the Diggings Park? Have a go at doing the Parks Victoria survey. It only takes a few minutes, and your answers might tilt the balance of the way the park is presented.  You have until midnight this coming Wednesday November 30 to do it.

The questions are mainly straightforward—perhaps the crunch question is number 13: ‘Information signage in Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park currently focuses on its important mining heritage. Are there other themes, stories or aspects of the park that should also be told?’

As we’ve said before, one of the problems with the presentation of goldfields heritage is that it doesn’t give due weight to the environmental impact of mining. For that reason, perhaps a good response to question 13 might be something like this:

The problem is not that the focus is on mining heritage: the problem is that this heritage is presented with virtually no emphasis on the destructive effects of mining, even though these are staring us in the face in the form of the total destruction of almost all the waterways in the park: these eroded gullies, and hillsides stripped of soil, are also ‘heritage’.

…But it’s your say: have a go!

FOBIF has received a note from DELWP confirming receipt of our fire submission (see post below). They advise us that the rezoning of Expedition Pass as an Asset Protection zone was a ‘mapping error”.

The area has now been restored to its previous status as a Landscape Management zone.

We’re a bit at a loss for words. We’ll comment in more detail on this and related matters after we meet with fire managers in December.

Extract of letter to FOBIF from West Central Risk Landscape Team:

As a result of your comments, the zoning at Expedition Pass reservoir near Castlemaine has been reinstated as Landscape Management Zone.  While the change was a mapping error, we acknowledge and apologise for the concerns this has caused within your organisation.

Please find attached updated maps of the proposed fire management zones in the Castlemaine – Maldon area.

North Castlemaine, updated map 17 November 2017
Castlemaine, updated map 17 November 2017
Maldon, updated map 17 November 2017

FOBIF has made a submission to the latest round of fire consultations [see our November 3 Post]. Essentially the submission criticises the zonings around Expedition Pass and the Loddon River, questions the size of some of the zones, and raises [again] the neglect of systematic fuel management on private land. FOBIF representatives will meet with DELWP early in December to discuss these concerns.

The substance of the submission is set out below [zone references can be understood by reference to the map at this link]:

***

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the fire management review.

We have three general and four specific comments:

General

1. We continue to be concerned by the apparent inability of DELWP to integrate private land fuel management into its risk program, despite the large ‘priority fuel management areas’ on private land in the West Central Risk landscape maps. The result of this inability is the artificial isolation of public land and an over emphasis on it, despite the fact that in our area the overwhelming majority of fires start on private land. We also have the occasionally bizarre example of small parcels of public land singled out for burning, although they are surrounded by much larger areas of apparently more dangerous private land. CAS 2 is a bizarre example, and CAS 11 an example where DELWP seems to have admitted the impracticality of dealing with public land in isolation.

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