Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

FOBIF has made a brief submission to the current Parliamentary enquiry on fire preparedness. This is possibly the millionth submission on fire we’ve made over the last 15 years, and is accompanied by a slight feeling of going around in circles: but we live in hope that repeating ourselves over and over might have a beneficial effect.

The submission concentrates on environmental matters and the Parks Victoria budget. The headings in bold quote the enquiry’s terms of reference. The substance of the submission  is below:

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This brief submission will concentrate on the two categories under A below, and we will make a brief comment on Parks Victoria’s most recent annual report.

We do not intend to underplay the importance of safety: we merely wish to insist on the importance of integrating safety concerns with a commitment to a healthy environment: we don’t believe we should make ourselves safe by reducing the environment to a dust bowl.

In our view, the common assumptions about fuel management in the past were either, ‘the bush is tough, it will recover’, or ‘too bad, safety comes first.’ We believe management should advance from the trade off position to one where it aims for both safety and environmental health, and resists any notion of trade offs and compromises [most of which, in the recent past, have been on the environmental side.]

A ‘c. The impact of preventative burns on threatened species; d.The impact of preventative burns on Ecological Vegetation Classes;’ 

We wish to make the following specific requests:

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On Saturday 4 June, 50 people came out in the cold winter weather to attend the opening of the FOBIF photo show, Trees of the Mount Alexander Shire, at the Newstead Railway Arts Hub. There were lots of positive comments about the diversity and quality of exhibits and the slide show accompanied by Listening Earth recordings of local birdsong was also well-received.

Andrew Skeoch, president of the Hub’s Committee of Management, welcomed everyone and Bernard Slattery from FOBIF opened the show:

The aim of this exhibition is consistent with the stated intention of our first Mamunya festival in 1999, to ‘honour the native forests of our region’, and to keep faith with the original Mamunya statement, a Jaara incantation meaning ‘wait a while, don’t touch it, growing up.’

 Obviously the photographers exhibited here have a range of different approaches to their subjects, but a common theme is the expression of wonder or surprise at the subjects portrayed. This is a modest exhibition; the ego of the photographer has taken second place to the desire to keep faith with the object in view, to show its place in history or the wider geographical context. The photos here don’t pretend to high art, but they’re not simple snapshots: anyone familiar with the environmental history of this region will recognize that what’s represented here is a drama of destruction and renewal, of life and death. These aren’t trivial themes, but there’s nothing portentous about the way the material is presented: what we have is a careful attentiveness to the trees and the world they reflect and contain—and one which will reward careful attentiveness on the part of visitors to this terrific little gallery. 

Guests chatting at the opening (left) and Bernard Slattery addressing the crowd (right). Photos by John Ellis

 The show is open for two more weekends (18-19 and 25-26 June). Opening hours are 10am – 4 pm. Further details can be found here. Contact Bronwyn Silver (5475 1089) for more information.

The FOBIF Annual General Meeting will be held at the Ray Bradfield Rooms on Monday July 11 at 7.30 p.m.

Our guest speaker will be Martin Scuffins from the Leigh Valley Hawk and Owl Sanctuary. This impressive organisation has a two-part focus:

The Sanctuary offers mobile raptor displays with an elite team of trained birds of prey. Presentations are conducted by highly trained staff with an established track record in environmental science and teaching. Our programs are offered within the Central Highlands and south-western regions of Victoria. We also rehabilitate injured birds of prey under our Department of Environment, Land, Water and  Planning shelter permit.

Some images from The Sanctuary website

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A motion will be moved to update the FOBIF statement of aims, which is now ten years old. The proposed new statement of aims is set out below. [For comparison, the current statement of aims is in the ‘About us’ section of this site].

More details on the meeting agenda will be published on this site in the coming weeks.

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Here’s the proposed new statement of aims:

Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests (Mt Alexander Region) was formed in 1998 by people in the local community interested in working towards highlighting the significance of the Box-Ironbark Forests and Woodlands. There are over 100 members with a committee elected yearly at the Annual General Meeting.

We believe that the health of the land is intimately linked to its vegetation cover and the wildlife it sustains: that forests, soil and water are ‘an inseparable trinity.’ That’s why we work to encourage and support sound land management practices, on private and public land.

The Friends Exist . . .

To promote respect for Indigenous culture and understanding of Indigenous land management practices.

To work towards a common community approach to a healthy, sustainable and productive landscape through conservation of natural vegetation on public and private land in the Mount Alexander Region and in particular to:

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The May 24 information session was followed by a briefing by researchers who produced the Box Ironbark mosaic burning project [see our Posts here, here and here].

As we reported last week, possibly the biggest question raised by this project is that it simply is not enough: a project run over only two years—and two unusually wet years at that—necessarily has limitations. This problem was raised at the information session, and we were told that DELWP workers would continue some of the project’s monitoring. This is better than nothing, but is obviously not the same as continuing a rigorously designed and managed research program of the kind that could form a reliable foundation for fire managers in the future.

One encouraging thing to emerge from the session, however, was the statement by fire managers present that the research project [in which they had been involved] had been a ‘learning experience’ for them. There’s an interesting idea: that fire operations should be integrated with ecological research, and should always have ecological outcomes in mind.

The opening of our Trees of the Mount Alexander Shire photo show at the Newstead Railway Arts Hub will take place next Saturday (4 June) at 10.30.

Bernard Slattery will open the show and Julie Patey from The Hub is bringing along home made scones. As well, Andrew Skeoch from Listening Earth, will play sound recordings of local birdsong during the opening and at other viewing times.

Everyone is welcome to the opening. More details and sample images from the exhibition can be found here and here.

The exhibition was recently displayed at TOGS cafe in Castlemaine. At the Newstead show there will also be a slide show of tree photos that people sent into FOBIF after our ‘call for photos’ in January this year.

One of the photos from the exhibition: Red Box (Eucalyptus polyanthemos) Golden Point. Photo by Bernard Slattery, August 2015

Noel Young sent these photos to us after we we had posted our walks article.  They provide a terrific record of the walk so we decided to post them in the gallery below. We are not one hundred percent sure of the identification of the fungi in the first photo. If anyone thinks our identification is incorrect please let us know. Click on the thumbnail image to enlarge.

Click to enlarge.

The FOBIF exhibition, Trees in the Mount Alexander Region, is being held in 2 locations this year, TOGS and the new Newstead Railway Arts Hub. The TOGS show which finished recently was a great success with lots of positive responses and sales of photos. Now it’s time for the move to Newstead.

The show in Newstead will run throughout June. It will include the photos from the TOGS show and a slide show which will have at least one image from people who sent in photos for our Flickr site.

The Gallery will be open at weekends and the Queens Birthday holiday on Monday 13 June. Opening hours are 10am to 4 pm. The address is Dundas Street, Newstead (directly across from Railway Hotel). If you would like to view the exhibition outside these days/hours, or help with staffing the show, contact Bronwyn Silver on 5475 1089

The opening will be at 10.30 on Saturday 4 June. There will be refreshments and everyone is welcome. Bernard Slattery from FOBIF will open the show.