Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

 There are several ways you can be part of FOBIF activities in 2021 as well as coming on our monthly walks.

Committee meetings are open to all members. They are held between 6 and 7 pm at the Community House, 30 Templeton Street, Castlemaine on the second Monday of the month from March to November. Dates for 2021 are 8th March, 12th April, 10th May, 14th June, 12th July, 9th August, 13 September, 11 October and 8th November. Contact our secretary, Bernard Slattery on 54705161, if you have any questions.

2021 FOBIF committee office holders are Marie Jones (President), Neville Cooper (Vice President), Bernard Slattery (Secretary) and Lynette Amaterstein (Treasurer). Other committee members are Asha Bannon, Frank Panter, Cassia Reid, Jeremy Holland and Bronwyn Silver.

You can submit articles (info@fobif.org.au) or comment on posts for this FOBIF website. We are also keen to post new photos on our Instagram and Flickr site. Here are a few examples of recent Flickr bark photos taken in Walmer. The first four are by Brette-Rose Hadfield and the last two by Bronwyn Silver.

Finally keep a look out on this site for news of the launch of our new book, Native Peas of the Mount Alexander Region which is planned for March. Here are a couple of sample pages. 

Frances Cincotta started her nursery, Newstead Natives, in 1999. In the nursery she propagates almost 200 species for local habitat restoration and sells 25000 plants each year.

Many people will be familiar with Newstead Natives’s presence on Facebook and Instagram but now after 22 years Frances has a website.

There is a history of the nursery, a regularly updated news page, a comprehensive list of plants and lots of beautiful photos. Check it out here.

FOBIF’s latest field guide, Native Peas of the Mount Alexander Region, is in the last stages of preparation, and will be launched in the next couple of months. Similar in format to our guides to moss, eucalypts and wattles, it’s 100 pages long, and generously illustrated.

Watch this space!

FOBIF has written to Bush Heritage Australia questioning advice it offers in its leaflet, ‘Beautiful grasses for every garden’.

This leaflet promotes the planting of Swamp Foxtail grass [Pennisetum alopecuroides] across Australia.

There’s a problem here.

According to Agriculture Victoria, Swamp Foxtail is an invasive species in this state. It ‘Invades lowland grassland, grassy woodland, dry sclerophyll forest and woodland (Carr et al. 1992) – biomass significantly decreased.’ ‘“Plants form impenetrable dense stands” (PFAF 2009). Also competes with more edible species (Burbidge 1966) – habitat changed dramatically, leading to the possible extinction of non-threatened fauna.’ More details can be found on the Ag Vic website

We believe it’s a pity an organisation with serious environmental credibility should be so apparently careless. We have enough weeds already. We don’t need any more.