Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

What can be done to strengthen Parks Victoria? Currently Parks is running a community engagement campaign designed to elicit new ideas about how our parks system can run better.

You can find details about the campaign, and how you can participate here .

The spider tells the story: this sign was found by FOBIF members buried under debris… We propped it against a tree. Understaffing and poor resources means basic Parks infrastructure and maintenance are neglected.

The campaign is backed by a discussion paper, Strengthening Parks Victoria, which is full of good ideas and info about our Parks System. We learn, for example, how Parks can improve people’s health, how they can protect biodiversity, how they’re vital in maintaining our water supply, and how they can increase the community’s understanding and appreciation of nature. None of this is new.

Almost the only thing missing from the document, in fact, is the information that our Parks are seriously under resourced. This puts a double question mark after most of the excellent aspirations in the document.

The entire exercise has a feel good quality: lots of photos of happy people and healthy animals doing their thing, under the benign eye of a well paid ranger. This can have a slightly cloying effect on the reader, as we pointed out in our post on the PV Annual report this year. This document, as readers will remember, essentially told us that the world was crashing around Parks Victoria’s ears, but that God was in His Heaven, and All was Well: although savage budget cuts had gutted PV’s ‘core operations’, a new era of ‘excellence’ was dawning.

For a grimmer account of the state of our park system, we recommend the March edition of Parkwatch magazine, available online here: The gist of this is something readers of this site will be familiar with: Parks need more money.

For this reason, we believe it would be good if a lot of people responded to this consultation process.

It doesn’t look much: a pile of lawn clippings dumped in the Castlemaine Diggings NHP at Glenluce: dumping of garden rubbish is actually worse than more unsightly junk like computers and the like, because it has the capacity to spread weeds into bushland. The answer is more active education, and better supervision. Both cost money.

You don’t have to take a lot of time about it. Click here  and tell Parks what you think: or, by clicking on the heart icon on the feedback page, you can just give a vote to one of the opinions already on there. By doing so, you’re also talking to the State Government, and this is the real nub of the matter. We are told that the State has some money from the sale of the Port of Melbourne. Let’s put some pressure on the government to spend some of this on the proper management of our most precious resource: the environment.

If you want to be more ambitious in your response, you can download and fill in the workbook supplied by the project.

Responses are due by noon on October 7.

The consultation project will culminate with the production of a final report, which will focus on:

1. A community vision for parks
2. Legislative and policy reform
3. A modern business in government.

We haven’t been able to find out what the last of these means: but we hope it doesn’t prefigure yet another effort to turn this public service enterprise into a profit making business. We know that the parks system already generates $1.5 billion a year to the Victorian economy. We can do without projects to commercialise public assets via tourism infrastructure projects inside our parks.

Some of the info revealed in the Parks Victoria discussion paper is predictable. Some is quite disturbing: for example, we learn that Parks Victoria administers 18% of Victoria—but contributes 50% of the planned burning target. This is an eloquent reminder that our parks bear the brunt of systematic burning, even though authorities repeatedly talk about how fuel reduction should be ‘tenure blind’—that is, that it should be concentrated where it is needed, whether on private or public land.

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Next Saturday (24th September) the new FOBIF publication, Eucalypts of the Mount Alexander Region, will be launched by Geoff Park in the Castlemaine Library foyer at 10.30. Refreshments will be provided and everyone is welcome.

The book is a community project that has been two years in the making. See our earlier post to find out more.

For a preview of the book, have a look at the double page spreads below on Grey Box Eucalyptus Microcarpa. Click on each one to enlarge.

Nankeen Kestrel. Photo Geoff Park

It’s always a special feeling – that tingling mixture of excitement and awe when you catch sight of a bird of prey on the wing. And then the question comes – “what is it?”. If you’ve asked yourself this question, or don’t quite know how to pick a Nankeen Kestrel from a Brown Falcon, or a Little Eagle from a Whistling Kite, or if you would like to know what the differences are between falcons, kites, goswhawks and eagles, our September presentation is for you.

Geoff Park, renowned wildlife blogger of “Natural Newstead” and Eureka prize winner will guide us through the majestic world of the raptors of Newstead. We will learn about their various lifestyles, what they need to thrive and how to tell them apart.

The presentation will be on Thursday Sept 15 at 8 pm at Newstead Community Centre. All are welcome to attend. Gold coin donations would be appreciated.

For further information ring Patrick Kavanagh 0437 663 345 or Frances Cincotta 5476 2691

Whistling Kites of Joyces Creek. Photo Geoff Park

On Saturday 24 September the new Friends of the Box-Ironbark publication, Eucalypts of the Mount Alexander Region, will be launched by Geoff Park, well known local environmentalist and author of the Natural Newstead blog.

This 90 page guide aims to help the beginner train the eye to see the differences between eucalypts – and to appreciate how spectacular they sometimes are. It presents the commonest species of the Mount Alexander Region, generously illustrated, and clearly described in plain language. Though firmly based on one local area (the forests and reserves around the town of Castlemaine), it describes species common to the whole Box-Ironbark region, and would be useful to any enthusiast in that region, from Ararat to Chiltern.

The publication of this book has been made possible by a generous grant from the Worrowing Fund through the Norman Wettenhall Foundation. Other supporters have been the Castlemaine Field Naturalists’ Club and Connecting Country.

The book’s cost is $10 and people buying it at the launch will receive a selection of free tree-related bookmarks and a FOBIF fungi poster. Proceedings will start at 10.30 in the Castlemaine library foyer. Refreshments will be served.