Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

Large Striped Greenhood (Pterosylis robusta)

It’s not the Himalayas, but FOBIF walkers found the ascent of Gough’s Range satisfying enough in glorious winter weather on Sunday. Greenhood orchids were on display, and a surprising stand of regenerating Casuarinas was an encouraging feature of a forest which is still recovering from past abuse.

From the top of the Range you can get great views to the east as far as Mount Alexander, and to the west to the Pyrenees, and this tiny forest offers an unexpected feeling of isolation from the outside world.

More photos below.

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Nioka Mellick-Cooper was the main organiser of this walk and she wrote the following post:

The first 2015 youth bush walk took place on the Mount Alexander (Leanganook) and was a great day. There were 28 people that came bright and early to do the scramble.

On top of Mount Alexander

We all met and wrote our names in the book at the Continuing Ed building, and then got on the buses and drove up to the starting place.

The walk was roughly 2 hours long (around 4km) and was a very enjoyable experience.

As we walked we saw many things including kangaroos browsing, and stopped at Dog Rocks for some morning tea. Here we heard a story told by Max from Connecting Country who kindly came on the walk with us, which had everyone entertained.

Max Schlachter talking to the group on Dog Rocks.

When we returned from the walk, lunch was provided, with a chance to refresh ourselves, and have a chat before we got back on the buses to return to Castlemaine.

The day was a success and we’re ready for the next one.

The Youth Bush Walk program is funded by the Mount Alexander Shire Council Youth Grants Program.

FOBIF is running three nature-based events for primary school children in the upcoming school holidays.  Places are limited and booking is essential. Information about the program can be found on this FOBIF page.

As of today, Parks Victoria has started on a program of grooming vegetation in Kalimna Park along the town edge and Moonlight Creek. The program aims at eliminating mainly exotic weeds as a fire protection measure [creating a roughly 50 metre wide border along the town edge], and removing blackberries and other weeds along the creek .

Groomed area near Bull Street: the removal of vegetation is part of a package of fire management actions.

Parks also intends to conduct a fuel reduction burn on Kalimna Point, but we’re not sure when or how this will be done. The Point is a problematic area: to quote from the website of the Friends of the park: ‘Kalimna Point is close to the town and from the early days was a destination for residents to visit as it allowed good views of the district. Between 1903 and the late 1920s the community planted a mix of European and Australian trees around the point and set up benches, a rotunda and a direction finder. Remnants of these avenue plantings and paths still exist.’

The views referred to are now blocked by Sugar Gums and other exotic planted trees. The Point is a bit of a sad relic of its former glory but is not without its charms, a colony of Eltham Copper Butterfly being one: and it’s still very popular with walkers. The Friends group has recently embarked on work on the Rotunda, and there’s definitely potential—with sensitive management—for a site of great recreational and botanical value there. See http://www.kalimnapark.org.au/friends-of-kalimna-park-castlemaine/

The 2015 State budget papers show that the Government’s Regional Infrastructure Fund is to be used to provide money to advance the design and construction of mountain bike tracks on the lower slopes of Mount Alexander.

As we have previously reported, the Mountain Bike Park is to be constructed in the Harcourt plantation, currently under management of Hancock Plantations, but soon to revert to public hands. You can find a map of the proposal here.

Previously, we had been led to believe that the plantation would be incorporated into the adjacent Mount Alexander Regional Park; it now appears that Parks Victoria is not keen on this move, and perhaps for good reasons. Legislation governing these parks includes the aims ‘to   preserve, protect and re-establish indigenous flora and fauna in the park’  and to ‘control exotic flora and fauna in the park.’ Given that we’re talking about a pine plantation, integration of the plantation would put park managers in a peculiar situation.

We’re not sure who will end up being responsible for the land–presumably it will be DELWP, once the plantation lease expires. The development proposal involves the construction of 16 trails totalling 34 kilometres, essentially around the contours of the site. We’ve been assured that the tracks will not spill over into the Regional Park. Currently there is some rogue bike riding on the steep upper slopes of the Mount. One of the challenges of track designers [and managers of the Great Dividing Trail] is to devise credible trails to divert riders away from destructive routes: and one of the challenges for Parks Victoria is to make sure the Park is protected effectively.

FOBIF has made a number of specific suggestions in its submission to the MAS Shire council draft environment strategy. Readers will remember we criticised the draft strategy for being abstract and general…tending to waffle, in fact.

The substance of the FOBIF submission is set out below:

‘We understand that a strategy designed to direct council activities for 10 years should be general and flexible enough to accommodate changed circumstances. Nevertheless, we are disappointed by the extreme vagueness of parts of the document.

Green waste dumped near Morgan’s Track: green rubbish is potentially more harmful than other types because of its capacity to spread. We suggest that Council should check out specific ways of reducing this problem.

‘We would like to make the following points:

1. ‘On pages 10 and 12 reference is made to the ESD [‘ecologically sustainable development’] leadership, the ESD team, and the Council’s Green Team. Who are they? The fact that these terms are not defined makes the authority structure of the document quite vague.

2. ‘Page 11: Council leadership by example: ‘appropriate ecotechnologies such as LED streetlights, and using Council’s unique statutory responsibilities to further ESD aims e.g. rate rebates for properties with a conservation covenant in place.’

‘We believe such aims need to be carefully thought through in the detail. For example, we would suggest that rate rebates should be considered for any landholder with positive conservation practices. The singling out of covenanted properties is certain to create counterproductive social tension, and would effectively penalise farmers with good land management practices.

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Looking for  a few new ideas tossed up in good company?

The 2015 Mount Alexander Landcare Forum and Dinner will be held at the Campbells Creek Community Centre on Friday 19 June from 3.00 pm.

The program is as follows:

–3:00pm Welcome

–3:30pm Agroforestry & Landcare – A productive partnership? With Ben Boxshall from the Northern United Forestry Group and Wood 4 Good.

–Afternoon Tea

–4:30pm Applying Indigenous Fire Knowledge to Pasture management With Brendon Kennedy, Indigenous Facilitator from the North East CMA

–5:30pm Saving the Silver Banksias of Baynton Sidonia With Clare Claydon from Baynton Sidonia Landcare Group

–6:15pm Dinner and presentation on The Lake Bolac Eel Festival & Healing Walk with Una Allender & Brett Clarke – who will be performing some of his own songs at the forum.

The event is free to Landcare members and $10 for non members. RSVP to Max Schlachter by June 12 at max@connectingcountry.org.au or 5472 1594m