FOBIF walk in Fryers Ridge

Posted on 22 June, 2020 by fobif

The first FOBIF excursion since March attracted a group of 10 walkers. The forecast didn’t look good but it turned out to be good walking weather with no wind or rain. Christine Henderson who led the walk and lives in the Fryers Ridge area was able to take us off-track on kangaroo paths where the understory was wonderfully damp and full of surprises. Here the group poses amongst a mass of Hakeas.

Walkers in the ‘Hakea garden’

Other plants in flower or about to flower included the Bendigo Wax-flower, Pink-Bells, Tall Greenhoods, Common Heath and Woolly Wattles. It’s been an excellent year for fungi. This rare fungi, Cortinarius rotundisporus, looked just like a fried egg.

Cortinarius rotundisporus

Another spectacular sight was a mass of lichen that looked like strewn cauliflowers.

Cladina confusa

Some other plants and moss we came across are shown below. 

Thanks to Christine Henderson for leading this walk and sharing her in depth knowledge of the area, Frances Cincotta for help with identifying plants and Joy Clusker for help with identifying fungi and lichen.

Our next FOBIF walk is planned to take place in the Columbine Creek area led by Jeremy. See walks page for more details. We are not sure if government regulations will place restrictions on the number of people allowed in a group outside so please consult this website for updated details. We may have to get people to register with FOBIF once again if they intend coming on the walk.

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Sign of the times: be patient…

Posted on 22 June, 2020 by fobif

When we published the photo below five years ago, the only features in this bleak wasteland were a single golden wattle, a pile of rubbish, one patch of Gold Dust Wattle, and two small bushes of Daviesia ulicifolia, Gorse Bitter Pea. We gave the photo the caption, ‘Is this the saddest sign in the region’?

Sign near Perkins Reef, June 2015: at the time we asked, ‘is this the saddest sign in the region?’

 

The sign retains its decrepit quality, characteristic of much of the signage on public land in this region. The news for the landscape could be worse, however: we counted about 20 eucalypt seedlings (much browsed), not one but two species of pea, a few coffee bushes and much moss and lichen. Gold Dust Wattle is creeping in from the edges. The Golden Wattle is gone, and the rubbish is still there, plus a pile of what looks like eucalypt cuttings.

The same sign five years later: hanging on, hanging on. But believe it or not, that bleak ground now supports many eucalypt seedlings, together with two species of pea plants, some coffee bush, much moss and lichen…Give it a few hundred years…

OK: it’s not a paradise of biodiversity, but it’s a start. Give it a few more years…or a few hundred.

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FOBIF walks are back!

Posted on 14 June, 2020 by fobif

The planned FOBIF walk led by Christine Henderson will take place next Sunday 21st June in the Fryers Ridge area. It will be between 6 and 8 km.

Due to current restrictions and regulations we can only have a maximum of 20 people on the walk. We are therefore requesting that people register with FOBIF (info@fobif.org.au) by next Friday 19th June if they are planning to go on the walk. Assume you can come unless we contact you which will only happen if more that 20 people register.

We will also be practicing social distancing on the walk and not car pooling to the start of the walk.

We will meet as normal at Community House in Templeton Street, Castlemaine at 9.30am. If you would like to go directly to Taradale, be at Patersons corner which is at the junction of Old Drummond Road and High Street, Taradale behind the bus stop and opposite the servo at 9.45am. 

For more information contact Christine Henderson on 0466 004 628 or Bronwyn Silver 0448 751 111.

On the walk at this time of the year we will probably come across Hakea (left) and Common Correa in flower.

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Kalimna walk notes are online

Posted on 8 June, 2020 by fobif

As we’ve previously noted, the Kalimna Circuit walk originally devised by the late Ern Perkins and the Castlemaine Field Naturalists has been upgraded with new signs and wayposts. The notes for the walk have also been revised and reprinted as a colour booklet. These notes can be found in a metal box at the start of the circuit (though that box can sometimes be exhausted), and also from the Castlemaine Tourist Info centre (when it opens). They have now been put online for our convenience. You can find them at http://kalimnapark.org.au/CircuitGuide.pdf

The track upgrade and walk notes revision were initiated by the Friends of Kalimna Park and the project was completed with the assistance of FOBIF and Parks Victoria.

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Kalimna Park April management burn

Posted on 8 June, 2020 by fobif

The following is an excerpt from the Friends of Kalimna Park June newsletter:

‘Friends of Kalimna Park and other environmentalists had discussions with Forest Fire Management Vic (FFMV) leading up to the recent Planned Burn in the Park. Our focus was on protecting Eltham Copper Butterfly habitat and populations, and preventing the loss of substantial trees which take so long to grow here. FFMV agreed to exclude some areas where there are numerous ECB and to rake around tree bases to avoid fire getting into them.

‘There is ongoing concern from our point of view at the intrusive nature of the earth breaks created — vehicle tracks, deep soil removal on foot tracks and around trees. These are considered necessary partly for crew safety. However, we feel that smaller scale localised fuel reduction over time should be possible with the right resources.

‘We were pleased to see that FFMV has set up numerous monitoring points in the Park, with permanent markers, to study the impacts of burning. They have recorded the present flora conditions at the sites. They also did their own ECB survey using the bursaria grid map.’

In the Kalimna Park burn zone, April 2020. The fire appeared to have uneven coverage, but we are not aware of official estimates as to its effectiveness as fuel reduction or its environmental impact.

Kalimna has also been extensively surveyed by ecologists Elaine Bayes and Karl Just for Copper Butterfly populations.

The April fire appeared to achieve limited coverage. FOBIF has not had any official statement from the Department as to its effect as fuel reduction or its ecological impact.

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