Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

The second in FOBIF’s program of walks for young people took place on Sunday, with thirteen participants plus leaders taking on a circuit in the Muckleford forest. The two hour walk included nature observations and consideration of DEPI interpretation panels–including the search for a non existent native cherry tree.

The walk was the first in a series. Watch this space.

Walkers negotiate Dunn’s Reef in the Muckleford forest.

Doug showing a rock sharpened by local Aborigines. He also brought along a small amount of gold.

The first FOBIF family forest walk took place on Sunday 23 March. About half of the 28 people who came along were children.

Doug Ralph who was a member of Friends of Kalimna many years ago began the morning with an introduction to the history of the Park. He talked of the decimation of the area during the gold rush and the subsequent replanting. Unfortunately many non-indigenous species were chosen.

The walk then commenced at ‘children’s pace’ to Kalimna Point. Along the way insects, lichens and many other natural specimens were enthusiastically examined with magnifying glasses. Three experts in the natural sciences, Cassia Read, Warwick Smith and Andrew Kuhlmann, were there to help with identification.

Scorpion under the microscope.

At the Point, two microscopes were set up to further examine the collected items. As well a couple of live scorpions (in sealed plastic containers) were found.

On the return walk the group gathered at a large dry depression where Warwick explained how during heavy rainfall an endangered frog, the Growling Grass frog, had been spotted.

Thanks to Naomi Raftery for all her work to make this first children’s walk such a success. The next one will be held on 28 September at Kaweka Park. Contact Naomi on 0422 585 585 or have a look at this website later in the year to find out more.

About 20 walkers of all ages set off from the Chewton Post Office along the Forest Creek Track on the first FOBIF bushwalk of the year. Local resident, Marie Jones, led the walk.

First stop was to appreciate the landscape at the Monster Meeting site at the confluence of Wattle and Forest Creeks. Then it was off upstream past the stone sculptures, the three exclusion plots erected to monitor re-vegetation taking place, the spectacular post-goldrush cliffs at Chinamans Point and several revegetation sites in the valley. Morning tea was a break called at Expedition Pass Reservoir – after the first 5.4 kms of the walk had been completed. Continue reading →

Every year Newstead Landcare Group is fortunate to have some remarkable people present on an amazing array of topics and 2014 promises to be another such year. Their first presentation will be “Combining Ecology and Archaeology – researching Indigenous fish traps to learn more about river changes over time” by archaeologist Damian Kelly. Damian’s research on fish traps along the Murray is truly fascinating, with very local implications for those of us on the Loddon. For those familiar with the road between Strangways and Guildford, do you know where the name “Bough Yards” may have come from?

The presentation will be on Thursday 20^th March at Newstead Community Centre, starting at 8pm. It will be followed by a light supper and their first business meeting for 2014. All are welcome to come along for either the presentation or the meeting or both of course. Gold coin donations would be appreciated.

Check out an amazing photo of Brewarrina traps, circa 1900, Geoff Park’s Blog.

This year FOBIF has expanded its walks program to include 2 family walks and 2 youth walks. Everyone is welcome on these walks, not just young people and children.

The first of the family walks will take place on 23 March in Kalimna Park. To find out more, click on the green box below.

The first youth walk will be on 30 March. To find out more, click on the image below.

The consent authority form form must be completed by the parents/carers of unaccompanied young people before the youth walk. Meet at Castlemaine Community Education (30 Templeton Street) at 9.30am to get on bus. Walkers will be back at Templeton Street at 1pm.

Mount Alexander Shire Council held its first Sustainability and Environment Round Table at the Council Chambers on Thursday March 6^th.  Relevant stakeholder representatives were invited and about 40 people came along to discuss the Terms of Reference that had been circulated prior to the roundtable – the light refreshments provide by CAKE certainly helped to start the conversations going.

The invitation included the comment that ‘the roundtable is to act as a catalyst in achieving positive and tangible change for our natural and built environments.’

Councillors Christine Henderson and Jess Howard set the scene and the session was facilitated by Russell Fisher.  Christine asked each person to tell the group about their wish (money and regulations aside) for the future which was an insightful as well as entertaining way of everyone getting a picture of who was at the roundtable and why they were there.

When the conversation went on to the possible terms of reference there appeared to be two lines of thought – to be theme-based where there could be possible strategies and actions, or to be more a sharing of information and ideas.  Perhaps it should be a combination of both?

We are waiting for a report on the roundtable from the council staff but this event will start off many conversations in the community about how this roundtable will be managed into the future.

Readers will remember that in our post on the new waterways strategy we commented that climate change and its consequences for our waterways seemed to have been written out of policy. Instead we got bland references to ‘natural climate variability’, and no real idea of planning for medium to long term drop in rainfall.

Now we read that the state’s Environment Commissioner, Kate Auty, has resigned, attacking the state government’s indifference and lack of leadership on climate change. Among other things, Professor Auty said that ‘public servants had told her about directions to them that they should refer to ”climate variability”, not climate change’.

Do words matter? They do if you use words that mislead, or make it harder to see the truth. And it would be very disturbing if it were true that expert civil servants are being directed to use misleading words by politicians with no expertise in the subject in question.

A proposal is currently being developed to put a mountain bike track in the Hancock pine plantation on the western side of Mount Alexander.

FOBIF is not opposed to this idea. Mountain biking  is an activity with many health benefits, and there is some potential–as yet undefined–for economic spin offs in the form of tourism to the Harcourt area.

Mount Alexander, west side: illegal mountain bike use on these slopes could cause serious erosion problems

We are, however, keen that any track design should minimise the possibility that the activity will spill over into the present boundaries of the Mt Alexander Regional Park. Photos are in circulation suggesting that a track in the plantation could be linked to the Leanganook picnic area. And some illegal riding takes place already: videos can be seen on Youtube of riders using walking tracks on the Mount. Such riding is capable of causing serious erosion on the steep western slopes, and of straying onto precious moss beds on the eastern side.

We understand that the plantation will be added to the Regional Park in 2015. We’ve written to Parks Victoria ranger in charge David Major on the subject. He informed us to our surprise that Parks is not represented on the committee developing the MTB proposal, but said: ‘Some years ago Parks Victoria looked at the feasibility of mountain bike access to Mount Alexander, and was able to identify that existing tracks around Leanganook could possibly be used by mountain bikes for cross country riding, but the use of downhill mountain bikes was not suited to the area and would not be permitted…Parks Victoria is looking to stop [illegal downhill use] and rehabilitate track damage.’

FOBIF is keen to be engaged in any plans which might have an effect on the Mount. At present the concept development for the plantation, led by Goldfields Tourism, seems to be in capable hands: but this mountain, being one of the most beautiful and dramatic natural features in the region, could be put under pressure if this project is pushed through without all appropriate knowledge, care and resources.

Nothing is as simple as it seems.

Here’s a new perspective on rubbish: when Parks Victoria ranger Noel Muller was rearranging a trailer full of rubbish at Golden Point after clean up day on Sunday, he noticed something unexpected sticking out of the side of one of his collection of decrepit mattresses, collected earlier on the edge of Kalimna Park.

It was the head of a phascogale, rather surprised to find its comfortable accommodation bounced around so much.

As we’ve reported in a previous post, the phascogale is a pretty opportunistic creature: it’s been found in filing boxes and coat pockets before. It’s a bit unsettling to find it settling into a mouldy mattress, however.

Noel took the mattress back to where it was collected, to give the phascogale a chance to collect its wits.