Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

The storm which made local headlines by bringing down a tree on the Loddon River bridge in late February was only one of a series of what seem to be mini tornadoes throughout Central Victoria, and specifically in our own shire, judging from feedback from readers. James McArdle has reported the felling of another mighty redgum at Glenluce. And below is the scene on the Crocodile Reservoir Track near Fryerstown. The track is covered over 200 metres by trees large and small, snapped off at the base or higher up, or simply uprooted:

Crocodile Reservoir Track, March 2015: Trees big and small tossed almost neatly across the road.

Tornadoes aren’t so rare in Victoria—there have been 160 severe ones since 1918, plus many others not big enough to figure on the Bureau of Meteorology data base. The most spectacular local one wrought havoc in Castlemaine town in 1901. A tornado in Sandon in 1976 killed two people whose car was lifted nearly 10 metres off the ground and tossed into a gully. And in 2003 winds between 100-200 kph ripped through Maiden Gully Bendigo

Where did the policy of burning [at least] five per cent of public land every year come from? The material below is taken from the submission by the Victorian National Parks Association to the current enquiry. As readers will remember, the enquiry is being held to decide whether a blanket five per cent policy, or a policy based more precisely on risks and benefits should be implemented.

The full text of the VNPA’s submission can be found here.  A submission more locally focused on box ironbark woodlands can be found on the Living with ecology and fire website, together with much other useful information on fire in our environments.

The VNPA’s background to the policy runs as follows:

A brief history of the 5% burn target

The 5% annual burn target has been recommended by two fire inquiries in Victoria: a 2008 Parliamentary inquiry, and the 2010 Bushfires Royal Commission. However, perhaps because of the often contradictory advice those inquiries received, and the lack of clear evidence that the target would work in a Victorian context, both inquiries recommended monitoring and reporting on a hectare-based target’s effectiveness and impacts. Both inquiries effectively asked for this current review.

1/ The Victorian Parliamentary Environment and Natural Resources C’ttee (ENRC) 2008 inquiry

A 5% state-wide annual burn target (c.390,000 ha) of public land was first formally recommended in the ENRC inquiry into The Impact of Public Land Management Practices on Bushfires in Victoria. However that recommendation (Rec 2.2) was largely based on flawed evidence supplied to the inquiry:

–The evidence misquoted a reference for burning in some forests in the USA, which actually recommended an annual strategically applied burn target of 1-2% of the landscape if strategically applied, or 2-5% if burns are random. (In any case, applying any target from a totally different forest type on the other side of the world has questionable value.)
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Led by Geoff Park, twenty-five people walked leisurely around the Rise and Shine Bushland Reserve last Sunday (March 16). This was first FOBIF walk for this year. The Reserve is 30 minutes drive from Castlemaine and south of Newstead.

Many people had come on this walk to observe birds with the benefit of having photographer and bird expert Geoff Park as leader. There were many birds about so people were not disappointed. Noel Young has supplied us with a bird list which totalled 24 species!

A further feature of the walk was Geoff and Frances Cincotta’s identification of trees and shrubs, both indigenous and introduced. The history of the reserve which has included 5 separate clearing for timber and the use of the area as a source of gravel was also discussed. The main focus was however birds and walk had attracted some serious photographers.

This bird and photography enthusiast had come up from Melbourne for the walk.

Geoff with some of the walkers in bird observation pose.

Marie Jones hugging a giant Red Gum. Photo by Liz Martin.

This photo of a Striated Pardalote was taken by Geoff Park on our Rise and Shine walk. You can see more of Geoff’s recent bird photos taken in Rise and Shine on his Natural Newstead blog.

The next walk will be in Muckleford Forest. See the Walks page for more details.

Ern Perkins will be the guest speaker at Castlemaine Landcare AGM on Monday 23 March (7.30pm upstairs at Herons Gallery, cnr Lyttleton and Hargraves Streets, Castlemaine – followed by supper). Everyone is welcome.

His talk, Is Our Forest Changing? will be based on his (and Lesley’s) long experience and observation of changing environmental patterns.

Further information: Sally Kaptein, Secretary, 5470 6340

Newstead Landcare’s first presentation for the year will be on Saturday 28th March at 3pm by Dr Lindy Lumsden, a wildlife ecologist at Arthur Rylah Institute  The talk will be at the Newstead Community Centre and everyone is welcome to attend (gold coin donation appreciated to help cover costs).

Lindy has been conducting ecological research on bats for over 30 years. Bats play an important role in controlling insect numbers, including a range of pest species, by eating up to half their body weight in insects in a night.  However, due to their small size, nocturnal behaviour and cryptic roosting habits, these valuable animals are rarely seen and are often portrayed negatively in the media.

Lindy is passionate about trying to reverse these negative perceptions and conducts a wide range of extension activities to educate and enthuse people about the bats. In her talks she describes fascinating and little known aspects of the natural history of these nocturnal creatures. As most people do not have the opportunity to see bats close up, she brings along a live bat to show at the end of her talk.

After the talk Lindy will take a group of 30 lucky people to Green Gully to demonstrate how she goes about discovering what bats are in an area. She will be setting up bat traps and using a bat detector and then we will have a picnic meal (bring your own picnic) while waiting for dusk when the bats start getting active. It’s free for Newstead Landcare members, otherwise $15 a head, children free. There are still a few places left so if you are interested contact Frances Cincotta phone 5476 2691 or  email natives@newstead.vicmail.net

Connecting Country is supporting this educational event.

Little Forest Bat

Black-fronted Dotterel. Photo by Geoff Park. See below for details of Geoff’s photos at Spadeworks in Newstead.

There are a number of local nature and history-based exhibitions as well as a ‘Trees of Significance’ tour that FOBIF members and subscribers might like to view or take part in during this year’s festival period (March 13-22). The information here comes from the Castlemaine State Festival catalogue, the Fringe Events program and the Open Studios in Newstead flyer. There may be some relevant shows we have missed. If so, let us know.

1. Solar Mining
Artist: Yutaka Kobayashi (Festival Program p.59)
Kobayash is a Japanese environmental artist. This exhibition is an ‘ecological installation that draws on the unique cultural heritage of the Castlmaine Diggings, the toll of diggers past and the finite resource: gold.’

2. Unsettled
Artists: Susan Donisthorpe, Frank Veldze, Kate Osborne (Festival Program, p.61)
Set in the Pennyweight Children’s Cemetery this is a sight specific sound and light installation, projected onto a replica of a traditional gold miner’s hut made entirely from mattress wire. Continue reading →

Readers of the Castlemaine Mail on Friday February 20 will have noticed Newstead policeman Grant Macdonald referring to the increase in wild deer crossings at Green Gully. This, of course, is a potentially serious traffic hazard.

Feral deer at Walmer, Photo by Mitchell Parker, February 2015

Feral deer have a peculiar status in Victoria : they’re definitely a nuisance, and environmentally damaging—but they’re classified under the wildlife act, and are therefore protected species…while at the same time being classified as Game, which means that under certain conditions they can be hunted. This contradiction has caused governments to tie themselves in knots trying to justify the promotion of hunting while piously intoning words like ‘sustainability’ and ‘environmental protection.’ This is the ‘Deer Mistake’ referred to in an assessment by the Invasive Species Council in 2008. Those interested in the subject are advised to have a look at this report.

Deer are mainly a problem in Gippsland, where they can cause very serious damage to vegetation and waterways. Their effects in this region are not so clear. They are not at all uncommon in the Muckleford/Walmer area. As far as we know, there is no control or monitoring program in existence for the animal in the Box Ironbark regions.

More than 150 people gathered to celebrate Doug Ralph’s life in the Castlemaine Botanical Gardens last Saturday afternoon (7 March).

Bev Geldard who acted as MC began by reading an excerpt from a 2014 interview with Doug published in Earthsong magazine.  Sasha Shtargot was the interviewer.

Doug: I was deeply moved by a book about the Yarra River written by Maya Ward (The Comfort of Water, Transit Lounge 2012). In that she mentioned a story of some monks at a monastery who drew their water from one river all the time. They experienced the river, in a way they became the river. If you are drinking water from a particular area you are that water, you are the food of the area. Aboriginal people understand that – you just become part of the land.

I go for walks in the bush. It’s my way of meditating and sometimes afterwards I don’t know where I’ve been, I just blend with the landscape. One day I was walking in this way in a trance and all of a sudden I stopped – three wallabies were sitting nearby, eating calmly. Normally wallabies run away when a human is near, but these just sat there. I stopped and looked at them and they looked at me. It was a special moment. (Click here to see full interview which Earthsong has kindly provided us with.)

Jan Wositsky then read a eulogy that he had composed soon after Doug had died:

When Doug’s daughter, Lindy, rang and said that Doug had died, in the shock of it all it went through me that a mighty tree in the forest had fallen.

A tree of knowledge, a tree of wisdom, an old tree – a river red gum or a stout box – that had stood through changing generations and cultures of this town, and of this country. Read full text

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Long-leaf Box in the foreground at Rise and Shine Bushland Reserve. Photo by Bernard Slattery, September 2014.

Geoff Park will be leading our first walk for 2015 this Sunday (15 March) to the Rise and Shine Bushland Reserve which is south of Newstead (locate on Google maps). The walk will be fairly short (4 km). Either meet at the normal place, Continuing Education in Templeton Street at 9.30, or at the Newstead Post Office at 9.45 if this is more convenient. Alternatively you can meet at the Reserve at 10am.

Geoff has informed us that we are likely to see many native birds, perhaps even some early arriving Swift Parrots. Check out our walks page for more information on this and other walks planned for this year. You can find out more about the Rise and Shine Bushland Reserve here on Geoff’s blog. The page includes a link to a Reserve bird list.