Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

FOBIF has written to David Major, Ranger in charge fire and emergency operations for Parks Victoria, about track works in Kalimna Park. Our key question was: we believe protocols were developed by Parks some years ago to do with track works. Our question is: what are these protocols, and were they observed by dozer drivers?

Erosion in new track work, Kalimna Park: it’s impossible to find out exactly what directions are given to dozer drivers.

We’re awaiting an answer. It’s a good idea to have protocols guiding workers in sensitive areas: but only if they’re actually followed. The unfortunate history of track maintenance in this region suggests that they rarely are. One question we’ve repeatedly put to managers is: Were workers given a maximum width to keep to? We’ve never had an answer to that one.

Meanwhile, Castlemaine had a bit over 20 mls of rain over the weekend, in two falls, not particularly heavy ones by recent standards.  We went up to have a look at one of the pulverised tracks on Wednesday, and it’s no great joy to record that erosion has already started, as you can see from the picture above.

The Department of the Environment is preparing to burn Kalimna Park this autumn, some time between March 1 and May 31. This activity has been long planned, and is part of the current Fire Operations Plan. The map below shows the proposed burn area. The area in the centre of the map enclosed by the bend in the Tourist Road [to the east of the Secondary College], was burned in Spring 2009–this area is thus getting a double dose well inside the Tolerable Fire Interval necessary for the bush to recover after a fire.

Proposed burn area. It’s centred on the Tourist road, and includes the area burned in 2009

FOBIF has acknowledged that there is a fuel management challenge in the Park, given its proximity to Castlemaine. We have consistently maintained, however, that public safety and ecological health should be the dual aims of management activity in this heavily used bushland, which is home to the endangered Eltham Copper Butterfly. [Part of the planned ‘treatment’ area was assessed in the recent Bushfire Risk Landscape Plan as a ‘high value ecosystem area.’]

In the light of the apparently intractable contradictions between public safety and ecological health, local conservationists have put to the Department the suggestion that the area be treated in a series of very small burns over an extended period of time. Staged treatment like this would allow fauna better access to relatively unburned refuge areas, and would mean that this community asset could continue to be enjoyed.

At odd times we’ve had positive responses to this idea, but its big drawback is that such operations are more expensive. Land management needs to come cheaply, it seems.

Local conservationists met with Department fire officers on January 30 to discuss these and other concerns. The dialogue was constructive; undertakings were given that areas of importance to the butterfly would be protected.

One serious concern has already emerged, however: track work. Fire managers were asked at the January 30 meeting if intrusive and unnecessary track works could be avoided. They were assured that track works and mineral earth fire breaks would be lightly handled, and that no heavy dozer work would be needed for this.

Within one week, dozers had churned up to a kilometre or more of perfectly serviceable tracks in the proposed burn area. This does not bode well for the sensitive management of this precious area.

Our concerns relate also to adjacent burns proposed in successive years: Kalimna Point and adjacent areas,  Water Race Hill Track, and Colles Road.

As we reported above, participants at the January 30 consultation meeting were assured that track works and mineral earth breaks related to burning operations would be carefully managed and would not involve unnecessary gouging or road widening.

Track ‘upgrade’ in Kalimna. This particular track slopes steeply off the Tourist road, and is now a prime candidate for erosion.

Residents can judge for themselves how well this undertaking was kept. Within a week of the meeting work on several minor tracks leading steeply off the Tourist road were heavily gouged to widths of up to 7 metres, and their surfaces reduced to a powdery dust. These tracks, though by no means highways, were previously perfectly negotiable by appropriate vehicles.

This week, ‘upgrades’ have also been performed on the Lawson Parade end of the Tourist road. The top of this road, which has a parking area, has now been widened from 15 to 20 metres.

Much of this work has been conducted on tracks steeply sloping off the Tourist road, and seems like a pretty good effort at promoting erosion when the first storm comes along.

We’ve had a go at trying to get a sensible approach to tracks before, and have received numerous assurances, both from Parks Victoria and from the Council. We are NOT opposed to appropriate fire access: but the relentless widening of tracks to widths bigger than the Midland Highway not only destroys the picturesqueness of our bushland, it creates all sorts of environmental fragmentation as well.

Alison Pouliot has been sharing her fascination with fungi in workshops and forays across Central Victoria for many years. This year she has put together another wonderful program with several workshops in our Shire and others not far away. To view her 2015 program click here and to find out more about Alison’s work and interests click on her website image below.

FOBIF and several other community organisations will be attending an information meeting on February 5 on a proposal to set up a ‘dynamic vehicle testing facility and events and recreation centre’ at Gowar.

The Castlemaine Hot Rod Centre received $29,000 from the Coalition State Government last year to explore the viability of this project. The Centre has acquired farm land opposite the old Gowar school for the purpose.

Land at Gowar is slated for development as a ‘dynamic vehicle testing and events facility’.

The 45 ha block is bounded on the north by the Castlemaine-Maldon Rd and Pullans Road; on the east by Talbot Rd, and on the south and West by the Maldon State Forest. The block is about a kilometre from the Muckleford Nature Conservation Reserve. Bushfire management and Significant Landscape Overlays apply to the whole site.

Back Creek drains across the site on its way to Muckleford Creek.

The project includes:

—a 1.2 km tarmac test track
—parking for 500 vehicles with possibility of expansion
—facilities for movie nights, concerts and outdoor shows
—shower and toilet facilities and powered and unpowered camp sites
—fully equipped function room and catering facility
—display areas for up to 3,000 sites
—capacity for truck shows, rod runs, field days, etc
—‘potential to establish a network of mountain bike tracks combining parts of the site with existing tracks in the adjacent state forest’.

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The photo below is of a red bellied black snake on the Pyrenees highway at Barkers Creek in late December. Efforts to persuade the snake to move off the road in one direction or another proved futile, and the reptile was killed by passing traffic not long after this photo was taken. As we’ve reported in previous posts, reptile deaths on our roads are quite horrific, and in many cases avoidable.

Red bellied black snake at Barkers Creek. Though venomous, it’s ‘beautiful, and largely inoffensive’.

The red bellied black snake is venomous, but not as aggressive as browns and tigers can be when cornered. As the Australian Museum puts it:

‘This beautiful serpent shares our love of sunshine and water, and is a familiar sight to many outdoor adventurers in eastern Australia. Attitudes towards these largely inoffensive snakes are slowly changing, however they are still often seen as a dangerous menace and unjustly persecuted.’

It’s worth reading the Museum’s highly diverting account of this reptile’s mating rituals. The males engage in spectacular wrestling matches which can resemble mating. In their very useful guide Frogs and reptiles of the Bendigo district, Darren Green and Dale Gibbons relate the story of naturalist David Fleay, who caught and bagged two fighting snakes, ‘whereby they resumed their brawling inside the bag slung over his shoulder!’

The combats are not fatal, however: the loser wanders off to another area, presumably to try his luck elsewhere.

The photo below encapsulates the hard reality of summer, reptiles and roads:

The same snake a short while later: at least five million reptiles and frogs are killed on our roads each year.

The Woodland birds of Central Victoria brochure was recently launched at a late afternoon event in The Hub garden, Castlemaine. The large gathering was addressed by Connecting Country director Chris Timewell, Connecting Country’s Habitat for Bush Birds Project Coordinator Tanya Loos, and Geoff Park of Natural Newstead fame who launched the brochure.

The brochure is organised into three main sections: birds of Intact Habitat, birds of Modified Habitat and birds of Transition Habitat. There are many wonderful bird photos in each of these sections as well as a photo of each landscape. Another panel in the brochure covers the ‘feathered five’ (Diamond Firetail, Brown Treecreeper, Hooded Robin, Painted Button-quail and Jacky Winter).  These five species have been chosen as ambassadors for Connecting Country’s ten-year Woodland Bird Action Plan.

This compact resource will be an invaluable guide to local people who are interested in bird identification.

The brochures are available at the Connecting Country office in The Hub, the Mount Alexander Shire Information Centre and Stoneman’s Bookroom. You could also try the EnviroShop (325 Barker Street, Castlemaine).

Chris Timewell, Tanya Loos and Geoff Park addressing the gathering at the launch. Photos: John Ellis