Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

In 1846 Joseph Parker described Campbells creek as

‘A scene of beautiful, crystal like waterholes, which sparkled in the glittering rays of the sun; every  waterhole was teeming with fish,and flocks of ducks.On the slopes and hills on either side of the creek, stood evergreen trees, with such even regularity, as to lead one to believe that they had been planted by the hand of science, consisting of golden, silver and black wattle, many of them in full bloom, also blackwood, sheoak and honeysuckle…’

Campbells Creek from the footbridge: many years of work by the Friends group have brought a remarkable revival.

Parker called it ‘nature’s paradise’, but the creek got a bit of a battering over the following century: you can see a photo of a section of it in 1946 here. Its current revival is the result of the commitment and hard work of the Friends of Campbells Creek and about 100 people rocked up to the Friends community day last Sunday to celebrate the creek and its future as a community resource. Have a look at the group’s Facebook page for more details.

Alex Panelli led the last 2014 walk on 19 October in the Fryers Ranges around the Sugarbag Track area. Noel Young wrote the following piece on the walk and included an extensive flowering plant list:

On a day of glorious weather, the walk for most of us quickly turned into a Wildflower Walk as Alex had selected an area which was flowering profusely and appeared to be at the peak of the season. Unlike last month’s walk there was no sign of cup moth damage, and the trees looked very healthy. Another healthy sign was the almost constant calling of birds all along the track. Although I have not mastered all the bird calls, I could list as definites: Horsefield’s Bronze Cuckoo, Golden Bronze Cuckoo, Fan-tail Cuckoo, Grey Thrush, White throated Tree-creeper, Rufous Whistler, Fuscous Honey-eater, Olive backed Oriole, Grey Fantail, Blue Wren, Kookaburra, and Spotted Pardalote.

I counted about 30 species of flowering plants: Yam Daisy, Slender Rice flower, Pink Bells, Milkmaids, Creamy Candles, Primrose Goodenia, Fairy Wax-flower, Common Beard-heath, Grey Everlasting, Sticky Everlasting, Downy Grevillea, Billy Buttons, Fireweed (Senecio sp), Showy Parrot-pea, Matted Bush-pea, Prostrate Flat-pea, Bulbine lily. Chocolate lily, Black Anther Flax-lily, Erect Guinea-flower, Daphne Heath, Native Violet and Twining Fringe-lily.

Spider Orchid (Caladenia phaeoclavia). Photo by Noel Young

Orchids: Spotted Sun-orchid, Bearded Greenhood, Purplish Beard-orchid, Pink Fingers, Hooded Caladenia and Waxlip Orchid.

Theo Mellick-Cooper took the first three photos below and the rest were taken by Bronwyn Silver. Click to enlarge.

Robert Frost wrote a famous poem called ‘The Road Not Taken’ that begins with the line ‘Two roads diverged in a yellow wood’. Had he been writing about Kalimna Park he might have added ‘then diverged again, and again, and again’. It’s a fact that Kalimna Park has got more trails than it knows what to do with and a walk there almost always involves a series of decisions about which ‘road’ to take that day.

Enter Jase Haysom. Central Victoria’s original GPS-wielding cartographic adventurer and community mapper extraordinaire. Jase has spent the last few months mapping Kalimna Park to create a topographical map that shows almost all of the roads and trails in the Park – he drew the line at kangaroo paths and goat tracks.

Thanks to Jase’s effort you can now download a map of Kalimna Park page from his Cartography Community Mapping website.

The map will also be made available as a hardcopy from the Castlemaine Information Centre and will be used by the Friends of Kalimna Park to help them plan activities and promote the park. The Friends hope that the map can eventually be installed at the Kalimna Point carpark.

As for the ‘road not taken’, Jase will never have to sigh at the thought it – he’s mapped them all!

‘There was never a body of men so foolishly, disastrously wrong,’ wrote Eric Rolls in his 1984 book, They all ran wild.

He was talking about the Acclimatisation Societies of Australia, people who believed that this continent was lacking in nice plants and animals, and decided to bring a few good ones in. Among their introductions were carp, rabbits, sparrows and starlings.

Local researcher Doug Ralph has unearthed the 1874 annual report of the Castlemaine branch of the society. It’s easy to be superior about their efforts from this distance, but their attitudes were shared by some pretty well informed people at the time: Victoria’s preeminent botanist, Ferdinand von Mueller, for example, is responsible for bringing blackberries into the state!

Assorted weeds near Chewton: the nineteenth century enthusiasm to ‘improve’ Australia has left us with an expensive legacy of feral plants and animals.

Part of the 1874 report is printed below. It’s worth noting that the society’s effort to bring carp to the district eventually failed. This pest didn’t appear in numbers in Victoria till the mid 20th century:

‘In our last report we stated that the efforts of the society had been more particularly directed to stocking the various reservoirs and watercourses with fish This work has been continued during the past year, and we have received from the Ballarat Fish Acclimatisation Society several consignments of English perch, which have been placed in the Muckleford Creek and elsewhere We cannot omit referring to the immense amount of food and enjoyment this fish has afforded to the inhabitants of Ballarat, when from Lake Wendouree (which was four years ago a dry plain) upwards of nine tons of fish were caught during the past season We have every reason to believe that our experiments may prove equally successful. The trout which we reported as having been placed in the Harcourt reservoir we have not yet heard of any being seen or caught. But, in case they have survived, we should have some evidence during the next few months. The Murray cod and other fish
placed in the Expedition Pass Reservoir we have information that they have been seen, and no doubt during the next season there will be plenty of fish for the anglers in this sheet of water. The carp also have multiplied wonderfully in the several private dams where they were placed, and no doubt they exist in large quantities in the various larger reservoirs where they have been placed.

Continue reading →

Tanya Loos will be giving a one-hour presentation on her recently published Daylesford Nature Diary at the next Newstead Landcare Group meeting on this Thursday (16 October). The evening will start at 8pm and take place at the Newstead Community Centre. The talk will be followed by a very brief AGM and a light supper. Gold coin donations would be appreciated. Tanya will also have copies of her book for sale.

If you like the idea of marking the seasons by such things as the arrival of spring migrants, or fabulous fruiting fungi – do come along.

There is also more information on Tanya and her diary on the Connecting Country website.

FOBIF has tentatively begun work on a beginners guide to eucalypts of the Mount Alexander region, in a joint project with Connecting Country. We’re looking for enthusiasts who are interested in joining the working group. ‘Work’ will involve a fair bit of mooching around peering at trees.

Red box [Eucalyptus polyanthemus] blossom, Maldon Historic Reserve, October 2014. Red box is coming into flower now; Yellow box is in flower; and Red gums are on the way.