Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

There will be six events conducted in collaboration with the Newstead Arts Hub and the Castlemaine State Festival.

Saturday 21st March (11am – 2pm) – Carrie Tiffany – Mateship with Birds

Carrie, a former park ranger, has twenty years’ experience as a researcher, writer, editor and teacher of creative writing. Her novel, Mateship with Birds, won the inaugural 2013 Stella Prize. Geoff Park will share an ‘in conversation’ with Carrie, before she leads a bird-themed creative writing workshop. No writing experience is needed … Book now

Sunday 22nd March (11am – 2pm) – Richard Weatherly – A brush with woodland birds
Richard is an iconic Australian artist, conservationist and innovative farmer. With over fifty-five years of professional experience, Richard will draw on his acclaimed illustrated works, such as The Fairy-Wrens and A Brush with Birds, as he leads this workshop. Materials provided, though participants are welcome to bring their own … Book now

Monday 23rd March (7.30am- 12.30pm)) – Lawrie Conole – The ‘Difficult’ Bird Search

The Newstead district is an Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) – sites identified as being internationally significant for the conservation of birds and other biodiversity … It is home to a suite of ‘difficult’ birds – cryptic, declining and often just plain hard to find species that call our local bush home.

Lawrie will introduce you to some of these characters and their habits, including their distinctive songs. It will then be your mission, should you choose to accept it, to venture to a selection of local sites where, armed with some new skills and information, you’ll hopefully encounter some of them such as Speckled Warbler, Chestnut-rumped Heathwren, Painted Button-quail, Hooded Robin, Spotted Quail-thrush, or even a Crested Bellbird … Book now

Wednesday 25th March (7pm) – Andrew Skeoch – the wild bird soundscapes of our woodlands

Learn the songs and calls of some of our rarer bird species! This immersive one-hour presentation will introduce the importance of sound for species ID, monitoring, and assessing the state of our local habitat. This will be followed by a session for those interested to share their observations of local birdlife/wildlife occurrences/movements, and to introduce a future project.

Andrew Skeoch is a professional wildlife sound recordist, acoustic ecologist and author of ‘Deep Listening to Nature’. He has given presentations to audiences ranging from festivals such as WOMADelaide’s Planet Talks to local communities, written for The Conversation, and presented radio features, keynote addresses and a TEDx talk … Free event.

Thursday 26th March (8am – noon) – Patrick Kavanagh – The art and craft of bird photography
In this workshop, Patrick, an accomplished nature photographer with a special ‘focus’ on woodland birds of the Newstead district and their habitats, will offer personal tuition on photographic techniques and field craft. The workshop starts and ends at Newstead Art Hub and will involve gentle walking in an outdoor environment. BYO Camera … Book now

Thursday 26th March – Exhibition opening (6pm) … John Wolseley and Geoff Park

A joint exhibition of works to celebrate birds and the landscapes they inhabit … open weekends from Saturday 14^th March – Sunday 29^th March or by appointment.

Friday 27th March (6-7pm) – John Wolseley and Geoff Park in conversation

Since moving to Australia in 1978, John Wolseley has immersed himself in the landscape, an approach which has given rise to a variety of different ways of collaborating with the land itself. His large scale works on paper, watercolours and installations are often based around scientific themes.

Geoff Park is an ecologist, wildlife photographer and field naturalist with a 60-year obsession with birds. Since 2008, with his Natural Newstead blog, Geoff has been documenting the nature of the Newstead district through writing and photography with a particular focus on birds.

Join them in conversation as they discuss their experiences of engaging with landscapes and the creatures that inhabit these places. An evening of sharing stories, ideas from their lives of observing, documenting and wondering about nature … Book now

The proceeds from this diverse and rich program of events will be dedicated to a community designed, citizen science woodland bird conservation project in central Victoria, in partnership with the Wettenhall Environment Trust.