Author Archives: fobif

Excellent spring reading

Posted on 10 October, 2021 by fobif

In case you’re not already in the loop: the September edition of the Wombat Forestcare newsletter is now online. You can find it here. Among many excellent articles is one by Tanya Loos on echidnas, with much useful info on … Continue reading →

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Looking for some garden info?

Posted on 10 October, 2021 by fobif

FOBIF has sets of Australian Plants magazine, dating from 1969 to 2009, looking for a good home. They’re a fascinating record of enthusiasts’ and experts’ reflections on the place of Australian plants in gardens and the environment. Interested? They’re free … Continue reading →

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Strategic Fuel Breaks 1: settlements

Posted on 4 October, 2021 by fobif

The draft map below shows the strategic fuel breaks proposed for the Castlemaine township area. Final decisions about the breaks are yet to be made, but the works are expected to be completed this financial year. The main fuel breaks … Continue reading →

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Strategic fuel breaks 2: bushlands

Posted on 4 October, 2021 by fobif

The draft map below shows the strategic fuel breaks proposed for the Castlemaine region. The lines are provisional but we are assuming they’ll be close to final. The black lines are the breaks around the Castlemaine-Chewton area, plus the important … Continue reading →

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Strategic fuel breaks: is it necessary to flatten nature to make our forests safe?

Posted on 20 September, 2021 by fobif

As we reported on August 16, DELWP is planning to create fuel breaks in this region, both near settlements and through bushland: ‘Strategic Fuel Breaks are a strip of land where vegetation has been permanently modified to reduce the rate … Continue reading →

Posted in Fire Management, News | 2 Comments

In case you missed it…

Posted on 30 August, 2021 by fobif

ABC Television’s Gardening Australia program ran a segment on our local bushlands on August 20. The program, filmed on the Monk, packed a lot into its 8 minute duration. Local ecologist Cassia Read invited viewers to take a close up … Continue reading →

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Ian Higgins: A world lost…A world to regain?

Posted on 23 August, 2021 by fobif

The nature and function of peas The lush grasslands Major Mitchell called Australia Felix in 1836 were the starting point of Ian Higgins’s inspirational talk to the FOBIF AGM on August 9. The park-like scenes which so excited Mitchell were … Continue reading →

Posted in Nature Observations, News | 4 Comments

Slime mould knows the way out of Ikea!

Posted on 23 August, 2021 by fobif

Here’s a curious note on slime mould research, from the London Review of books : ‘The mycologist Lynne Boddy once made a scale model of Britain out of soil, placing blocks of fungus-colonised wood at the points of the major … Continue reading →

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Strategic fuel breaks planned for our region

Posted on 16 August, 2021 by fobif

Discussions have begun over the government’s Strategic Fuel Breaks program, set to come to this region in the next few months. The program is described here. There are two kinds of break: —Asset protection breaks, to be set up around … Continue reading →

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Fuel management: the detail counts

Posted on 16 August, 2021 by fobif

FOBIF has made a submission to DELWP on the current fire management plan. The ‘fuel reduction’ burns currently planned can be seen on the Department’s excellent interactive map here. Our submission essentially related to the following: –We believe burns planned … Continue reading →

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