Author Archives: fobif

At the farewell event for Doug Ralph in the Castlemaine Botanic Gardens early last month Phil Ingamells gave a speech about Doug’s contribution to the environment movement in this region. Phil who lived in Castlemaine in the late 1990s was a good friend of … Continue reading →

The sounds of our natural environment are comprised of many voices; birdsong, frog choruses, seasonal insect choirs, mammal calls… But how have all these varied animal repertoires evolved? What can we learn from studying, or simply listening, to nature’s sounds … Continue reading →

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 … Continue reading →

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 … Continue reading →

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 … Continue reading →

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 … Continue reading →

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 … Continue reading →

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 … Continue reading →

If you see a Eucalypt in flower at this time of the year it is likely to be a Grey Box Eucalyptus microcarpa. They generally flower here from mid-February to April. (Yellow Box Eucalyptus melliodora has just finished flowering and the next Box … Continue reading →

We are in the process of setting up a page of photos of Doug on FOBIF’s Flickr site. So if you have any photos you would like to contribute to this page, send them to info@fobif.org.au. Photographers will be acknowledged.