Author Archives: fobif

Fightback

A century ago it was common enough to see enormous flocks of Regent honeyeaters in woodland country from Queensland to South Australia. Habitat depletion has led to drastic decline in the numbers of this beautiful bird [see a photo and … Continue reading

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Another proposal for a housing estate next to Kalimna

The Mount Alexander Council is considering a proposal for a 39 lot housing estate on the mainly cleared land on the eastern side of Kalimna Park. The developer is Mr Ron Rice who has made many development proposals for Happy … Continue reading

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Poolside

Last summer saw an amazing explosion in numbers of dragonflies and damselflies around our creeks and dams. This year there are already significant numbers of these interesting and important creatures. The Forest Creek pools near the walking track are playing … Continue reading

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MAS Municipal fire management plan

Along with other northern Victorian councils, Mount Alexander is currently in the process of getting together a Municipal fire management plan. These plans are part of the State’s integrated fire management policy mentioned in our post of September 5. A … Continue reading

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Make yourself comfortable!

The brush tailed Phascogale, or Tuan, is FOBIF’s chosen symbol for a number of reasons: it’s an iconic box ironbark species, it’s endangered, and, let’s face it, it’s cute. One of the interesting things about the Phascogale is that it … Continue reading

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What’s its name?

Doug Ralph recently found this caterpillar attached to a Tall Sundew. Does anyone what it’s called? Another one of Doug’s recent images is this lacework-like gumleaf.

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Fifteen Trees supports community groups, landowners and environmental groups by providing them with trees for planting. The trees are paid for by individuals and companies who wish to make a contribution to the greening of our native environment. There is … Continue reading

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A management plan for Forest Creek?

A draft management plan for forest Creek, prepared by Max Shlacter for Connecting Country, in consultation with various community groups [including FOBIF], residents and agencies, is now in circulation. It can be found here The informative and interesting plan divides … Continue reading

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It’s hard to like them, but they’re quite at home with us…

The picture below is of a dead Redback spider, Latrodectus hasselti, found in a Castlemaine garden. The species is infamous for its alleged propensity to lurk on toilet seats, but is actually quite shy, though it has made itself comfortable … Continue reading

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Promises, promises?

Readers will remember our criticisms of DSE’s conduct of the Smutta’s track management burn early this year [see our posts of April 26 and May 2]. Specifically we were concerned by the destruction of a very large tree near Hunter’s … Continue reading

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