Category Archives: News

An invasive South American weed: Espartillo

Margaret Panter has produced another weed identification  pamphlet, this time about an invasive South American weed, Espartillo. If the text below is hard to read you could try this link for a clearer copy.

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Black Saturday, ten years on: what’s changed?

The March edition of the VNPA’s Parkwatch magazine is now online, and can be found online here. The magazine has numerous articles of interest, but we particularly recommend the section where the magazine looks over the Bushfire Royal Commission’s recommendations … Continue reading

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Central West forests: sorting out what the public thinks

The Victorian Environment Assessment Council has released a summary of responses to its draft recommendations on the Central West forests. The summary can be found here. The consultation is an interesting example of a public body sounding out opinion as … Continue reading

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Want to be in the Easter bird check?

BirdLife International has identified areas of conservation importance around the world as Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs). This includes KBAs right here in our region. Our KBAs were designated especially for their importance for two special birds, Diamond Firetail and Swift … Continue reading

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Here’s a pretty picture: tell us how nice it is

FOBIF has made a reluctant submission to the current government consultation on forest management. Our reluctance is based on two concerns: These consultations increasingly look like popularity polls, along the lines of the Herald Sun’s daily polls on subjects like, … Continue reading

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Fire: another submission

FOBIF has made a late submission to the Bushfire Management consultation [see our previous post], after our representatives attended ‘drop in’ consultations in Castlemaine and Bendigo this month. The substance of our submission is set out below: The poor quality … Continue reading

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Burns Hill – a recovering landscape

There was a good turnout for the first FOBIF walk this year despite the hot weather. The 5km trek began at the Chewton Shop and followed Forest Creek to the Monster Meeting site. It was then up Burns Hill with … Continue reading

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Another reason to slow down…

Travellers on the Pyrenees Highway east of Newstead will have noticed that work is under way on Vicroads’ wire rope project. A last minute series of meetings between local residents and road engineers has failed to bring any further modification … Continue reading

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Change to Walks Program

We have swapped the FOBIF walks for April and May due to unavoidable circumstances. Revised program 21 April    Warburton Bridge We’ll start our May loop walk at Warburton Bridge campground, walk up to Smuttas, Damper and Hunters track, and return to … Continue reading

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Landcare stories

In 2018 the Midland Express published a series of ‘Landcare stories’ as part of Connecting Country’s ‘Nature News’ series. These stories are now available to read in electronic format (as pdf file), or as a printed booklet. Click here to download the … Continue reading

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