Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

FOBIF is planning an understorey planting and weed attack working bee at the famous Chewton Yellow Box on National Tree day, Sunday July 29, from 10 am to 12 noon.

FOBIF foundation president Doug Ralph at the Chewton Yellow Box--it's definitely a monument worth looking after. Photo: Bronwyn Silver

The tree, one of the oldest in the district, is on the Great Dividing Trail near Fairbairn Street. FOBIF last year did some bridal creeper eradication work at the site, and this is a follow up effort. The site is about 100 metres from Forest Creek, near a small school pine plantation. The quantity and variety of weeds in this area is quite desperate, but the potential for restoration of a beautiful creek valley landscape offers plenty of motivation for workers to put a dent in the evil empire.

There’ll be more details closer to the event–but put it in your diary now!

The draft Mount Alexander Municipal Fire Management Plan is now out for consultation, as we reported below.

The draft contains some interesting information and some puzzling features. Among the former:

• The authors note that a community survey before the draft was compiled targeted residents under 25, but no responses were received from this group.
• In responses to the community survey ‘Protecting life and improving knowledge were considered to be the most important with regard to fire management, with minimising damage to the environment rating slightly higher than minimising fuel loads.’ This could be a balanced community view, or maybe a sign of a divided community—the draft doesn’t make this clear
• Historically there have been 53 fires per year on average in this region: of these, only 6, on average, have been ‘natural’ [ie, resulting from lightning strikes]. The rest have been caused by carelessness, technical malfunctions or arson.
• ‘State Government research has found that 75% of people living in the most fire prone areas do not believe that they need a fire plan.’

Among the puzzling features of the plan are the following:

• The plan lists four ‘key bushfire landscapes’ on page 16: grass, crop and stubble; box and ironbark forest and woodland; tall [sclerophyll] forest; and urban. Not included is ‘Pine plantation.’ This is evidently because the CFA does not consider these plantations to be as serious fire risks as the others. We believe, however, that the draft may be altered to include the plantations as a possible bushfire landscape.

Gorse which somehow escaped a DSE control burn near Quarz Hill, December 2011: The Municipal Fire plan draft recommends that fuel reduction programs be integrated with weed control.

• On page 22 we read that ‘Mount Alexander is home to vast tracts of bush wilderness with many communities and critical infrastructure situated in remote or difficult to access situations.’ This is a peculiar statement, given that there is no ‘wilderness’ in this region. Perhaps it will be corrected or modified in the final version.

There are many good features in the draft. One of them is the recommendation that fuel load reduction programs should be integrated with weed management, ‘particularly in relation to gorse, broom and blackberry weeds.’ [Readers of this site will remember that we have been irritated by DSE’s failure to pick up on this very reasonable idea]. Other features will need careful community scrutiny.

FOBIF will be making a submission on this draft in due course. It’s an important opportunity to engage in a constructive discussion on the task of minimising bushfire risk while respecting what makes our bushlands valuable and important. The document can be found here. Feedback can either be given at the info sessions detailed in our post below, or via the not terribly friendly Council feedback form, which you can find here . Forms should be marked ‘for the attention of the Emergency Management coordinator.’

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The Mount Alexander Shire Council, together with the CFA, DSE and other agencies and groups [not including FOBIF], has developed a community fire plan for the next three years.

The plan is on display in the Castlemaine Market Building from Monday to Wednesday till June 27. It can also be seen online at www.mountalexander.vic.gov.au

For the information of the public there are open house sessions on the plan at the Market Info centre on Wednesday 13 June from 11.30 am to 1.30 pm, and on Monday 25 June from 4.00 pm to 6.00 pm; these sessions will also be held at the Maldon visitor info centre on Friday 15 June from 4.00 pm to 6.00 pm, and at Harcourt ANA hall on Friday 22 June from 5.00 pm to 7.00 pm.

There will also be a one-hour feedback workshop at 6 pm on Wednesday 27 June at the Ray Bradfield room, Castlemaine.

Tall Greenhood, Poverty Gully. Photo: Bronwyn Silver, 10 June 2012

The Tall Greenhood Pterostylis longifolia is one of 16 local species of Greenhoods. Worldwide there are 120 species with about 100 of these endemic to Australia.

Along with other Greenhoods, this one lures insects, usually gnats, to the plant with pheromones. When the insect touches the lower lip of the orchid (labellum) it flings the insect back into the hood and closes over it. The movement of the insect as it attempts to escape assists in the pollination process. Once the insect escapes the ‘trap’ is reset.

Tall Greenhoods are one of the earliest species of Greenhoods to flower in this area. They are characterised by long leaves and multiple flowers on each stem. As with other Greenhoods the flowers are translucent which is thought to encourage trapped insects to move towards the light.

To view several other types of Greenhoods have a look at our FOBIF Flickr Gallery.

The latest FOBIF Mamunya exhibition opened at Tog’s Cafe in Lyttleton Street, Castlemaine last Friday. It runs till the 13 July. The exhibition continues a tradition the Friends started in 1999 with their first Mamunya festival. This word comes from a Dja Dja Wurrung chant, ‘pata, mamunya, jirarunga,’ meaning, ‘wait a while, don’t touch it, growing up.’

This time twelve photographers have contributed their photos. The images highlight the often overlooked beauty and intriguing characteristics of our local flora and fauna. Five of the 26 exhibition photos are included in the slideshow below.

FOBIF has made a brief submission to the North Central Catchment Management Authority on the draft Regional Catchment Strategy 2012-18.

Apart from offering a bit of constructive criticism of some of the language in the document which makes it sometimes hard to read, we have made three specific requests:

–That the strategy incorporate an education program designed to reduce the number of amenity dams in the region. These dams have been shown to significantly reduce inflows to our river systems, and often serve little more than a decorative purpose.

–That the CMA publish easily accessible summaries of the findings of monitoring and research on the condition of remnant vegetation and the effects of management actions. We’ve asked for this because we find official reports often to be over technical and in any case available to a limited number of people.

–That management fire be excluded from steeper sections of the Loddon and its tributaries. Readers of this website will understand why we have asked for this. Given that the Strategy is predicated on positive partnerships between the CMA and other agencies, we see no reason why the Authority shouldn’t exercise some influence in defence of its catchments.

We also expressed lively interest in the upcoming assessments of the Muckleford and Upper Loddon native vegetation assets.

The draft strategy can be found at nccma.bangthetable.com/document/show/51

Email submissions can be sent to haveyoursay@nccma.vic.gov.au

To celebrate World Environment Day in our Shire, an community fair will take place in the Castlemaine Market Building from 9am-1pm on Sunday 3^rd June. Whether people are interested protecting our diverse plants and animals, or sustainability initiatives and green technology opportunities, the fair will be a great source of information on what is happening locally.

The ‘mini expo’ format will give visitors an opportunity to talk to representatives from local environmental organisations, community groups and government agencies including: Connecting Country, Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests, Landcare, Mount Alexander Sustainability Group, Trust for Nature, Parks Victoria, Mount Alexander Shire Council and Castlemaine Community House – Growing Abundance.

Among the attractions of the day is the opportunity to see a specimen of the rare and endangered Southern Shepherds Purse – a plant growing in the Mount Alexander Regional Park and nowhere else in the world!

The Castlemaine Farmers Market and Castlemaine Market Building Art Showcase 2012 will be on at the same time.

Kirsten from Trust for Nautre with Swifty the Parrot at last year's World Environment Day

There are still places available at Alison Pouliot’s Fungi Ecology Workshop this coming weekend in Inglewood.

The workshop details are posted at:

http://wedderburncmnnews.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/alison-pouliot-fungi-workshops.html

Eighteen people turned out for the May FOBIF walk led by Barbara Guerin and Lionel Jenkins. The walk was largely focussed on the area’s mining history and Dominique Lavie took a series of terrific photos which are reproduced below.

The morning began with a walk to the top of the Monk with views like the one below.

View to the east from the Monk.

Along Cobblers Gully there were many overgrown remains of an early mining settlement.

Remains of the Cobblers Gully settlement.

The walk along Spring Gully is covered one of Victoria’s most intact collections of quartz reef mines with well preserved machinery foundations and mullock heaps.  The mines worked from the mid-1850s to the late 1930s.

Spring Gully Mine and Battery ruins

Mullock heap, Spring Gully.

Lunch was enjoyed overlooking an enormous quartz tailing dam.

Walkers having lunch at a crushed quartz dam, Spring Gully.

The walk back was mainly off-track. Towards the end we came across this extraordinary chimney pictured below. It was discovered after the walk that according to notes made by Jack Cocks on the Eureka Reef and surrounds the chimney is in the area of the Eureka South mine, which was not particularly rich and closed in the early 1900s.  The reason for the chimney is unclear as the building next to it is not big enough to have housed a steam boiler. It may have been a roasting kiln for mineral recovered from the Eureka Mine battery.

Thanks to Barbara and Lionel for leading their first FOBIF walk and to Dom for her photos. The next walk will be to Tarilta Gorge. Doug Ralph will be the leader.