Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

Compared to the massacre which they have perpetrated at the Ravenswood interchange of the Calder Freeway, Vicroads’ plans for tree removal along the Pyrenees Highway are pretty small beer.

All the same, FOBIF has opposed the extent of tree removal, and has proposed a set of alternatives, including rumble strips and an 80kph speed restriction [see our post]. We believe that these measures are more important in preserving life than the Vicroads alternative: allowing unsafe speeds, and trying to deal with the consequences. In detailed discussions with engineers, however,  we have been told that these suggestions were not practicable.

We’ve been in this situation before: ten years ago we were told that an 80k limit on the road between Golden Point Road and Elphinstone simply wouldn’t work. Now, guess what? The 80k limit has been imposed. What’s more, the same limit has been imposed on the Midland, between Castlemaine and Harcourt, a vastly more manageable road than the winding, narrow stretch between Green Gully and Newstead with numerous access driveways.

Further, Vicroads accepted a lower speed limit on its parallel project near Rushworth last year. Chief Executive John Merritt was quoted at the time as follows: “It’s essentially around reducing the speed for part of that road as an alternative to just clearing a wider path.”

According to the Midland Express [July 5], the Midland speed reduction has caused some ‘outrage’ in social media, although it is estimated to add only 30 seconds to the trip between Castlemaine and Harcourt. In our opinion, this ‘outrage’ highlights the problem: is it Vicroads’ job to accommodate those who want to drive at maximum speeds at all times, or is it more important for road authorities to engage in a sustained campaign to educate drivers to drive to local conditions?

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Thirty five people braved bleak winter weather to attend FOBIF’s Annual General Meeting last Monday. They were rewarded with an enormously entertaining and instructive talk by Martin Scuffins on birds of prey. Martin, who runs the Leigh Valley Hawk and Owl Sanctuary, was assisted by his rescued kestrel, Kevvie, who seemed to be a very experienced public performer.

Martin’s message was that the key to healthy predator populations–and therefore to a healthy environment– was good habitat management, and serious efforts to manage the way increasing human populations interact with the natural world. The Leigh Valley centre plays an important role in educating people on these matters.

Monday’s meeting saw the following members elected or re elected to the committee:

President: Marie Jones

Vice President: Neville Cooper

Treasurer: Lynette Amaterstein

Secretary: Naomi Raftery

Committee members: Jeremy Holland, Frank Panter, Bronwyn Silver, Bernard Slattery.

Much fun was had listening, cooking, tasting, painting, weaving and playing last week as Aunty Julie McHale lead three great sessions last week for the FOBIF 2016 Winter School Holiday program.

An adopted elder of the Dja Dja Wurrung, Aunty Julie skillfully shared her knowledge and stories with over thirty local children during the course of the week.

The program was run at the Fryerstown School, which with its outdoor fire pit, provided local primary school children, parents and carers with the scene for learning about local indigenous culture.

Each session started with Julie leading an acknowledgement of country and followed by a Teaching of the story of Bunjil which is a story about Creation and is told at the beginning of any cultural activities.

Kids got stuck into some cooking, with damper, originally made with Kangaroo Grass seed, and dried bush fruit and acacia seed mixed through.

Depending on the day and age of the children, next was some weaving with bush materials or painting with natural coloured paint.

Games from the desert were adapted and shared, faces painted in preparation for dancing and then we cracked open our damper to finish.

A big thank-you to Julie and her helpers, volunteer Louise Jiricek and Mount Alexander Shire Council for their support for the program though their 2016-17 Community Grants program.

A cool winter day provided pleasant walking conditions for 19 participants on FOBIF’s June walk. Jeremy Holland led the group across some interesting isolated hills and ridges south of Italian Hill, before swinging past Sailor’s Gully and the Tubal Cain mine on a return trip to Vaughan Springs.

Walkers were struck by early appearance of Golden Wattle blossom; the damper gullies provided many terrific fungi sightings; and Sailors Gully featured spectacular carpets of moss. The first photo is by Win Jodell and the rest by Bernard Slattery.

The next FOBIF walk on 17 July will be led by Bernard Slattery. Click here for details.

Our highly successful FOBIF exhibition, Trees of the Mount Alexander Region, is finally finishing this weekend after a month at TOGS Cafe in Castlemaine in March and almost a month now at the Newstead Railway Arts Hub. So if you haven’t managed to catch it yet, take a trip to Newstead between 9 am and 4 pm this Saturday or Sunday. All the details are here. You can also download an online catalogue (14 MG) of the show here . This document includes a thumbnail version of every photo with accompanying notes.

Patrick Kavanagh’s photo here is a good example of the terrific quality and fascinating subject matter of photos in this show.

Our trees are hosts to an amazing variety of life forms, and the macro lens can reveal sights barely visible (or effectively invisible) to the naked eye: in this case, what could seem to be an anonymous brown crust on a Grey Box (Eucalyptus microcarpa) leaf turns out to be a beautifully formed ‘shell’: the Shell Lerp (Spondyliaspis bancrofti). We’re not sure what the smaller scattered objects are.

Here’s a reminder: the FOBIF Annual General Meeting will be held at the Ray Bradfield Rooms on Monday July 11 at 7.30 p.m.

Our guest speaker will be Martin Scuffins from the Leigh Valley Hawk and Owl sanctuary.

Do you want to play a role on the FOBIF committee? Or nominate someone else to the committee? All that’s needed is a piece of paper signed by the nominee, a nominator and a seconder–all FOBIF members. There’s no need of an official form, but for convenience, here’s a sample:

I nominate_________________________________

for the position of____________________________

Signed____________________________________

Seconded__________________________________

I accept the above nomination

Signed___________________________________

Positions on the committee are President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, and two ordinary members.

The FOBIF constitution is the Model Rules of Association provided by Consumer Affairs Victoria. These provide that if the number of nominations received before the AGM equals the number of places, those nominated will be declared elected. If there is an excess of nominees over places, an election will take place at the meeting.

Please note that all FOBIF committee meetings are open to any member to attend and contribute. They are held at the Continuing Education building in Templeton Street Castlemaine on the second Monday of each month from February to December, at 6 pm.

Imagine a jewellery shop left open and unattended by the proprietor, with a notice reading: ‘feel free to appreciate the stock, but try not to trash the joint–and please don’t steal anything’. Possibly a majority of customers might oblige, but it’s a fair bet a few would take the opportunity to make off with a souvenir or two.

That’s what a lot of our public land is like. Understaffing in Parks Victoria means a ranger would be almost the most surprising sighting you could have in a park. We’ve become nearly  used to this, but we would like a modicum of infrastructure to keep the place in order.

A good example is the northern entry to the Ballantinia Track on Mount Alexander. Trail bikes are an increasing problem on the Mount, and it’s easy to see where their entry point is, when you look at the sad gate and its even sadder sign:

Northern gate to the Ballantinia Track, Mount Alexander, June 2016: when does a gate not actually function as a gate?

FOBIF has written to Parks Victoria asking for the gate to be given a modicum of credibility in the form of an actual closure. We’re waiting for an answer.

Post script June 20: we’ve been assured that the gate has now been fixed. The mystery remains as to why it was in that state for so long.

A sample of bike damage can  be seen below:

Trail bike scars below the Ballantinia Track: an effective gate might not be the complete solution, but it would be a help.

FOBIF has made a brief submission to the current Parliamentary enquiry on fire preparedness. This is possibly the millionth submission on fire we’ve made over the last 15 years, and is accompanied by a slight feeling of going around in circles: but we live in hope that repeating ourselves over and over might have a beneficial effect.

The submission concentrates on environmental matters and the Parks Victoria budget. The headings in bold quote the enquiry’s terms of reference. The substance of the submission  is below:

***

This brief submission will concentrate on the two categories under A below, and we will make a brief comment on Parks Victoria’s most recent annual report.

We do not intend to underplay the importance of safety: we merely wish to insist on the importance of integrating safety concerns with a commitment to a healthy environment: we don’t believe we should make ourselves safe by reducing the environment to a dust bowl.

In our view, the common assumptions about fuel management in the past were either, ‘the bush is tough, it will recover’, or ‘too bad, safety comes first.’ We believe management should advance from the trade off position to one where it aims for both safety and environmental health, and resists any notion of trade offs and compromises [most of which, in the recent past, have been on the environmental side.]

A ‘c. The impact of preventative burns on threatened species; d.The impact of preventative burns on Ecological Vegetation Classes;’ 

We wish to make the following specific requests:

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On Saturday 4 June, 50 people came out in the cold winter weather to attend the opening of the FOBIF photo show, Trees of the Mount Alexander Shire, at the Newstead Railway Arts Hub. There were lots of positive comments about the diversity and quality of exhibits and the slide show accompanied by Listening Earth recordings of local birdsong was also well-received.

Andrew Skeoch, president of the Hub’s Committee of Management, welcomed everyone and Bernard Slattery from FOBIF opened the show:

The aim of this exhibition is consistent with the stated intention of our first Mamunya festival in 1999, to ‘honour the native forests of our region’, and to keep faith with the original Mamunya statement, a Jaara incantation meaning ‘wait a while, don’t touch it, growing up.’

 Obviously the photographers exhibited here have a range of different approaches to their subjects, but a common theme is the expression of wonder or surprise at the subjects portrayed. This is a modest exhibition; the ego of the photographer has taken second place to the desire to keep faith with the object in view, to show its place in history or the wider geographical context. The photos here don’t pretend to high art, but they’re not simple snapshots: anyone familiar with the environmental history of this region will recognize that what’s represented here is a drama of destruction and renewal, of life and death. These aren’t trivial themes, but there’s nothing portentous about the way the material is presented: what we have is a careful attentiveness to the trees and the world they reflect and contain—and one which will reward careful attentiveness on the part of visitors to this terrific little gallery. 

Guests chatting at the opening (left) and Bernard Slattery addressing the crowd (right). Photos by John Ellis

 The show is open for two more weekends (18-19 and 25-26 June). Opening hours are 10am – 4 pm. Further details can be found here. Contact Bronwyn Silver (5475 1089) for more information.