Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

Signs: what do they mean? And, especially, what does it mean that a lot of the signs around our parks are pretty decrepit?

We posed this question a couple of years ago when we published this photo of a sign on Poverty Gully:

Poverty Gully sign, July 2018: on its way out…

We’re still not sure of the answer to the question, but we can offer a progress report on the sign:

The same sign, April 2020: going, going…

The detached bit has completely disappeared. In short, the sign’s on its way to total oblivion, replaced, for the moment, by a beer bottle.

There’s increasing discussion about how Australia is going to recover from the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 attack. In this context we think it’s worth thinking about a proposal submitted to the Prime Minister by the Australian Conservation Foundation, the National Farmers Federation, Landcare Australia and many other farming and conservation groups. The full proposal can be found here. The gist of the proposal is that ‘During the period of economic recovery, there is scope for tens of thousands of skilled and unskilled workers to be employed in the conservation and land management sector’ in roles that are:

View from the Nuggety Ranges: Farmer, Landcare and Conservation groups have argued that restoration of land health should be a priority in future economic recovery programs.

‘ – practical and labour intensive;

‘- located in both regional and metropolitan areas;

‘- appropriate for repurposing existing workforces which are under pressure, including tradespeople and workers in the tourism, fisheries and forestry sectors; and,

‘- will not create long-term structural commitments in the budget.’

The proposal is costed at about $4 billion. It proposes investment in the following areas:

• a surge in weed control efforts, focussed on containment and preventing cross-tenure spread;
• river and wetland restoration, including fencing, revegetation and erosion control;
• national park infrastructure, track maintenance and park management (fire, weeds, feral animals);
• bushfire recovery and resilience activities, including infrastructure repairs and habitat restoration;

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And amidst the gloom, let’s not forget that things are happening out there:

Acacia genistifolia, Kalimna Park, April 12: this wattle flowers for most of the year. Do we take it for granted?

With great regret we have suspended the 2020 FOBIF Walks Program due to the COVID-19 health crisis and the current regulations and restrictions.  The April geology tour is therefore cancelled, and subsequent walks are also called off. When the program resumes we’ll post details on this site.

The April FOBIF committee meeting will not take place and future meetings will be managed by electronic link-up.

Please continue to follow our web page as it’s a great way to keep in touch; and we hope that you all enjoy our wonderful bush over the coming months.