Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

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The Spring Youth Bushwalk will be held on Sunday 7 September in Poverty Gully. Young FOBIF member, Nioka Mellick-Cooper, received a grant last year from the Mount Alexander Shire Council’s Youth Grants Program to run bush walks around Castlemaine for younger people.

The first youth bushwalk in March saw an eager group of people walk 5km through the Muckleford Forest and explore Dunn’s Reef and the Red White and Blue Mine.

The next walk will be a bit longer. It will start with the Eureka Reef interpretive trail and walkers will make our way up to the Monk for some wonderful views, and then back down to walk along the Poverty Gully water race, and through the Box and Ironbark forests of the Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park.

“It’s great exercise, and it’s a lot of fun to explore the bush,” say Nioka. “You never know what you might see when you’re in the forest.”

The walk is supervised by adults, and participants are taken to and from the walk site by buses.Walkers are meeting at Continuing Education in Templeton Street at 10am. Both adults and teenagers are welcome. Lunch is provided at the end of the walk, and interested people are encouraged to book on 5472 4609.

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Three weeks later (September 28) the spring walk for children up to the age of 12 with their families will take place at Kaweka Reserve between 10am and 12pm.  Walkers are meeting in Hargreaves Street between Turner St and Halford Street at 10 am. For more information on this walk click on the flyer at left or contact Naomi Raftery on 0422 585 585.

Cassia Read with children on the Autumn walk.

Twelve brave walkers braved unpromising forecasts to take on FOBIF’s August walk into the isolated upper reaches of the Columbine Creek catchment on Sunday. As it turned out, the weather was brisk but kind, with plenty of sunshine to take the edge of the breeze.

Walkers in the upper reaches of the Columbine Creek catchment. The wildflower season is getting under way, but illegal timber cutting is rampant.

Walkers were able to observe the growing abundance of wildflowers in the area. Less inspiring is evidence of illegal timber cutting on an almost industrial scale. Although there have been recent prosecutions for illegal firewood collection in this district, we have no doubt that foresters are still battling to cope with the consequences of Coalition decisions to weaken the firewood permit system. This system, which had been introduced by the Bolte Liberal government, served as a means of regulating the effects of firewood collection in public forests.

One of the dozens of examples of illegal firewood cutting in the Columbine Creek valley. Illegal cutting is partly the consequence of government decisions to weaken 60 year old permit regulations.

Thirty members and guests turned up to the FOBIF Annual General Meeting on Monday night to hear an entertaining and informative talk by George Milford on the chequered history of Mount Alexander, with an emphasis on its little known industrial side.
The meeting passed motions reaffirming the annual subscription fee of $10 for an individual and $15 for a family, and approving a committee size of four office bearers and three ordinary members.
The new committee is as follows: President: Marie Jones; Vice President: Neville Cooper; Secretary: Naomi Raftery; Treasurer: Lynette Amaterstein; Ordinary members: Frank Panter, Bronwyn Silver, and Bernard Slattery

With a State election due in November, candidates are starting to do a bit of spruiking about the place. We’ve drafted a number of questions it might be worth putting to them, should they appear on the horizon:

1. In 2012-13 the State Government embarked on a program of cutting 10% of Parks Victoria’s staff. This is on top of cuts in previous years by governments of both persuasions. We believe DEPI in Bendigo has lost a quarter of its staff in recent years. What’s your plan for the staffing of public land management, and what priorities do you see in this area?
2. Since coming to office the Coalition Government has cut more than a quarter of Government animal health and biosecurity jobs. Do you think a cut of 25% in the number of Parliamentarians would be good for Victoria? Would it improve MP’s efficiency?
3. The Royal Commission Implementation Monitor has criticised the Government’s policy of burning 5% of public land every year. He says the policy diverts DEPI resources to burning remote country when these should be deployed in dangerous areas close to settlements. A similar criticism of ‘targets’ has been levelled by Tasmania’s Chief Fire officer. Could you explain how burning 400 ha of bush in the remote Tarilta Valley is better at protecting human life than controlling dense gorse on the edge of Chewton, Castlemaine and Maldon townships?
4. The number of Phd and postgraduate students employed by DEPI has fallen by 22% since 2012-13, and the number of scientific and technical reports by DEPI officers supporting agriculture has fallen by 33% over the same period. In your opinion does this decline in research capacity affect DEPI’s ability to be an effective manager of our natural systems?
5. More than 500 jobs related to agriculture have been cut from DEPI since 2011. Is the Department as capable of managing agriculture now as it was 3 years ago? Or is the Farmers Federation right in expressing a lack of confidence in the Department’s ability to manage crises like disease outbreaks?
6. Past experience overseas shows that commercial development in National Parks benefits the private developer, but not the park or the public. Do you support commercial developments in National Parks? What effect do you think these might have on eco tourism businesses adjacent to Parks?
7. Whenever there are staff cutbacks in the Department of Environment and Primary Industry we are assured that no ‘front line’ staff are affected. Could you explain why research staff, who are usually the ones to be cut, are not important in enabling the Department to understand what it’s supposed to be doing? If you were running the Grand Prix, would you be in favour of cutting back on mechanics, as long as drivers were retained?
8.Victoria’s recent Waterways Strategy did not mention ‘climate change’, referring instead to ‘natural climate variation’. Environment commissioner Kate Auty claimed this year that Government employees have been instructed to avoid using the phrase ‘climate change’, and instead to refer to ‘natural climate variation.’ Scientists prefer the former term. Which one do you prefer? Do you think experts should be dictated to by politicians on this matter?

It was an important place to the Jaara people; grazed by sheep for nearly 100 years; listed as having been entirely denuded of useful trees by 1876; burned out by bushfire in 1901, and then washed out by a heavy thunderstorm which stripped the bare slopes of soil and dumped it into the Bendigo water channel: now it’s a State Park much loved by walkers, picnickers and cyclists who regularly grind their way over Joseph Young Drive.

FOBIF walkers passing a giant stringybark on Mount Alexander, August 2013: by 1876 the Mount had been ‘denuded’ of useful trees. The chequered history of the Mount will be the subject of George Milford’s talk at the FOBIF AGM.

Through all this it remains the biggest landmark in our district, and its history is the subject of a talk to be given by George Milford at the FOBIF AGM at 7.30 on Monday August 11 at the Castlemaine Continuing Education Building. Put it in your diary.

Members interested in nominating for the FOBIF committee should send their nominations in before that date. Contact Bernard Slattery (5472 2892) if you would like a nomination form.