Nalderun Sorry Day and Reconciliation Week – 27 May to 3 June 2024
Posted on 21 May, 2024 by Ivan
Our friends and project partners at Nalderun have sent us some information about events for Reconciliation Week 2024. The week of events will commence with the 2024 Sorry Day commemoration at Castlemaine Botanical Gardens on Sunday 26 May 2024. Please read on for details about this important week.
Nalderun Education Aboriginal Corporation, with support from Friends of Nalderun present:
The 2024 Sorry Day commemoration
Where: Castlemaine Botanical Gardens, Castlemaine VIC
When: Sunday 26 May 2024 from 10.00 am
All are invited to commemorate the Stolen Generation and participate in this National Day of Healing. Senior Djaara Elder Uncle Rick Nelson will be doing a Welcome Ceremony with Smoking.
Speeches by Special guests Uncle Ron Murray, Mayor Cr Matthew Driscoll and music by award-winning Celtic Indigenous duo Kinja.
For the full program of events for Nalderun Sorry Day and Reconciliation Week 2024 – Click Here
‘Nalderun is a Dja Dja Wurrung word which means ‘all together’, because we believe by moving forward together we can make the change needed for our children, our mob and the wider community in the Mount Alexander Shire region of Victoria to thrive. We are Aboriginal led and run – we know what our Community needs, as we are apart of it. For 10 years we have seen our children become stronger, proud and deadly. We know our future, and the future for our children’s children is safe, having created programs and ways of being and teaching now. We want you to join this journey in this two-way learning space. We look forward to walking forward together. We invite you to support us in caring for Culture, Country and Community and to meet the needs of our mob, and the ever-increasing commitment to support these changes in the broader community, which builds respectful and reciprocal relationships for all.’
This video is a showcase of 10 years of Nalderun:
Bird of the Month: Rufous Whistler
Posted on 21 May, 2024 by Ivan
Welcome to Bird of the month, a partnership between Connecting Country and BirdLife Castlemaine District. Each month we’re taking a close look at one special local bird species. We’re excited to join forces to deliver you a different bird each month, seasonally adjusted, and welcome suggestions from the community. We are blessed to have the brilliant Jane Rusden and Damian Kelly from BirdLife Castlemaine District writing about our next bird of the month, accompanied by Damian’s stunning photos.
Rufous Whistler (Pachycephala rufiventris)
The Rufous Whistler is a renowned songster, but it’s also one of those species who you can hear calling but have a lot of trouble locating exactly where the bird is. They have a knack for throwing their call so you can’t pinpoint them, despite their beautiful rufous breast and striking white throat banded on black for the male. Often the female will be lurking nearby, but her cryptic colouring makes her even more difficult to find. Luckily, they will sit on an obvious branch, where we can both see and hear their gorgeous and varied song.
Male Rufous Whistler, photo by Damian Kelly
Males and females are quite different in appearance. The male has the distinctive rufous underparts with a black band and white throat. The female lacks the bold black and white markings of the male and the underbody is distinctly streaked. Second-season immature males have very similar colouring to the females which makes identification tricky.
Female Rufous Whistler, showing her much more cryptic colouring. Photo by Damian Kelly
They can be found in a wide variety of habitats ranging from mallee to open forests and shrub lands as well as being adapted to urban areas. In Castlemaine their distinctive calls can be heard in home gardens from early spring. I have heard blackbird mimicry of their calls in our garden in town which can be confusing at times! Their distribution covers much of Australia including a lot of the drier inland. However, they are more common on the east coast and in south-west Western Australia compared to the drier inland zones.
Patterns of movement vary – some are sedentary whilst others move north for winter, returning in spring. Not a lot is known of their movements in many areas. Banding studies have shown that some birds return each year to the same area. It can be a long-lived species with some individuals being identified 14-15 years after first banding.
Breeding is normally in pairs and pairs are usually monogamous with the same pairs breeding each year. Unlike some other Australian birds there are no helpers at the nest. Nests are defended from others and both birds incubate and feed the young. They build an open, cup-shaped nest out of twigs and are often lined with grass that may be in a tree fork or foliage and sometimes in mistletoe. Usually, 2-3 eggs are laid.
This species is largely insectivorous and will take a wide range of prey. They tend to forage higher than other whistler species and are often observed 5-15m above ground. Food may be gleaned from foliage and tree trunks as well as being caught on the wing in short flights. Unlike other whistler species, they rarely feed on the ground.
As the days grow shorter and winter is almost upon us, we can look forward to the heralding of spring in the Rufous Whistlers call. In the meantime, keep an ear out for the Golden Whistler, also a magnificent songster. For more on Golden Whistler, from the wonderful Geoff Park, click here.
To hear the call of the Rufous Whistler, please click here
Celebrating our wonderful volunteers: National Volunteer Week
Posted on 20 May, 2024 by Ivan
This week, 20-26th May, is National Volunteer Week, Australia’s largest annual celebration of volunteering, highlighting the important role of volunteers and inviting people not currently volunteering to give it a go.
This years theme is ‘Something for Everyone’ and Connecting Country would like to take this moment to say a massive thank you to our amazing volunteers from our many projects and programs.
Connecting Country could not do what we do without our volunteers. Our management committee is run by volunteers, our monitoring programs rely on skilled citizen scientists, our landholders ensure landscape restoration is maintained, and others help with events, Landcare, engagement and in countless other ways. We love our volunteers and appreciate their dedication to our vision of increasing, enhancing, and restoring biodiversity across central Victoria.
National Volunteer Week 2024 will recognise the diverse passions and talents everyone brings to the act of volunteering. It’s also an invitation to explore the myriad of opportunities available, emphasising that there’s a place for everyone in the world of volunteering. We have plenty of opportunities to apply your skills as a volunteer and have had so many talented volunteers assist us over the recent years.
Our projects run off very tight budgets, with funding opportunities few and far between, so we rely on volunteers more and more to help us achieve our mission of landscape restoration within the Mount Alexander region. The community has always been at the core of what we do at Connecting Country. In this new phase, we’ve had to rely on our community even more.
Because we’re surrounded by an engaged and enthusiastic community, we’re still able to check in on our local biodiversity and deliver monitoring, engagement, Landcare support and landscape restoration across our region. If it wasn’t for your hard work, we simply would not be able to continue our valuable long-term biodiversity monitoring, engage our community in caring for our local landscapes, or empower landowners to manage their land as wildlife habitat.
To everyone who has helped Connecting Country over the past two decades: a big thank you! We are so grateful for your support.
To find out more about volunteer opportunities at Connecting Country, please visit our website – click here
National Volunteer Week Events will take place from 20-26 May 2024, to say thank you to the millions of Australians who volunteer their time. We invite you to join in the events across the country.
Castlemaine Landcare present: Recovery plan for native fish with Dr Peter Rose
Posted on 15 May, 2024 by Lori
Castlemaine Landcare Group are hosting a fascinating presentation about a recovery plan to return native fish to the environment as part of their upcoming Annual General Meeting (AGM). All welcome.
Recovery plan for native fish presentation
Dr Peter Rose, North Central Catchment Management Authority.
Aquatic ecologist, Dr Peter Rose, from the North Central Catchment Management Authority (NCCMA), will explain a recovery plan for native fish at the AGM of Castlemaine Landcare Group (CLG). CLG invite anyone interested to come along to Castlemaine Community House (30 Templeton St) on Wednesday 22 May at 7.30pm.
Peter will describe the work underway – riparian protection and enhancement; water for the environment; construction of fishways, and captive breeding and release of threatened fish. He will also discuss recent complementary work to identify and protect aquatic refugia in upland unregulated streams and establishment of ‘surrogate’ fish habitats in farm dams to re-stock waterways. The presentation will highlight existing partnerships with Landcare groups, and possible future avenues for Landcare groups to become more active in fish recovery projects.
Dr Peter Rose is an aquatic ecologist with over 20 years’ experience within the government, university, and private sectors. Peter works at NCCMA as the Project Manager for the Native Fish Recovery Plan – Gunbower and Lower Loddon He is also the Recovery Reach Coordinator for the Mid-Murray Floodplain Recovery Reach. Peter manages large-scale restoration native fish projects including fishway design and construction, instream woody habitat reinstatement, riparian protection and enhancement, wetland rehabilitation, and floodplain-specialist fish conservation projects.
It promises to be a very interesting evening!
When: Wednesday 22 May 2024 at 7.30pm
Where: Castlemaine Community House, 30 Templeton Street Castlemaine VIC 3462
Inquiries: castlemainelandcaregroupinc@gmail.com
This is a free event hosted by Castlemaine Landcare Group.