Learning About Earthworms in Chewton
Posted on 5 June, 2013 by Connecting Country
On the 27th May, Chewton Primary School’s students from years 2 to 6 were visited by Connecting Country Landcare Facilitator Max Schlachter to do a special class on the importance of Earthworms.
The visit was prompted by World Environment Day which happened on the 5th June and had a theme about food waste called ‘Eat.Think.Save’. One way to reduce food waste is to turn unused food and garden waste into compost. Enter the Earthworm – king of compost and soil improver without peer.
Max and students looking for Earthworms in the revolving compost bin at Chewton primary School.
14 June 2013 – Love Thy Spider
Posted on 31 May, 2013 by Connecting Country
The Castlemaine Field Naturalist Club’s guest speaker on 14 June 2013 will be local resident, Lynne Kelly, who will give a talk entitled ‘Love thy Spider‘. Lynne comments that ‘We all live up close to lots of neighbouring spiders. They live amazingly interesting, often traumatic, lives, all played out on multiple stages around your house. Spiders are the only animal you can get to know as individuals and watch over the long term in their natural habitat of web or burrow. ‘
This talk will include sequences of photos of individuals in a Castlemaine backyard and house and is suitable for kids as well as adults. Lynne says that ‘observing spiders is easy to do, safe and genuinely adds to our scientific knowledge. Long term behavioural studies of our spiders in their natural habitats have not been done – not even black house spiders! But – be warned – there will be some very revealing photos of a pair of huntsmen. We’ll then talk about “The Spiderblogger” and the way we can share Castlemaine spider notes.’
Lynne Kelly
Lynne is the author of 14 books, her most recent being “Spiders: learning to love them“. When her arachnophobia was getting out of control, she decided to cure the irrational fear by learning about the horrible hairy beasts. She overdid the cure and is now ‘obsessed by the gorgeous little critters’.
Lynne is an Honorary Visiting Research Fellow at LaTrobe University, working on the way indigenous peoples memorise masses of information about animals, plants and other natural sciences. She then applies this research to the archaeological record.
The talk will be held at the Uniting Church Hall in Lyttleton St, Castlemaine (building behind the church), and will commence from 7.30pm. Everyone is welcome.
2 June – Say G’day at the World Environment Day Fair
Posted on 28 May, 2013 by Connecting Country
Community members are invited to attend a World Environment Day Community Fair on Sunday 2 June, ahead of World Environment Day on Wednesday 5 June.
Established in 1972, World Environment Day has grown to be the United Nations key annual event to promote worldwide awareness of environmental issues and encourage positive environmental actions.
The Community Fair will be held at the Market Building in Mostyn Street, Castlemaine from 10.00am – 12.30pm on Sunday 2 June, coinciding with the Castlemaine Farmers’ Market.
The event will be a mini expo where residents can talk with representatives from local environmental organisations, community groups and local and state government, all of whom will be showcasing the exciting environmental projects underway throughout the Mount Alexander Shire. There will be plenty to see and do, including giveaways and activities for all ages.
Connecting Country will have a stall at the Fair, which will include a section on local Landcare groups, so please come and say hello.
The Fair is being organised by the Mount Alexander Shire Council which is working towards a sustainable future through many activities including the Community Grants Scheme’s Sustainable and Natural Environment category, improvements to waste management practices and the implementation of the 2011-2014 Environment Strategy and 2011-2015 Greenhouse Action Plan.
What Does Successful Landscape Restoration Look Like?
Posted on 20 May, 2013 by Connecting Country
“What does successful landscape restoration look like?” was the question posed on a recent Landscape Restoration Bus Tour run by Connecting Country.
Participants in the tour were given a rare opportunity to ‘jump the fence’ into well-established landscape restoration projects on private land to hear the property owners talk about what they had done, why they did it, and how successful they considered the project to be. The tour was led by Geoff Park from the North Central Catchment Management Authority who did a great job of helping participants to interpret what we were seeing and hearing.
Peter Skilbeck adressing the group.
The first site visited was a revegetated ridgeline on a grazing property at Joyces Creek (south-west of Newstead) owned by Peter Skilbeck and his family.
Peter told the group that he began his restoration work because he wanted to grow some trees and shrubs on his property and the site he chose (on a stony ridge) was the “hungriest bit of country” he had. The area, which included some large old Yellow Gum and Grey Box trees, was fenced off and sown with indigenous trees and shrubs using direct seeding about 12 years ago. Peter considered that the project had been quite successful because the plants were growing well and there has been some natural regeneration of native herbs, shrubs and trees in between the planted rows. He considered the most successful area of direct seeding to be where germination had been least successful -leaving more room between plants for natural regeneration. Continue Reading »
18-19 May 2013 – Swift Parrot Survey Weekend
Posted on 17 May, 2013 by Connecting Country
On the weekend of the May 18-19, BirdLife Australia are coordinating the first of this year’s bi-annual mainland surveys for Swift Parrots and Regent Honeyeaters. These occur across south-eastern mainland Australia. This year marks the 19th consecutive year for these range-wide volunteer surveys and they continue to provide insights into the movements and habitat requirements of these two charismatic and highly threatened bird species. Regent Honeyeaters are extremely rare visitors to the Mount Alexander Shire and surrounds, whereas at least some Swift Parrots migrate to (and through) the local area each year in the cooler months. One of the few inland areas to be visited by Swift Parrots so far in 2013 is the Muckleford-Maryborough area where birds have been seen foraging in Yellow Gum and Grey Box vegetation.
Anyone can undertake one or more surveys for these threatened birds – whether this be in your backyard, your favourite local patch of bushland or along a well-vegetated roadside.
For further information, click here to the BirdLife Australia website – the link to the powerpoint display at the bottom of the page is particularly useful. Attached is also a copy of the datasheet (click here). If you undertake a survey at a particular area and find none of the two target species, it is still important to complete the datasheet and return it to BirdLife Australia. Knowing where the bird isn’t occurring is almost as important as knowing where it is occurring. (If you see either of these species at others times, Birdlife would still be very interested to hear about these sightings).
A hungry Swift Parrot. Photo by Geoff Park.
Reconciliation Week Activities in Mount Alexander Shire
Posted on 15 May, 2013 by Connecting Country
National Reconciliation Week will take place this year between 27 May – 3 June 2013. A range of activities will be held in the Mount Alexander Shire that the community can become involved with, including an indigenous food planting event with Castlemaine Landcare. Also on National Sorry Day (26 May) there will be a gathering in Castlemaine next to the Market Building between 9.50am to 11.45am where people can add their thoughts to the Sorry Tree. This flyer has the full details, as well as the website address for the recognition for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in our Constitution. While Connecting Country is not directly involved in this year’s program, we are very supportive of this initiative and of efforts towards reconciliation.
Connecting Country Introduces New Work Crew
Posted on 7 May, 2013 by Connecting Country
It is with great pride that Connecting Country introduces its inaugural Work Crew. Over the past few weeks, this team of five willing workers – Alex (crew leader), Daniele, Jack, Jules and Teresa – have set to work fencing, planting, weeding and controlling pest animals across the shire. They will also receive on-the-job training in Natural Resource Management over the next few months. The crew was formally ‘launched’ at a special lunch-time event on Thursday 18 April at their depot in Castlemaine. You can find out more about the crew on the Connecting Country staff page.
Workcrew cutting the ribbon at the launch. From left Alex, Teresa, Juliet (Jules), Jack and Daniele.
Funded by the Federal Government’s Biodiversity Fund, the Works Crew will carry out these works on private property as part of Connecting Country’s ‘Connecting Landscapes Across the Mount Alexander Region’ programme. Programme manager Jarrod Coote said at the launch, ‘Over the next 4 to 5 years, the programme aims to connect large areas of remnant bushland through the establishment of habitat corridors and scattered plantings on private land. These works are vital if our wildlife is to have somewhere to go in a changing climate. If successful, these works will also reverse some of the native fauna population declines that have occurred as a result of historic habitat modification, fragmentation and loss.’
The Works Crew will implement ‘Connecting Landscapes’ projects on private land. Within particular areas throughout the shire, native bushland on private properties will have their pest plants and vermin treated, and in some cases, missing components of the vegetation re-planted. In addition, many hundreds of hectares of new plantings will be established to form new connections between isolated bush blocks on public and private land.
To express an interest in taking part in the programme, contact Jarrod at Connecting Country on 03 5472 1594 or jarrod@connectingcountry.org.au .
10 May 2013 – CFNC Talk on Invasive Species
Posted on 6 May, 2013 by Connecting Country
The May Castlemaine Field Naturalist Club guest speaker will be Matt Sheehan who will talk on “Reflections on the importance of invasive species research, policy development and action for the protection of native ecosystems”.
Matt currently runs a business in Castlemaine called ‘Wild Matters’. He is the former National Chilean Needle Grass Facilitator, and still regularly works on a variety of invasive species issues for all levels of government.
Matt will talk about his interest in botany, starting from Castlemaine Secondary College (including field classes with Ern Perkins), and his journey from there through his degree, honours, PhD and the then his professional experiences at Catchment Management Authorities, state agencies and now as a consultant. His talk will focus on invasive species and draw on examples from his research, policy and community work to show the importance of this work in protecting native vegetation and supporting the work of community groups like the field naturalist clubs.
The talk will be held on Friday 13 July at the Uniting Church Hall in Lyttleton St, Castlemaine (building behind the church), and will commence from 7.30pm. Everyone is welcome.
Latest edition of Innovative Farming available
Posted on 6 May, 2013 by Connecting Country
The fifth edition of the North Central CMA’s Innovative Farming newsletter is now available. This edition includes:
- An interview with Joel Salatin (Time Magazine recently labelled him ‘the world’s most innovative farmer’)
- Upcoming events for the Farming for Australian Conditions project
- An update on the Kilter Agroforestry venture
- A recap on the recent events that the Farming for Australian Conditions project has delivered throughout our region
You can download the newsletter here. This is a large file (8.6 MB) and may take a while to download on your computer depending on your internet connection. If you would prefer to have a hard copy, contact Joel Spry at the NCCMA (0407 835 973, joel.spry@nccma.vic.gov.au) to arrange to have the newsletter mailed to you.
Have you seen any sick wildlife?
Posted on 6 May, 2013 by Connecting Country
The Faculty of Veterinary Science at The University of Melbourne has been working on a Wildlife Health Surveillance project since July 2008. The aim of the project is to better understand baseline wildlife health and patterns of disease, detect changed patterns and investigate factors involved. Their website can be found here.
You can report sick or dead mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibian to Pam Whitely on 0400 119 301 or pamw@unimelb.edu.au. Further information is contained in this flyer.
Nest Box Installation at Pilchers Bridge Reserve
Posted on 6 May, 2013 by Connecting Country
Trust for Nature held a nest box installation workshop on Sunday, 21 April on a private property neighbouring Pilchers Bridge Nature Conservation Reserve (NCR), south-east of Bendigo.
The workshop is part of a larger project being run by the Trust, which provides nest boxes to 13 private properties that border Pilchers Bridge NCR. Four of these properties already have a Trust for Nature conservation covenant in place. The Trust is also placing nest boxes within Pilchers Bridge NCR itself, to help create better habitat for hollow-dependent wildlife. With more nest boxes on more properties, it is hoped that this combined effort will lead to more wildlife using the Box Ironbark forests of northern Victoria.
Miles Geldard from Wildlife Nestboxes, ran the workshop and taught 34 private landowners how to install the nest boxes and where best to place them. Each attendee received a number of nest boxes at the end of the session. Continue Reading »
26 May 2013 – Reversing the Decline in Woodland Birds
Posted on 3 May, 2013 by Connecting Country
Beginning at 10am on 26 May, Trust for Nature are hosting a Biodiversity field morning at Pigeon Hill, near Maldon. Landowner Jeanne Daly will talk about her conservation work over the last 20 years on her convenated property on ‘Pigeon Hill’ and Chris Tzaros from Birdlife Australia will speak about Woodland Bird conservation. Many of you will know of Chris Tzaros from his ‘Wildlife of the Box Ironbark Country’ book, and his recent evening talk at Newstead on Bird Photography. Find out all the details about this Trust for Nature event in this flyer.
4 May 2013 – Woody Weed Control Demonstration Day
Posted on 29 April, 2013 by Connecting Country
Do you want to know more about woody weeds and some of the most effective ways to manage them? Come along to the free Barkers Creek Landcare Network demonstration day and learn more!
See the revolutionary ecoBlade machine – which cuts and paints woody weeds such as blackberry and gorse at the same time!
Also included on the day:
- On-site demonstrations of other relevant woody weed control techniques
- Useful information on how to get the best weed control results
Drinks and a light lunch will be provided (no charge).
Midday – 2.00pm, Saturday 4th May 2013
End of Hagues Road, Barkers Creek – click here for map
Information about the Barkers Creek Clean-up Project: www.connectingcountry.org.au/barkers-ck/
email: michael@connectingcountry.org.au or call 5472 1594
The event is also supported by the Victorian Blackberry Taskforce and Victorian Gorse Taskforce.
Back to Cactus Killing
Posted on 22 April, 2013 by Connecting Country
The Tarrangower Cactus Control Committee and Parks Victoria will hold their first cactus-injecting field day for 2013 on Sunday 28th April. Field days will continue until November on the last Sunday of each month.
The venue for the first field day will be in Watersons Road near its intersection with Tarrengower School Road starting at 10.30 am. The site will be clearly signposted from the corner of the Bridgewater-Maldon and Watersons Roads.
Special guest will be Councillor Sharon Telford who has agreed to launch the season.
As usual the day will finish with a free sausage sizzle and cuppa.
Do You Have a Rabbit Problem?
Posted on 19 April, 2013 by Connecting Country
How many offspring can Mr Rabbit and Mrs Rabbit potentially produce in 18 months? The answer is a staggering 180 bunnies! And that is one of the reasons why rabbits have such a big impact on both agricultural land and natural environments in our region.
While rabbit numbers are certainly nowhere near to what they were in the first half of the 20th Century – before Myxomatosis and Calicivirus decimated the population – they are still a serious problem. As immunity to these diseases increases, the rabbit population is growing again. Even one rabbit per hectare can stop regeneration of some native plant species.
Connecting Country’s Ute Guide to Rabbit Control is a simple and easy to understand guide to rabbit control options, and small enough to fit into the glove box of your ute (or any other car!). It covers how to tell if rabbits are present, the physical and chemical methods of control, and which options are most suited to the size of the infestation.
The guide has been produced as part of Connecting Country’s ‘Connecting Landscapes Project’. This five-year program will work with private landholders to create and enhance wildlife habitat connections between the large blocks of crown land forest that occur through the Mount Alexander Shire and immediate surrounds.
If you would like to receive a copy of the Ute Guide to Rabbit Control, contact Connecting Landscapes Project Coordinator Jarrod Coote on (03) 5472 1594 or jarrod@connectingcountry.org.au
Connecting Landscapes Project Coordinator Jarrod Coote displays the new Ute Guide Guide to Rabbit Control. But who’s behind the wheel?
Landcarers Link-up in The Creek
Posted on 17 April, 2013 by Connecting Country
Representatives from 15 Landcare groups got together for a ‘Landcare Link-up’ at the Campbells Creek Community Hall on Thursday last week. The absence of these kinds of meetings over the past few years meant that many people met each other for the first time and there were plenty of fresh ideas brought forward.
As a result of three open-ended questions that were the focus of the night, many topics arose for discussion including weed management techniques, the number of active members in groups, the challenge of engaging farmers and the pros and cons of having regular meetings. A constant theme on the night was ‘variety’ and the range of ways in which each group organises their working bees and meetings was a case in point.
Participants at the Link-up arrange themselves into order of how long they’ve been involved in Landcare. There was a wide range of experience amongst the group, from those that had been involved in Landcare for just a few months to veterans of over 20 years.
There was plenty of good feeling around the room, so it wasn’t surprising that the question of whether to have another Link-up later in the year was met with a resounding “Yes”. Look out for Link-up number two later this year.
Thank you to all those that attended and made it such an enjoyable night.
Landscape Connectivity – Be Strategic and Think Outside the Corridor
Posted on 17 April, 2013 by Connecting Country
Over 60 people recently attended a talk titled Designing a Wildlife Corridor: What Works & Why? at the Elphinstone Community Hall.
The first speaker, Dr Rodney van der Ree, wasted no time in subverting the title of the evening to reflect his thoughts on designing wildlife corridors – changing the title of his talk from ‘Designing a Wildlife Corridor…’ to Designing a Connected Landscape…’! Rodney’s point was that what we are aiming for when we create wildlife corridors is really ‘landscape connectivity’ – and wildlife corridors are only one part of this. Other landscape features such as patches of remnant vegetation, paddock trees, small clumps of vegetation, scattered trees and stags can all form part of a connected landscape.
His talk went on to detail many ways by which the effectiveness of a corridor can be maximised, including trying to incorporate established vegetation into a corridor; making use of linear landscape features such as roads and creeks; designing with a particular animal or group of animals in mind and planning strategically – look at a map! Continue Reading »
Bird Photography … with Chris Tzaros
Posted on 16 April, 2013 by Connecting Country
On Thursday 25th April, at 7.30pm at the Newstead Community Centre, Chris Tzaros from BirdLife Australia will deliver a talk entitled Bird Photography: Tips & Techniques. Chris is one of Australia’s best known bird photographers and author of the publication, Wildlife of Box-Ironbark Country. As well as providing some practical information on the topic, the presentation will showcase some of Chris’ breathtaking images. Gold coin donation to the Newstead Landcare Group. Everyone is welcome.
Chris and Geoff Park will also be leading a field workshop on 27 April but that is already booked out. It is likely that similar workshops will be held later this year.
Time to Check Nest Boxes
Posted on 15 April, 2013 by Connecting Country
If you have a Connecting Country nest box on your property (or one near-by on public land), Autumn is the time of year to check your boxes for Brush-tailed Phascogale or Sugar Glider activity.
The best technique for landholders to monitor the boxes on their property involves observing, counting and identifying the Sugar gliders or Brush-tailed Phascogales that climb out of the opening of each nest box on dusk. Please do NOT climb up with a ladder and physically check inside the box (due to the danger to you, and also the potential disturbance to the animal). We have further information on this ‘dusk observation’ technique (click here) and also the results from the past two years of nest box surveys (click here and here).
A standardised data sheet is available to record observations (PDF and Word versions). Results can be sent to us via email or post. Even if you see nothing come out of the box, please let us know, as this is still important information.
If you are unable to observe the nest boxes on your property at dusk – but would like to know what it using them – please let us know. We may be able to arrange for a volunteer team to come and observe them on dusk instead.
Phascogales captured on camera at Jan Hall’s property in MacKenzie’s Hill.
Community Environment Grants Now Available
Posted on 15 April, 2013 by Connecting Country
Community Environment Grants of between $5000 and $50 000 are now available from the Australian Government to community groups working to achieve an environment that is healthier, better protected, well managed and resilient.
Funding is available to established and emerging groups currently operating in the environmental sector, including Indigenous organisations. Continue Reading »