Flora Identification Course
Posted on 4 November, 2009 by Connecting Country
The free flora identification course brought to you by McKenzies Hill Action & Landcare Group resumes this Sunday with a study of grasses.
Run by Paul Foreman, consultant Botanist and Bush Heritage Australia Ecologist, the course aims to give participants an introduction to the ecosystems and indigenous flora of the Castlemaine area.
Sunday November 8th – Common grasses. At Castlemaine Botanic Gardens (Northern Cark Park off Downes Rd). 2 -4pm
Sunday November 15th – Tour of the shire. Bus provided. Meeting and returning to the car park opposite the Railway Hotel, Gingell St, Castlemaine. 10am – 4pm
For more information and to book contact Paul Foreman on 5472 4874 or 0429 134 592
The Norman Wettenhall Foundation Annual Lecture
Posted on 26 October, 2009 by Connecting Country
The Norman Wettenhall Foundation
Annual Memorial Lecture 2009
Thursday 19th November, 5pm, Museum, Age Theatre
Tickets are $25 and bookings are essential.
Click here for an invitation
Taking the Long View – vision and transformation in an age of change
Speakers: Leon Costermans, Professor John Wiseman, Robyn Edwards
From space, our planet is a symphony of blue and green amidst swirling clouds. We often forget that the earth’s land and oceans have not always been so benign. Life on earth has faced huge challenges in the past, from volcanism and ice ages to the sudden death following a meteor impact. Leon Costermans, well known environmental author and botanist, is about to publish a new book on geology and landscapes. Continue Reading »
Friends of Box Ironbark Forests October bushwalk
Posted on 16 October, 2009 by Connecting Country
This walk will start in Chewton and follow Forest Creek through Expedition Pass Reservoir using the Forest Creek Track and boardwalks allowing all year access.
Meet at 9.30am outside Continuing Ed, 30 Templeton St, Castlemaine and carpool to the start of the walk. Walks normally finish mid afternoon.
Bring water, morning tea and lunch. The walk is a 9km circuit.
There is no cost and non-members are welcome.
Fore more information call Marie Jones 5472 2892
Newstead’s Geoff Park wins Eureka Prize
Posted on 14 October, 2009 by Connecting Country
Newstead’s Geoff Park has won Australian science’s most prestigious award, a Eureka Prize.
Announced in Sydney on 18 August at a star studded dinner, the prize is for Research by an Interdisciplinary Team.
Geoff was part of a team to develop the prize winning INFFER (Investment Framework for Environmental Resources) project which helps work out how best to invest money for the greatest environmental outcomes in rural areas. Geoff and Mary Park were at the dinner when the award was announced.
Geoff’s love of birdlife and the natural environment is well known around Newstead. He recently started an online blog called Natural Newstead which includes his and others’ observations of bird and plant life in the local area. Check it out at http://geoffpark.wordpress.com
Geoff has also been encouraging landscape restoration through his involvement with the regional project Connecting Country
Notes from ‘New Roles for Landcare’ forum
Posted on 14 October, 2009 by Connecting Country
For the latest news regarding conferences and forums, publications and funding opportunities, visit he Victorian Landcare Gateway website. Presentation notes provided by key speakers who attended the recent ‘New Roles for Landcare’ forum are now available. Read about;
- Design principles for urban food production systems,
- Working with developers and others who want to offset the clearing of native vegetation,
- land stewardship practices and payment for ecosystem services.
For presenter notes click here.
Rabbit Control Field Day
Posted on 14 October, 2009 by Connecting Country
If you have problems with rabbits on your property then come along to this very informative Field Day.
Join Regional Vic Farm Services as they discuss the dynamics of rabbit populations and control measures required for successful eradication.
Demonstrations will include oat and cut carrot baiting (Pindonne and 1080), smoking and fumigation with Phostoxin, and eradication using a ‘Rotenator’.
Where: 406 Gooch’s Land, Pastoria East
Malmsbury Landcare Group wildflower walk
Posted on 14 October, 2009 by Connecting Country
The Malmsbury Landcare Group invite you on a wildflower walk in the Lauriston Nature Reserve.
Where: Kyneton- Drummond Road, just west of the Lauriston Village.
Following the success of last year’s event, group secretary John Walter will lead you on amazing walk where you will learn of the abundance of wildflowers he has discovered in the reserve.
A sausage sizzle lunch will be provided at the Lauriston Hall following the walk. Please bring your own drinks, salads etc. Parking will be available in the cutting or on Portwines Rd opposite the Nature Reserve.
Castlemaine Landcare Group October working bee
Posted on 13 October, 2009 by Connecting Country
The working bee will involve a return to Happy Valley to check out the maintenance required at the new waterhole. For those who haven’t seen it yet, it’s at the top end of the Walking Track on Happy Valley Road.
Please bring weeding tools, brushcutters and buckets.
Start time is 10am and morning tea will again be provided courtesy of the Wesley Hill Bakehouse and Matthew Brownrigg. Please RSVP for catering to Robyn Haylett on 0408 7066 630 or 5470 6630
Gould League Centenary
Posted on 7 October, 2009 by Connecting Country
The Gould League is celebrating its Centenary with a free family open day. The date is Sunday October 25th, from 10am until 2pm. It is at the Gould League Sustainability and Environmental Education Centre in Genoa Street, Moorabbin. There will be activities, displays, and formal celebrations including cake cutting at noon.
Most of you probably heard about the Gould League going bankrupt, but they were rescued and are now continuing as strongly as before. I’m sure everyone has fond memories of the Gould League and their school education programs. Glad to see they are continuing.
Box Ironbark Ecology Course
Posted on 15 September, 2009 by Connecting Country
Ngambie, Central Victoria
The course brings together leading researchers and experts to share up to date knowledge and thinking about this landscape in change.
It is field based and participants will work in small groups. It emphasises ecological understanding and relationships and techniques that improve observation and data collection skills which can then be applied to other areas.
Participants will gain:
- a better understanding of the distribution, natural values and ecological processes of Box Ironbark landscapes, past and present;
- an understanding of the impact of human use on the ecosystem, past and present;
- practical skills in observation, description, survey, analysis, interpretation, map reading and ecosystem monitoring of flora, fauna, geomorphology and soils;
- opportunity to apply new skills and to collate and communicate information collected from the field;
- resources to help plan for enhanced ecologically sustainable management outcomes for Box Ironbark remnants on private and public land.
Cost of the course is $1200.
Applications close 18th September 2009.
Contact Kate Stothers for a brochure and application form. Phone 03 5761 1611
Castlemaine Landcare Group working bee
Posted on 15 September, 2009 by Connecting Country
September working bee.
The work will be in two areas.
1. Woody weed removal at the bottom of Urquhart St (Opposite Castlemaine Primary). Please bring heavy duty pruning equipment.
Morning tea
2. Planting at Happy Valley Walking Track. Please bring planting tools and buckets.
For more information contact Robin Haylett. Call 5470 6630. Email rhaylett@mmnet.com.au
Calculate your farms Co2 emissions
Posted on 2 September, 2009 by Connecting Country
FarmGAS Calculator has been launched by The Australian Farm Institute.
The Calculator is an online application which enables farmers to model both the financial and greenhouse gas outputs of farm activities and the implications of changes in enterprises. The FarmGAS Calculator is available here on The Australian Farm Institute Website and is free of charge.
The FarmGAS Calculator includes individual calculators for the major livestock and cropping enterprises, and any combination of these enterprises can be added to create an individual farm business. Farmers can come back to the calculator at any time to update or change their production data, or complete the process in stages. All you need to do is login online, and remember to save!
Farmers enter details of their enterprises (both financial and production) to calculate enterprise gross margins. The following enterprise types can be analysed using FarmGAS: beef production (both breeding of progeny and fattening), sheep production, broadacre cropping, irrigated cropping, intensive livestock systems (beef feedlot and piggery), perennial horticulture crops and environmental tree plantings.
FarmGAS is the result of an Australian Farm Institute research project on greenhouse gas mitigation options for Australian farmers. Funding for the project was provided by the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry under the National Agriculture and Climate Change Action Plan: Implementation Program.
Time to save our trees by gum
Posted on 1 September, 2009 by Connecting Country
Grazing land across Victoria and New South Wales could be treeless within the decade, posing a serious threat to both agriculture and natural ecosystems, the Australian National University has warned.
A research project based at Australian National University’s Fenner School of Environment and Society has found that the majority of scattered paddock trees in grazing areas are old and close to death, yet there are virtually no young trees growing to replace them.
The researchers argue that the disappearance of paddock trees would have many negative effects for agriculture and natural ecosystems, removing shelter for livestock, habitat for birds and other wildlife, decreasing water infiltration, and risking detrimental flow-on effects for entire ecosystems.
Read more: Victoria’s gum trees dying – Herald Sun
Employment opportunity
Posted on 25 August, 2009 by Connecting Country
Applications are now open for DSE BushTender Field Officer.
The positions are based in Bendigo.
The position description can be found on www.careers.vic.gov.au
Closing date for applications is 30th August and applicants must apply on-line.
Any questions about the positions please call,
Michelle Ballentine
BushTender Project Officer
Native Vegetation Programs
Department of Sustainability and Environment
Ph: (03) 9637 9027
Mob: 0458 382 289
Brush-tailed Phasocale stuffing
Posted on 24 August, 2009 by Connecting Country
I sent 2 dead Brush-tailed Phascogale specimens off to the Museum of Victoria to be stuffed and mounted for the Connecting Country project to use for education purposes. However, neither specimens could be used. The taxidermist told me that with small mammals like phascogales the road kill has to be very fresh. If you find a dead Phascogale, it needs to be frozen within 1 hour of its kill (or natural death). So if anyone manages to get a fresh Phascogale into the freezer I would definitely like to come and collect it and have the taxidermist have another go. Feel free to contact me on beth@nwf.org.au
Thanks, Beth Mellick, The Norman Wettenhall Foundation, 5472 1316
Friends of Campbells Creek August Working Bee
Posted on 20 August, 2009 by Connecting Country
Postponed till 13 September 2009.
After a full slather of working bees and extra planting days over the past few weeks, we’ll take a well-earned break and gather our strength for September’s working bee. Location Tbc.
If anyone wants to be involved in small informal working parties over the next month or helping out the
local schools in their Landcare project, please contact David King on 0408 993 688
Report on Connecting Country’s Future Planning Workshop
Posted on 18 August, 2009 by Connecting Country
Report on Connecting Country’s Future Planning Workshop, August 5th, 2009
More than 60 people from the local environmental community attended the workshop, including members of “Friends of” and other environmental advocacy groups, education and natural resource management professionals, and many members of the landcare community. Participants all brought enthusiasm and local knowledge to share with everyone. The workshop aimed to collect a set of information based on local knowledge of the special places in our region. The information provided is currently being collated in a database. Once this is finished, Connecting Country will sort through the data and more detailed planning for on ground projects can begin.
Geoff Park gave a presentation outlining the recently announced Federal and State Government funding, particularly describing the conditions attached to the funding (Tuans and Yellow-box woodlands).
- A summary of the funding is available here as a pdf.
- The map of priority vegetation can be found on the funding summary pdf.
Participants were guided through a process of identifying environmental assets on the maps provided and then compiling a list of information about that asset. The information was recorded on a template that is based on the cutting edge of environmental Project Planning. We received 96 completed templates.
- The blank template is available here here a Word document.
- The example template is available here as a pdf.
David King from Friends of Campbells Creek gave a presentation on how the natural assets along the Campbells Creek catchment were identified and put into a management plan so that everyone knew what needed to be done and how it could happen.
Many thanks go to;
Geoff Park and Krista Patterson-Majoor for facilitating; Margarita Adler for catering; Welshmans Reef Vineyard and Langanook Winery, Ben Laycock, Eliza Tree and Mahmoud for the map of the region, and to all the helping hands.
Fancy yourself as a wildlife photographer?
Posted on 13 August, 2009 by Connecting Country
For full details and a competition entry form visit the Trust for Nature website.
Landcare Week celebrates 20 year milestone
Posted on 13 August, 2009 by Connecting Country
This year we will celebrate 20 years in the Landcare journey. Landcare week celebrates the huge contribution landcare volunteers have made to their local communities over the past 20 years, as well as encouraging others to put their hands up and get involved.
Landcare Week 2009 will run from the 7th – 11th September.
See the Landcare Week website for more information and to register your event.
position vacant – project manager
Posted on 26 July, 2009 by Connecting Country
Connecting Country (Mount Alexander Region) Inc invites applications for the position of Project Manager.
Connecting Country is seeking to appoint a resourceful, innovative and collaborative Project Manager to guide its landscape scale restoration project through the next phase of implementation.
The position is for 12 months with an extension subject to further funding. The position salary is between $55,000 and $65,000.
Position Description available in ‘Documents and Publications’ on this website or contact Secretary Jan Hall on 5470 5556
For further information contact info@connectingcountry.org.au
Written applications should be marked Confidential – Project Manager: Connecting Country and be submitted to The Secretary, PO Box 437, Castlemaine VIC 3450
by 5.00 p.m., Tuesday August 18th, 2009.