19 April 2015 -‘To Plant or Not to Plant’

About The Session: Anthony Battersby, the farm manager at ‘Shadwell’ in Elphinstone, kindly hosted the third workshop in our Autumn series -‘To Plant or Not To Plant”. Participants visited three sites on the property where restoration work is part of managing the Black Angus beef production at Shadwell.

Many thanks to Anthony for his time and generosity in sharing his experiences and insights with the workshop participants.

Our second presenter on the day, Marion Da Costa from Dunolly, drew on her ample experience in restoration though the experience of returning her bare paddock to a grassy woodland. Marion has written a book titled My Place: Bare Paddock to Bush and gave a presentation which covered the story of this experience. Marion highlighted the importance of observing, planning, working gradually, weed control and making observations. Anthony outlined the work he has overseen over the last fifteen years, talking about motivations, successes and challenges in plant tube stock for wind beaks. Throughout the day Jarrod Coote, Connecting Country’s Connecting Landscapes co-ordinator, facilitated conversation with Anthony and Marion and gave a final presentation about direct seeding, planting equipment options and rabbit control techniques.

Thanks to Anthony, Marion and Jarrod for their contribution to an informative and practical workshop. Thanks also to Jules Walsh and Chris Timewell for driving the buses and Shane Carey for the fantastic photos and our work experience student Courtney Rosedale for her help on the day.

* Read below for a view of the day from Courtney Rosedale (participant and BRIT TAFE work experience student)

Resources and Links from the Session:

Handouts from the Session:

• Tree Guards (May 2010 prices) – article from Frances Cincotta
• Planting advice and water crystals – article from Frances Cincotta
• Bush Broker – standards for management supplementary planting – information on tubestock planting and direct seeding according to Bush Broker guidelines
• What to expect from Direct seeding with Connecting Country – basic info and photographs on direct seeding
• Four page worksheet ‘The Successful New Plant and its Microenvironment’, a useful observational tool using a plant’s perspective

Further Reading:

• Effective Landscape Restoration for Native Biodiversity in Northern Victoria – discussion paper by Jim Radford, Jann Williams and Geoff Park
• Natural Regeneration – Principles and Practice – article by Stephen Platt
• ‘My Place: Bare Paddock to Bush’ Restablishing Native Vegetation in Central Victoria – Marion Da Costa
• ‘Growing Australian Native Plants from Seed’ – book by Murray Ralph
• ‘Seed Collection of australian Native Plants’ – book by Murray Ralph
• ‘Bringing back the bush: The Bradley method of bush regeneration.’ – book by Joan Bradley

Websites and contacts:

VicVeg Website – http://www.vicveg.net.au/ This website provides information about Victoria’s native vegetation, its management, restoration and revegetation.

• the different types of native vegetation (‘bush’) in your area (Plantscapes section);
• the native plants of your region (Plant Species section);
• ways of growing native plants and managing vegetation (Tools and Techniques section).

Florabank website – http://www.florabank.org.au/ Florabank is assisting thousands of people every month who want to collect seed, propagate, grow or use Australian native species. Florabank is an initiative of the Australian Government, Greening Australia and CSIRO. Greening Australia has been funding Florabank since mid 2008. Species Navigator is a unique tool which brings together biophysical and ecological information about species – information which is not easily found – into an interactive key. Around 20 of the top 25 Florabank webpages accessed per month are Species Navigator Fact Sheets, and well over 6000 Fact Sheets are accessed every month.

Castlemaine Field Naturalists Club – http://castlemainefnc.wordpress.com -have produced a number of info sheets on local vegetation, inc acacias, grasses

Biodiversity Mapper –http://www.depi.vic.gov.au/environment-and-wildlife/biodiversity/biodiversity-interactive-map – Biodiversity Interactive Map (BIM) is an easy to use tool to display and produce maps of Victoria’s biodiversity, native vegetation, flora and fauna data. An alternative to efarmer for showing EVC information.

Goldfields EVC Benchmarks –  The EVC benchmarks contain a subset of “typical” but not comprehensive lists of species for each EVC in a bioregion. It should also be noted that not all species listed in the benchmark will be appropriate to all sites across the range of an EVC in a bioregion nor readily available through local nurseries

Images from the day (click on the image to enlarge):

Marion responds to questions

Marion outlines her methods for restoaration

Participants compare maps of Shadwell

Thunder clouds roll in!

Two herds braving the cold!

Planting for shelter belt protection

Pretty wallaby grass seeds

Jarrod loves seeds!

Saide gives a wrap up

Marion sells another copy!

End of the day sunlight at Shadwell

Anthony shares his knowledge

The day started off pretty dreary with the weather casting a cold chill on the Shadwell property. However, this didn’t dampen the spirits of all the lovely people excited to attend this informative workshop on revegetation. Our speakers for today the day was Anthony Battersby and Jarrod Coote, experienced people in the field of environment and revegetation, explaining to us throughout the day about different techniques and tricks and generally giving us all a wealth of knowledge and understanding. The different sites we visited through the day showed us many different types of revegetation, from tube stock, direct seeding and even natural revegetation. Controlling weeds and pests was also part of the day, showcasing the best way to deal and control these problems in our own properties. We also had Marion Da Costa, a property owner that had not much vegetation on her land to begin with and she explained in great detail how she now made her land into a bush with many native plants. Coupled with engaging discussion and delicious food, my favourite part of the day was generally being around all the interesting people throughout the entire day, it was fantastic to hear all different views on issues. However, I could have lived without it being bitterly cold on the day.