Photo-point monitoring

Photopoint monitoring is a a simple, yet remarkably effective way to observe and document of the beneficial ecological changes occurring on your property over time. Photopoint monitoring can demonstrate through photographs taken from a fixed ‘photopoint’ work undertaken and improvements over time. For example the construction of a fence to exclude stock, collapsed rabbit burrows, sprayed weeds, regeneration and new plant species found. A photograph can help identify land management activities that are improving conditions and potentially show ones that could be having adverse impacts on the site. The Bush Tender photopoint monitoring standards provides a useful guide to photopoint monitoring.

Castlemaine Field Naturalists Photopoint Project

In the late 1990s, the Castlemaine Field Naturalists Club commenced their Photopoint Project. The objective of the project is to monitor changes in vegetation and landscapes over time by taking regular photos at particular locations in the local area. Largely as a result of the efforts of club members Ern and Lesley Perkins, the project has grown to include more than 1600 photos from over 900 locations. A user-friendly database of the photos and associated information is available at the Connecting Country office during business hours. The database CD provides an amazing snapshot (at as mid-2013) of some of the changes that have occurred in the Mount Alexander Region over the past few decades. For more information, click here.