January 2009 – Friends of Grampians Gariwerd

Ptilotus erubescens (Hairy- tails) Count

Assemble at 9.30 am at the "Cooinda Burrong" for the start of the survey count of flower heads at 10 am. The gate at the "Dad & Dave" weir will be unlocked just after 9 am. The gate must be kept closed and the chain on the hook – lock closes to the pole.

After lunch we will have a general meeting where we will be looking more closely at the interpretation at the Red Gum Walk and hopefully getting something together to go to PV to go on a new board in a new information “wishing well”.

Contact person Stan - 5383 6349… Read the rest

From the Editor – Summer 2008

Ballambar – Season of the Butterflies
followed by
Kooyang – Season of the Eels

Welcome to the summer edition of our newsletter. I am writing this on a beautiful cool morning. The radio tells me that the overnight low on Mt William was three degrees and the expected maximum in Stawell will be 27. That’s the sort of summer weather that I just love. I actually went up Mt William last night to watch the sunset and it was so beautiful. Lots of daisies and peas out, grass leaf trigger plants too. On the summit the rosy bush pea was beginning to flower. And the late evening views were superb.

It’s been a very flowery spring again. The seedlings that have come up since the Mt Lubra fire are all now mature enough to flower, but not tall enough to hide each other. Although it has been another dry winter … Read the rest

Birds of The Red Gum Walk

Hennie & Bill Neve

List of birds observed at the Red-gum walk (small loop) on 27 August 2008 (9.45 till 11 am). Light overcast and no wind.

Grey Shrike Thrush
Crimson Rosella
Yellow Robin
Pied Currawong
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
Superb Blue Wren
Restless Flycatcher
Flame Robin (two different locations)
White-browed Scrub-wren
Brown Thornbill
Silver-eye
Horsfield’s Bronze-cuckoo
Kookaburra
White-throated Tree-creeper
White-winged Chough
Long-billed Corella
Spotted Pardalote
Australian Magpie
Red Wattle-bird
Forest Raven
Yellow-tufted Honey-eater (group of about 15)

… Read the rest

Grampians Advisory Group Report

The AG met recently to discuss various issues.

We inspected two of the large informal bush camping sites to look firsthand at some of the problems. Many people like the freedom of camping away from established sites, but when too many love the same spot it quickly becomes degraded. For instance the Golton Gorge site has had five school groups descend on it the same week, with up to 150 children. There are no toilets, and no authorised fireplaces. The large numbers then mean the cleared areas keep growing. Currently bush camping is free and there is no booking system. To exacerbate the situation, while many school groups contact the Park about their visit, others just turn up, spend a few days and depart without any contact. We agreed there is a need to begin to regulate, and to look to ways to require larger groups to book. The questions … Read the rest

19th Annual Grampians National Park Emergency Services Fire Conference

Friday 7th November 2008

The conference was held at the Laharum Recreation Reserve. It began at 9:30am with the gathering of approximately 100 representatives of DSE, PV, local government, CFA, SES, Police, Advisory Committee, FOGG and GAP.

After a briefing by Geoff Evans we set off in convoy on a tour of the Northern part of the Park visiting sites of recent fire activities.

Travelling along Roses Gap Rd., our first stop was at a reinstated fire break (created during the 2006 fire). Here, fallen timbers had been selectively placed over the clearing. Significant regrowth was observed including many young Acacia longifolia plants. We moved on past Carters Track the site of a fuel reduction burn that was only partly completed in 2008 and scheduled for further burning.

Further along Roses Gap Rd., we stopped at the site of a deliberately lit fire in 2006. Here, Jill Read, the Fire … Read the rest

The Impact of Severe, Landscape-Scale Wildfire on Small Mammals: Grampians National Park Case Study

As reported in the last newsletter, Mike Stevens Team Leader Natural Values has used study leave this year to research the effect of the Mt Lubra fire on small mammal populations. Here is the official abstract of his honours thesis. The full paper can be obtained from Mike. It is well worth reading as there are some serious implications about the decisions to be made about future burning regimes.

The Impact of Severe, Landscape-Scale Wildfire on Small Mammals: Grampians National Park Case Study

M. Stevens (Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia; Parks Victoria, Halls Gap, Australia)

Abstract

Small mammals were used to examine the impact of severe landscape-scale wildfire using the post 2006 wildfire landscape of the Grampians National Park, Victoria, Australia as a case study. Long-term research sites were established using a focal patch design in wildfire (burnt) and unburnt areas with 9620 trap nights across thirty-six sampling units. The influence

… Read the rest

Activity Reports – Summer 2008

Grampians Wildflower and Arts Show

FOGG activities this past quarter included the Grampians Wildflower & Arts Show in Halls Gap, so generously supported by FOGG members once again. Thank you everyone. The reviews were very positive and the trips out to look at the flowers in situ were very well patronised.

FriendsNet

In September we entered a competition through FriendsNet and managed to get two very strong weeding tools, to be shared between FOGG and the HG Botanic garden. They were invented by a member of the Friends of Wattle Park and we are very happy with them.

Red Gum Walk

The Red Gum Walk tree risk work has been done, plans for a new information shelter are well in hand and the first steps have been taken towards finding the age of the huge fallen red gums. Bill and Henny Neve have compiled a post-fire bird list which will … Read the rest

From the Parks Desk, Summer 2008

Staff

In anticipation of another hot, dry summer, ten seasonal fire crew have commenced in Halls Gap. These trained seasonal fire-fighters are part of the District team made up of other seasonal fire-fighters based at Horsham, Cavendish, Wail and Edenhope.

Many of the local crew have worked successive seasons in Halls Gap. They have been busy working on pre season fire preparedness works such as fire-line clearing and township protection surrounding Halls Gap and Pomonal.

The Parks Victoria fire recovery staff who commenced work in October are making great progress on the Mackeys Peak to Pinnacle Track. The crew have been busy with tree risk work, creating the new track and have so far completed the construction of 220 stone steps. The crew, which also comprises quite a few familiar faces, are working towards completing the track by Autumn 2009.

Our Summer Ranger Lauren Young started work in Halls … Read the rest

2008 Annual General Meeting

Our AGM was held on October 9 and was followed by a general meeting.

Election of Office Bearers

President: Stan Parfett

Vice President: Prue Pyke

Secretary: Frank van der Peet

Treasurer: Kathy McDonald

Editor: Margo Sietsma

Public Officer: Kathy McDonald

Committee: Alison & John Fisher; Ewen Johnson; JanBert & Mabel Brouwer; Leigh & Ben Gunn; Errol Hoffmann.

General Business

Newsletter: It was decided we have been too lenient with sending newsletters to unfinancial members:

Advise if member is more than six months overdue indicating with a sticky dot on newsletter.
Include in newsletter – ‘ please check address label to see if you are up to date’.

Mail: It was moved that FOGG ask for their own PO Box at Halls Gap rather than mail being sent to NP Office – can be quite inconvenient for those collecting mail.

Kathy followed up Monday at PO – an ‘internal’ box has

… Read the rest

President’s Mutterings – Summer 2008

Best wishes and regards to all FOGG’s members for the coming festive Christmas season and New Year.

I look forward to a more active 2009 in that we plan to get back to more weekend activities so working FOGG members can again join in with the group activities of service, searches and social fun in this enchanting place – The Grampians National Park.

I am sure that those that can will still support the weekday Threatened Species Group searching activities for the Parks endangered rare species.

There is one thing that I request members do – that is to let the activity co-ordinater know if you intend attending the outing. Some functions require a bit more organisation for larger numbers of participants.

Looking forward to seeing you all in the New Year.

Stan… Read the rest