According to the Brambuk website, winter means:
- Bleak mists, freezing winds and rain.
- Animal breeding – Antechinus, phascogales and echidnas.
- Laying of eggs by powerful owls.
- Yellow – tailed Black Cockatoos on the move – tear at wattles for moths.
- Blooming of fungi and winter orchids.
- Flowering of heath and correa
- Return of Aquila constellation (Bunjil).
- There were two totems, GAMADJI (Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo) and GRUGIGJ (Sulphur-crested Cockatoo).
We are actually having a wet cold June. It’s just wonderful to see. We’ve had a few heavy downpours but mainly lots of gentle rain which is soaking in. The water storages are at last going up, but equally importantly all the Park is being refreshed and renewed. Even the western section of the Park which has so often missed out on rain events has received good falls. There’s a long way to go to catch up on the ten years of below average rain, but we are so thankful for this relief. We’ve been affected by both climate change and drought, so one wet winter won’t see our problems disappear.
I’ve been enjoying getting the quarterly news from the Wimmera Catchment Management Authority and have borrowed some information from them for this newsletter. To quote the chair: The hard reality is that 80 percent of the Wimmera, while boasting plenty of environmental assets, is on private land, not in parks or public wilderness areas …..Wimmera CMA’s role is to support and encourage community participation while providing professional, scientific and educational leadership and strategic direction in natural resource management. This involves enhancing relationships between Landholders, Indigenous communities, government and non-government agencies and volunteer organisations including the crucial Landcare networks. So see below for reports from them on frogs, platypus, birds.
Last issue we reported that we were looking for ways to help victims of the Black Saturday fires. You will see from the notes of the recent committee meeting that we have made a start, but requests are still coming in as people are beginning to realise what they have lost. Further suggestions from members are welcome.
This, I think, is the full list of Parks affected:
- Eastern Victoria: Alpine National Park, Mount Buffalo National Park, Beechworth Historic Park, Holey Plains State Park, Tarra Bulga National Park, Moondarra State Park, Tyers Park and Mount Worth State Park
- Central Victoria: Kurth Kiln Regional Park, Dandenong Ranges National Park, Arthurs Seat State Park, Mornington Peninsula National Park, Yan Yean Reservoir Park, Plenty Gorge Park, Warrandyte State Park, Upper Yarra Reservoir park, Silvan Reservoir park, Dandenong Police Paddocks Reserve, Churchill National Park, Dandenong Ranges Gardens
Finally, I must thank the Fogg members who nominated me for a Kookaburra award, and accompanied me to the event on the 16th of May at the Skyhigh Restaurant in the Dandenongs, No I didn’t get the reward, but a framed certificate and the judges said nice things. I think Frank is going to put some photos up on the website