Category: Activity Report

Deer in the Grampians

Daryl Panther

There were 16 people in attendance, including a few who were interested in learning more for the purpose of hunting, not our usual audience but welcome all the same.

Daryl explained his background and how he has farmed Deer in the past and now being a contractor to Parks Vic. helping with the control of feral animals. He continued by describing the different  species of deer found in Victoria.

  • Rusa Deer are found mainly around Sydney and NSW. They have 3 points on each antler. They will breed with Sambar, but as there are only isolated populations of Rusa in Victoria and we don’t have them in the Grampians they are not an issue.
  • Sambar Deer are one of the heaviest species of deer. They are found around Mt Cole, in South Australia and also in the Otways, with a few in the Grampians area. They have 3
… Read the rest

Insects of the Grampians

Dennis Crawford

Dennis brought along some brilliant photos he has taken over the years, just a small selection of the ones that have fascinated him the most. With each insect he described, Dennis projected up a larger than life closeup picture to show off the best features. He is very passionate and moved from one to the other very quickly, sharing snippets of information as he went. I have done the best I can to string his information into a report for everyone who missed his brilliant presentation.

Insects occur on every continent in the world, including Antarctica!

Current estimates suggest there are 70,000 insect species in Australia, 20-30 million worldwide. But most are yet to be classified. Of this total less than 1% are pests. Their bad reputation comes because most people only notice them when they are a problem.

3/4 of all species on earth are insects. They … Read the rest

Mount Abrupt Walk – 9th April

This activity was aborted early due to unforeseen circumstances. I need to share what transpired with members.

Six of us met at 10.30 am at the Mount Abrupt car park. A new member joined up, and a couple of our committee arrived with four guests to join us for a pleasant walk up the mountain on a cold grey, drizzly day.

After completing our normal pre-activity procedures and a weather discussion we agreed to set off. (If conditions worsened, or became unsafe in anyway, we could cut short and find a hot coffee in Dunkeld)

We had only travelled about 400 metres up the track, we were not on a difficult part of the track, our pace was reasonable and measured. No one was being pushed beyond their abilities. At this point one of our guests collapsed and stopped breathing.

One of our attending members is a doctor and she … Read the rest

Working Bee at the Brouwers

On a sunny Autumn day in late April, 14 of us gathered at the Brouwers new house.

JanBert and Mabel had been purchasing hundreds of native plants to plant in the garden around their new house. Unfortunately with JanBert’s sudden passing this was going to be a huge job for Mabel. Several working bees were organised and most of the plants were put in the ground before Mabel headed off overseas.

Our FOGGs working bee got over 150 plants planted, fertilised, watered in, mulched and a dripper watering system in place. A garden bed planted by an earlier working bee had already started growing and looking really good. In a year or two there will be a spectacular garden to look out onto from the house and it will attract many birds. We will have to include some pictures in a year or two.

We were treated to hot soup … Read the rest

Grampians Clam Shrimp Day – June 18


Bill Gardner

In June 2016 a new species of Clam Shrimp was found in a rock pool at Flat Rock, in the Northern Grampians. and Professor Brian Timms who studies invertebrate biodiversity in a variety of temporary waters across the inland was interested in investigating further. FOGGs decided to assist this June.

In the morning, armed with instructions from Bill and Professor Timms, volunteers went to several different high up areas across the park to collect samples of water and inhabitants. Then we met up at Laharum for Brian to check what was found and to tell us more about these surprising creatures.

  1. Lots were found on Flat Rock, Hollow Mountain and Mt Stapylton…including another new species…limited to that area? None found at Mt William or Lost Lake or track from Beehive falls to Briggs bluff. However the museum has recorded species from Mt Difficult in the past.
  2. One person
… Read the rest

Sallow Wattle! (“Not-Friend” of the Grampians)

On 5/02/2017 PhD student Samantha Barron gave us a very interesting presentation on her research into Sallow Wattle, (Acacia longifolia), which has become extremely invasive in many parts of the Grampians since the 2006 fires. Samantha mentioned that it is also invasive in more than 20 countries around the world, where it has been introduced for things such as dune stabilisation, tannin production and for ornamental reasons.

The more we know about it, the better we may be able to manage it long-term, and this has been, and is, the overall focus of her research.  Samantha’s aims are to determine which environmental factors help it, and to compare functional traits and genetic differences of the species within its home and invaded ranges; a further aim is to look at its competitive abilities under different climate change scenarios.

One characteristic helping plants to become invasive is being “disturbance adapted”. Acacia longifolia, … Read the rest

Lake Fyans Centenary

October 2016

As Rod says in his president’s report it was a  wild wet day but a worthwhile exercise to raise our profile a little and to enjoy seeing how a wet winter had transformed the nearby woodlands. The photos give you a feel of it I hope. I believe there are plans to publish a book on the day, and I will let you know if that happens.

Margo… Read the rest

FOGGs AGM

19 November 2016

We had a good attendance at our AGM. Reports were presented by the president (see separate article) and the treasurer again thanking Ron Goudy for auditing our books and our bank balance at the end of June 2016 being $8,615.89.

Election of office bearers see this year’s committee as:

  • President: Rodney Thompson
  • Vice President: Leigh Gunn
  • Secretary: Wendy Bedggood
  • Treasurer: Mabel Brouwer
  • Committee Members: Margo Sietsma, Ben Gunn, Janbert Brower and Judith Thompson
  • Newsletter Editor: Margo Sietsma
  • Webmaster: Frank van der Peet

We continued with a general meeting and ideas for next years activities were; an Insect day, (as this year’s was unable to go ahead), a reptile day, Clam Shrimps with Brian Tims, a bat event possibly jointly with a landcare group, and  several people expressed an interest in Grasses and having a day on them. Good walks are always popular though no specific suggestions were … Read the rest

Stawell Field Naturalists Films

11 December 2016

As we reported in June and September we have been using three RMIT students to document the work of the Stawell Field Naturalists and, in particular, the legacy of Ian McCann. The students worked on the documents preserved by the Stawell Historical Society and filmed interviews with long time members and people who had worked with them. So in December we invited them to present their work.

After a chapter of accidents, amusing in hindsight but tense at the time, the quite large audience managed to look at two films: one on the Field Naturalists generally, and one on Ian McCann. The students had struggled somewhat with such a wet year and some recording issues, but the films were well received, particularly the Ian McCann one. There is still more footage which we hope can be edited into another film or two. Plus there are some very … Read the rest

Victoria Valley Excursion – August 13

Not that many of us but a successful day nonetheless.

Our first stop was at the lovely Burrong Falls off Rose Creek Road, which was new to some of us. It was a bit muddy and slippery to go right down to the creek, but we enjoyed the view, and the winter flowers. We then headed down towards the valley, stopping to admire fungi and orchids, to Round Swamp, which was more a lagoon than a swamp. Then off to Red Gum walk where we were met by ranger Kyle. We did the walk, clearing it of fallen branches, and noting how slow and patchy the recovery from the 2006 fires has been. No young banksias, no cherry ballart.… Read the rest

Friends of Grampians Gariwerd