Category: Activity Report

Wild Flower Walkabout in the Northern Grampians – September 10th

Rodney

On a bright but chilly morning 25 questing souls gathered in Wartook to look at wildflowers. We were joined by several first time attendees who saw facebook and website promotion, or heard the radio add. (They enjoyed themselves so much I ran out of membership forms!). After last season’s dry September we were worried about finding much to look at but nature was very obliging this year. I guess a wetter season is a big help to the plant life. Our biggest concern leading up to the day was the grazing macropods that see flowers as candy. But they left us some to admire. Those who attended had a great time, and saw some great flowers. With many eyes many things can be spotted and people danced from one treasure to another with great delight.

I was very pleased to convince Dave and Lyn Munro to come along for … Read the rest

Parks Victoria Bioblitz Sept 24 & 25

In the last newsletter we reproduced an article from Parkwatch about how two new portable technologies – the digital camera and the smart phone – have changed the way in which volunteers can collect data in the field. This was very evident when FOGG helped with a Junior Ranger activity during the school holidays. Youngsters were encouraged to take photos of interesting things they had seen when out in the park and to upload them to a website inaturalist.org. We didn’t have a huge uptake, but we hope that we demonstrated that we are interested in inspiring the next generation.… Read the rest

Meeting at Parks Office with Parks Representatives – 24/06/16

Rod Thompson

On the last Friday in June 2016, FOGG’s members had their annual catch up with Park Management. It was attended by 8 members and 3 rangers, Dave Roberts, Tammy and Ryan.

We were given a basic rundown of the structure of the management of the park, consisting of 2 teams. A park management team which includes Tammy, Ryan, Mark who have all been involved with FOGGs and our activities over the course of the last year. The park team has a total of 14 people under Dave himself. This is complemented by a Fire Management team of 13 staff. The two teams try to work together to manage various impacts, but have to diverge in some areas too. Caity will most likely be continuing in her position as the volunteer coordinator. This is 97% sure but Conservation Volunteers Australia need funding to match Parks Vic. who have funding … Read the rest

Geology Day in May

 

Wendy Bedggood

Nearly thirty turned up to the Mural room to hear Dr Ross Cayley give a presentation titled ‘Geology of the Grampians – A 400 million year plus history and why geology has worldwide implications.’P

The Grampians Geology has been studied in detail over the past 15 plus years by using many new technologies allowing a more accurate picture of how it was formed. The area was mapped chemically and physically and using ‘total intensity and residual magnetic mapping’ a picture of the underground rock formations was created. The chemical mapping and physical mapping came up with the same pictures.  Some of the detailed studies on small scale have been extrapolated to the large scale giving a picture of the Grampians and surrounding areas and even what was happening on the rest of the continent. Mapping the Geology of the Grampians even has broarder implications. The fact the … Read the rest

Bird Observing in the Grampians

JanBert Brouwer

The joint outing with the Birdlife Horsham branch on Sunday July 3rd started with a bleak weather outlook following rain and low lying clouds. Not something that is likely to make the birds put on an active show. However a large-turn out of bird observers often means many keen eyes to detect birdlife.

The Birdlife group always prepares their trips very thoroughly with a reconnaissance visit preceding the outing to find interesting birds. Tim Mintern and Ian Morgan had recently sighted emu wrens near the air strip in the western part of the park but these birds proved to be too elusive for this outing. However the Scarlet Robin put on a splendid display there and was a real highlight. It was surprising that even water birds were very scarce on the Moora Moora Reservoir.

Hennie and Bill Neve hosted us for our lunch break at their … Read the rest

Photo Point Mapping of Sallow Wattle

Last year  FOGGs volunteered to keep a pictorial record of Sallow Wattle at 20-30 spots in the Park. We would mark each spot with a star picket and it would be a matter of going back to the same spot twice a year and taking a photo at a time that suits the individual volunteer. It has been a slow start but we now have the map with the spots to be monitored and enough volunteers to spread the load.  The actual photo work is about to start on this long term project.… Read the rest

Update On The Orchid Conservation Program

Our contractors have erected a locked fence to keep grazing animals away from the highly endangered orchid  Caladenia audasii —(or McIvor Spider-orchid, Audas Spider-orchid) in the Stawell Ironbarks Forest, and there is a remote camera to deter any human predators. The team will keep a close eye on it and when (if?) it flowers it will be crosspollinated from the other surviving colony near Bendigo and eventually more plants can be grown at Cranbourne then released back into the wild.… Read the rest

Stawell Field Naturalists History

We were recently approached as to whether we were interested in supporting a project whereby RMIT students in the final year of their Bachelor of Environment Programs  would conduct interviews and document the  history of this group. We were delighted to co-operate as it was largely through the efforts of the Field Nats that our Park was established, and the knowledge collected by the group over the years has been enormous. Ian McCann  and Thelma Argall were founding members. The project has been listed for the students to choose from, and at least one is interested and will be interviewed next week.… Read the rest

Committee Meeting February 2016

Membership fees At the AGM it was tabled that we discuss an increase in subscription fees at a committee meeting in time for the new membership year on 1 July 2016. The membership has been $10 since 2006 with various costs increasing markedly since then it was agreed we needed to increase membership fees. We also discussed whether to offer associate membership for those who just want to get the newsletter and don’t necessarily wish to be active members. However, we decided to just have 2 levels of ordinary membership being $20 for a single and $25 for a family (those living under the same roof). This level of membership will allow us to pay increasing insurance, postal and other running costs.

Activities for rest of year

A  proposed activity calendar was drawn up in order to be well organised and able to advertise our activities more widely in the … Read the rest

Friends of Grampians Gariwerd