Tidying up my photo albums I came across a copy of the Halls Gap monthly newsletter “Fill the Gap” from November 1994.There’s an article headed “F.O.G.’S NEWS”. (1994 was before we added Gariwerd to our title). The article reports that our next activity was to meet at the Giant Koala at Dadswell’s Bridge to look for small milkworts with the Department of Conservation and Environment. It also has details of our application for a grant to research the impact of foxes on the small mammal populations of the Grampians Heathlands. Unfortunately, we didn’t receive the grant but some FOGGIES assisted Ed Muelman in his PhD research into small mammal populations. I find it interesting that even though Halls Gap was already a cat-free town, we concentrated on foxes and had no thought as to the impact of cats.… Read the rest
Category: Grampians Gariwerd History
Miscellaneous History Bits
I have been tidying up my computer and found the posters I made in 2005 celebrating FOGGS 21st birthday, and ones made in 2009 all displayed at the HG wildflower show. I’ll put some here and more next issue.
The 2009 posters were on the history of the National Park and started with:
THE PERIOD ENDING WITH THE INTRODUCTION OF A MULTIPLE USE POLICY BY THE FORESTS COMMISION IN 1938. (Three pages. Here are just a few entries)
For thousands of years Indigenous Australians occupy the Gariwerd area. They gathered food, farmed eels, hunted, celebrated and dreamed here in the mountains and the surrounding plains. Their culture, despite damage by white settlement, still is alive today.
1836: The first European,Major Mitchell, sights, climbs and names the Grampians. He collects 150 plant specimens, of which 40 were new to science, including our Thryptomene calycina.
1853: Ferdinand von Mueller … Read the rest
Grampians Rock Art In The News
EXCERPTS FROM AN ARTICLE IN THE AGE JAN 13
The AGE had a long and chatty article on a fascinating newly discovered art site. It is far too long to copy here, but I do recommend that you read it on line – The Age
Or you can contact me (Margo) and I can send it to you. It is the need to protect valuable sites like this one that makes it so important to educate rock climbers, and where necessary ban some sites.
‘Now the legendary bunyip has been found – or ancient rock drawings of it at least – in a shallow cave atop a cliff in the Mt Difficult Range. Four bunyips, to be precise, lurking in a sandstone shelter on an outcrop that commands sweeping views of the plains of north-western Victoria.
It was a find that would shine new light on an age-old story – … Read the rest
March 26 2018 : Bunbury, Bunyips, and Bunjil: the family letters of Capt Richard Hanmer Bunbury of Barton Station
2018 Professor Ian D. Clark, Federation Business School, Federation University Australia, Ballarat
Professor Ian Clark, a Western Victorian local now at Federation University Ballarat, gave us a fact-filled afternoon talk on the 1840 accounts of Capt. R. H. Bunbury of Barton Station, south of Moyston; the origins of the Bunyip as recorded by early settlers in conversation with local Aboriginal people and from Aboriginal ground drawings in Western Victoria. The Bunyip also was a key player in the story of Bunjil and in the interpretation of the painting of Bunjil in the Black Range near Stawell. Bunyips have been recorded from most areas of Victoria, and while all are associated with waterholes or rivers, the descriptions vary considerably: from a giant emu to a fur seal to an extinct Palorchestes (that died out some 40,000 years ago). The best description, however, comes not from verbal accounts but from a depiction … Read the rest
An Interesting History Project
‘The towneys watched back’ is a project by artist Fernando do Campo, who has been researching the histories of house sparrow introductions across the USA, Argentina and Australia. Through archival research, colonial language, and site-specific artistic interventions across Ararat, Fernando do Campo explores this local narrative and the house sparrow as a potent symbol of colonisation.
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the ceremonial release of house sparrows from a balcony at the former Bull and Mouth Hotel, Barkly Street, Ararat. As the Advertiser explained in 1867: ‘On Tuesday morning last a cage of English sparrows arrived in Ararat by coach…’ The local community of Ararat rejoiced their release … for hours afterwards wherever one or two could be seen knots of persons gathered to watch their movements…’… Read the rest
A Piece Of History – Beyond the Smoke
In April 2007 the book covering the devastating fires of January 2006, and also the way the vegetation responded, was launched at Willaura. FOGG were the instigators of the project, then many others came on board to support it. As well as the book, there were art and music workshops and performances in different places around the Grampians, culminating a festival day in Halls Gap.
To me, one of the highlights was the set of songs which emerged from the workshops with Fay White. Too long to put here, but here are excerpts from two of them. (I will ask Frank to put the complete ones up on our website.)
FIRE SONG
The fire came through with roar and noise, awesome power and might.
Somehow we found the strength to stay, that long and anxious night.
At dawn the sound of cracking rocks, the fall of dying trees.
We … Read the rest
Camping and Fishing at Jimmy’s Creek – 1939
I received a most interesting article from one of the long term members of Stawell Field Naturalists.
“Black Friday”, the 13th January 1939, saw the Grampians burnt from the northern end to the southern end. Although there was utter devastation, one bright side as far as my family was concerned was that now the Wannon river at Jimmy’s creek was now accessible from the Dunkeld Rd without having to bash through the thick undergrowth of bracken fern, titree etc.
In those days the Grampians were far different from today. Most people didn’t have a car and so very few of the visitors to the Grampians went further south than Myrtlebank on Dairy Creek. About the only people to frequent the area south of Myrtlebank were the forest workers/ sawmillers and those who had grazing rights. It was virtually an isolated area of peace and beauty.
Late summer 1939 Dad decided … Read the rest
History Corner
FOGG member Win Pietsch has sent us some extracts from the minutes of the Stawell Field Naturalist Club, of which she, Thelma and Ian were core members.
July ’57: Over 300 koalas liberated in Halls Gap area
Feb ’58: Aboriginal caves discovered in the Billywing, Glenisla. A visit to them in March.
July ’60: Ian McCann discovered snow daisies Brachyscame nivalis, growing at the southern end of Major Mitchell Plateau, confirmed as the most westerly occurrence of this plant in Australia.
Aug ’63: Mr Wakefield camped in the Grampians and came to check the contents of an owl pellet deposit found in the Victoria range. He sieved through the contents and found bone fragments of up to 400 animals, including 21 native species.
Feb’ 77: A greater long eared bat found for the first time in the Asses Ears area. Bat trapping in the Victoria Valley captured … Read the rest
Nature In The Serra Range 1919
By J. W. AUDAS, F.L.S., F.R.M.S., Assistant, National Herbarium, Melbourne.
(Read before the Field Naturalist’s Club of Victoria, 15th Jan., 1919.)
[In our March edition we left the botanising group on the top of Mt Rosea on the first day of their two day trip in early November.]
As the country began to dip towards the Victoria Valley a fine patch of Melaleuca squamea in full bloom was met with, and in the gullies below Bauera sessiliflora was a magnificent sight. Grevillea rosmarinifolia, with its pretty rose-coloured blooms, and Trymalium Daltonii were also growing in the gullies ; the latter is a very early blooming shrub, and is at its best in July. The four Brachylomas native to Victoria were also found growing in this locality ; they were B. ericoides, B. daphnoides, B. ciliatum, and B. depressum. Following the creek which flows towards the Victoria Valley, we passed large … Read the rest
Cultural Heritage Post 2013 Fire
Suzi Coates (DEPI Ballarat, cultural issues)
Suzi is herself indigenous and has worked on several interesting projects.
There are 99 known Aboriginal cultural sites in the Grampians of which 69 are rock art. All are very vulnerable to fire, as are scar trees and quarries. Damage is caused by ash, smoke, heat. And not just the fire, also the clean up and subsequent erosion. Damage to the art work (heat flaking etc), the surrounding infrastructure, and the subsurface archaeological deposits. The damage may not be apparent to casual inspection, as the micro climate has effects.
The post fire team had 3 requirements: assess and conserve, repair and replace infrastructure, assess control lines prior to remediation works.
Teams have so far gone to 23 known sites and have found 3 new ones. More are likely to be found. The teams have consisted of people from four traditional owner groups and 3 … Read the rest