Category: Meeting Report

APRIL 3: Meeting at Parks Office

 

 

About a dozen people met in the Mural room and Mike Stevens and Ryan Duffy gave us an update on park activities.

 

Mike explained in much detail the events of the January Northern Grampians Complex fire. On Jan 15 several lightening strikes started fires across the Grampians, Parks, CFA and DEPI staff worked hard to put these fires out, but inaccessibility and bad weather lead to a couple of fires in the Wartook area not being able to be controlled. Mike described to us how events unfolded and showed us a program called Phoenix Rapidfire which illustrated how the fire progressed. The program had been used during the fire to predict the fire behaviour and to give people warning of the likely path it would affect. Phoenix Rapidfire was developed after the 2006 bushfires and has been improved each year as more information from each fire season … Read the rest

FOGG AGM

SEPTEMBER 28:

Ten of us met together at the home of Alison White and John Fisher at Wartook. Plus we had quite a few apologies.

EXTRACT FROM MINUTES

  • Minutes from last AGM were circulated and passed.

  • Proo gave her presidents report, reporting on our activities of the Clean up Australia Day in March, a visit to Brim Springs with Ben to visit some aboriginal rock art, an evening where Ryan presented some of the findings of the Bioscan, and a working bee at Red Gum walk. The flood recovery work has been completed but there is now the recovery work from the Victoria Ranges fire from February to be done. Zumsteins picnic area has been opened and Dave did a good job consulting with the community. The Park is still facing the environmental threats from government changing policies which have relaxed the rules on firewood collection, increased burning regimes as

… Read the rest

MINUTES OF GENERAL MEETING SEPTEMBER

 

General Meeting Minutes(shortened)

  • Minutes from the meeting at the Parks Office on 24th April were accepted.
  • Treasurer Mabel that in August we donated $3000 to Museum Victoria to help travel costs for two of their post graduate students who are working on projects in the Park.

Business arising

  • Bioscan final report still not out.
  • The Grampians Peak Trail so far has had preliminary approval for camping sites along the way consisting of a pad for a tent, a 3 sided shelter for bad weather and toilets. More luxurious accommodation so far has not been proposed.
  • The proposal to put a chair lift to the top of the Pinnacle has been dropped.
  • Membership forms need to be redone.

Business

  • Wendy has checked on what we need to do re the changes to model rules. We have no need for action at the moment, just to remember that

… Read the rest

News From The Advisory Group And The Round Table

The AG met in July, and the Round Table in August.

AG meeting. We heard updates on the flood and fire recoveries. All work on the flood recovery should be finished by the end of August. The walking track crew, who have done such a good job, finished at the end of the financial year. This work was relatively well-funded, in contrast to the fire recovery work, which received no extra funding. They have some insurance money for built assets, and some for rehabilitation of fire lines and damaged roads, but almost nothing for the cultural heritage surveys needed, and other important work.

We also had an update on the staff situation. PV is still cutting staff state wide. Long term ranger here, Geoff Pitt has decided to take one of the redundancy offers and will finish up in August. We thanked him for his work and wish him well … Read the rest

April 24 meeting with Dave Roberts for an update on what was happening in the Park

Flood recovery work after 2 ½ years is nearly complete. Last to be finished will be the Zumsteins area hopefully in time for a spring opening. The footbridge damaged at McKenzie falls during the floods will be air lifted out in the next week or two and it is hoped the walk from Zumsteins to McKenzies Falls will be open in 2 months time. Venus Baths and Splitters Falls will be open to the public in the next couple of weeks.

 

Recent fires in Victoria Valley. These fires took 5 weeks to get under control. There were some areas of intense fire and some areas where prior planned burns 8 months prior had moderated the fire. The area has been gated off and as areas are assessed and deemed safe some roads will be opened soon. There is only funding to rehabilitate the dozer lines, money for all other … Read the rest

BRIEF REPORT FROM DECEMBER MEETING

Proo had contacted Will Flamstead and indicated our concern that no environmental representation was on the long walk committee, as we have heard no more she will contact him again.
Electronic letters were sent to Ryan Smith, Joe Helper, Hugh Delahunty and Ted Baillieu, voicing our concern at the proposed granting of 99 year leases to developers to allow private development inside National Parks. It was suggested a copy of our letter be sent to VNPA.
Wendy has drafted a letter to the papers which will be circulated to the committee and sent to papers in the new year.
Mabel presented the current financial state of the group.
Wendy sent out by email, and post notification of some additional activities not included in our newsletter. This worked well and the email reminders of FOGGs activities seems to be working well.
Proposed Planting at McKenzie Falls
After the floods we were … Read the rest

AGM REPORT 2012

FOGG AGM 15th September 2012 held at McCanns Dam near Stawell.
13 members met at lunch time after our wildflower walk nearby.
Business

  1. Minutes from last AGM were circulated and passed,
  2. Proo gave her president’s report saying that things have settled down from the natural disasters experienced over the past couple of years. The big issues over the last year have been the attack on the environment by the current government and their policies. The cutting of biodiversity staff, the relaxing of rules on firewood collection, cleaning up rivers, increased burning regimes as a result of the Black Saturday Royal Commission and recently the proposed relaxing of rules to allow commercial developments within National Parks. Membership numbers have stayed about the same and we have had some good activities with good attendance during the year.
  3. In Mabel’s absence Janbert presented the treasurers report which was kindly audited by Ron Goudie
… Read the rest

ACTIVITY REPORTS December 2011

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 10: AGM AND WATER CRITTERS. (actually the water critters came first,so I’ll do them that way round).
Joel Boyd of the Wimmera CMA met us in Halls Gap and showed us pictures and samples of what we were likely to find in Stony Creek. We then proceeded to dip our nets in to the water and bring our catch up to study with magnifying glasses. It was too early in spring for some animals but we had fun studying the tiny creatures we caught.. Yes the creek is healthy. Photos are on the website.
We then adjourned to Brambuk for lunch, AGM and general meeting.

PRESIDENT’S REPORT: Prue presented a verbal report. The floods affected our programme quite a bit, but also brought some good activities. The geology excursion with Ross Cayley was excellent, and many FOGG members joined in the excursions organised by Parks Vic and VICROADS. … Read the rest

BURNING ISSUES GRAMPIANS ROUNDTABLE MEETINGS 2011 Wendy Bedggood

I attended this meeting on the 27 September as the FOGGs representative.
The round table is a very diverse group of people all interested in the Grampians and the impacts of natural (and not so natural) events which happen to it. The roundtable is intended to try to get a better understanding of how activities, effect the various users of the Grampians. I think it will only work if the representatives take back to their groups what they have learned from these meetings. So far we seem to have dealt mainly with fire but flood and other issues will be on future agendas.
We identified that there were still some gaps in the membership of stakeholders represented at the roundtable and that 5 additional members could be sought without the group becoming too unwieldy. Expressions of interest will be sought from other relevant groups . We also set out some … Read the rest

ADVISORY GROUP REPORT December 2011

The AG has met twice since the last newsletter.

The September meeting

We clarified what we hoped to achieve by appointing two junior members to the group, and how to go about it.
Mountain bike working group update: Committee met mid-July and 2 members committed to map proposed trial network north of Halls Gap using existing tracks and forward to David Roberts.
Brambuk Management Service Agreement was discussed.
Heritage Events: Next year represents 100 years since Walter Zumstein established the historic visitor site and accommodation, and this clearly will need to be included in ideas for the re-opening of the Zumsteins picnic area. There is also interest in a Forestry heritage event, Spring 2012 tentative date.
Two community forums have been held to discuss Zumsteins renewal plans. Once insurance money is confirmed a site plan will be developed and circulated for community comment.
Fire Ecology Strategy update: Jill Reid described … Read the rest

Friends of Grampians Gariwerd