Category: Natural Values

Sharing The Dilemmas: How And When And What Should We Burn?

Glenn Rudolph DEPI

Glenn started by showing photos of the experimental burn they did in the Wannon heathland mid July this year, which Dave R has alluded to in his piece. This area has not been burnt since the 60’s and is a very valuable small mammal habitat. It would be disastrous to have a large fire go through it so they wanted to see how a winter burn would help break it up. They used only 3 matches to light it, no accelerants. They waited till a day when the temperature was below 15, and the fuel moisture level was 16% and lit it in the afternoon. There was much dead grass. Flame heights reached 2 to 3 m. By 5.45 the edges were starting to self extinguish, by 6pm only small pockets were still alight, by 10 pm it was completely out. It reached 8 ha and were … Read the rest

The missing fauna of the Grampians – Quolls By Mike Stevens with Eric Barber

 

Official wildlife database records are poor when attempting to understand the historic habitat ranges of many wildlife species. This creates difficulties when investigating the potential for large-scale fauna restoration opportunities across landscapes such as the Grampians. Common questions arise; What species used to occur in the landscape? How abundant were they? What was there habitat preference? Why did they go extinct?

My search started when comparing the data of previous small mammal captures by Seebeck1 in the 1970’s, or Cockburn2 in the 1980’s with recent small mammal trapping in the Grampians3. It is clear that species such as Long Nosed Potoroo, Southern Brown Bandicoot and Smokey Mouse have declined. This is in addition to the species already locally extinct such as White Footed Rabbit Rat, Southern Bettong, Western Barred Bandicoot and New Holland Mouse found by Wakefield4 in the 1960’s in Grampians cave deposits … Read the rest

June 2013 Natural values updates from Ryan

Research Projects: There is an impressive list of projects being undertaken at the moment: birds, aquatic creatures, small mammals, importance of unburnt patches, Chytrid fungus survey of frogs, cinnamon fungus research, impact of sallow wattle infestations. To take just one of the research projects that has been borne out of the 2012 Grampians Bioscan, demonstrating the direct management benefits of our Museum Victoria and Parks Victoria partnership/relationship. It will assist us to understand the re-colonisation of Smoky Mice after a significant disturbance event such as the February 2013 Fire Complex.  The research provides us with a unique opportunity to learn and adapt our fire regimes and predator control program to help protect this species. The project is funded by Museum Victoria with in-kind and material support from the Grampians Ark program. There’s some great pictures and further information on: 

http://museumvictoria.com.au/about/mv-blog/may-2013/smoky-mice-in-the-grampians/

Brushtail Rock Wallaby update 
Autumn health check trapping
… Read the rest

Natural Values News

The Natural Values team are busy looking at the impact of the fire, so we don’t have an article from Ryan. What we do know is that the remote camera work continues to be very useful. It is revealing that cats are an increasing threat to the small critters, and staff and experts are looking the best ways to deal with this. Cinnamon fungus is another problem that has returned after the 2 wet years.

The results of the Museum of Victoria Bioscan  are coming through a little at a time. There are two excellent videos up on Youtube and more to come. The first was a general report, the second focussed on moths of the Grampians: www.youtube.com/user/museumvictoria

In other news, the student studying the diet of deer has just completed her PhD, and we are hoping we can have her talk about her results at a … Read the rest

POETRY AND HISTORY CORNER

FOGG member and keen internet surfer Kornelis Sietsma has passed on a fascinating site which I’m slowly exploring:
http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=publisher%3A%22%5BMelbourne%5D+Field+Naturalists+Club+of+Victoria%22

A group in the USA has digitised all the early editions of the Victorian Field Naturalists Club newsletters, from 1892 onwards. There’s a lot of useful observations on the Grampians there, plus insights into the biodiversity of our State 110 years ago. The accounts are often long and chatty, so for this issue just an introduction.

May 1892 :
President: PROFESSOR W. BALDWIN SPENCER, M.A.
This Club was founded in 1880 for the purpose of affording observers and lovers of Natural History regular and frequent opportunities for discussing those special subjects in which they are mutually interested; for the Exhibition of Specimens ; and for promoting Observations in the Field by means of Excursions to various collecting grounds around the Metropolis.

There followed a list of invertebrata obtained during “the excursion … Read the rest

BOOK REVIEW ‘The Victorian Bush its ‘original and natural’ condition’ by Ron Hateley

Wendy Bedggood

I recently purchased a copy of ‘The Victorian Bush its ‘original and natural’ condition’ by Ron Hateley. It is an extremely interesting book and I urge all who are interested in conservation and history to read it.
Ron was brought up in Kiata where his father Keith was a prominent field naturalist. Ron went to Creswick and trained in Forestry then later was a lecturer there. His book was published some time in the past 12 to 18 months, and sadly he died earlier this year.
He questions and discusses widely held views of ‘the original and natural’ condition of our bush. He looks at issues such as
6. The extent of pre 1788 tree cover.
7. The extent and frequency of fire stick farming and was it as broadly used by aboriginals as some experts imply?
8. The effect of native fauna in the dynamics of the … Read the rest

POETRY CORNER

I’ve chosen this poem from the CD produced after the 2006 fires by the Halls Gap Community Association as we rejoice in the rejuvenation of the Park with all this rain. Ed.

The green things growing

I love them so — the green things growing
And I think that they love me without false showing
For by many a tender touch, they comfort me so much
With the soft, mute comfort of green things growing.

I love it so – the small creek flowing
And I think that it loves me without false showing
And I like its watery sound, as it winds its way around
And I love to listen to water flowing

Verse 1 words by Myrtle Pickering aged 12 years “The Pinnacle” Oct 1926
Verse 2 added by Fay White from the children’s stories at the Hall’s Gap workshop July 2006. This verse from Chelsea Chatfield’s story… Read the rest

THE ACACIA DEBATE Margo Sietsma

The wattles this August have been the best we can remember, both in the Park and along the surrounding roads – particularly our national emblem Acacia pycnantha. So I thought this article could be of interest to members. It’s adapted from a report I received via the Association of Botanical Gardens. Ed,

A plant name dispute that has bubbled away for a decade has finally been resolved at the XVIII International Botanical Congress in Melbourne in July.
The species concerned are the acacias, which until now has included the Australian wattles and the thorn trees of the Serengeti—both highly recognisable and iconic groups of plants.
Acacia taxonomy has generated much controversy in the scientific and wider community over the past decade. Careful research has shown that Acacia should be split into several genera, and a difficult decision was required as to whether the name Acacia should be used either for … Read the rest

FLOODS, WILDLIFE, HOME! NEAR LAKE LONSDALE, SPRING 2011 Leigh Douglas.

What an abundance of water and wildlife we all had with the floods earlier this year: spiders – especially Golden Orb-weavers galore; butterflies, including several Swallow-tails blown down on the warm northerly airstream; frogs – swimming underwater in the paddock, throughout the wetlands, seemingly everywhere…. filling the air with their somewhat frantic yet elated choruses; praying mantis, turtles and fish; the top of every grass-stalk crowded with water-escaping creatures; and that’s not mentioning (yet) the birds!
So here goes. Being on the flood plains of Mt William Ck. might not have been good for the fences, but it was wonderful for a huge number of a variety of waterbirds. Flocks of Great Egrets, Swans floating over the tops of fences, Herons, Ibis. In lesser numbers, Spoonbills both royal and yellow-billed, a family of Pelicans, Cormorants large, small, pied and black, Brolgas (our usual pair), and many ducks; interestingly, not as … Read the rest

FROM OUR TEAMLEADER, CULTURAL AND NATURAL VALUES – Ryan Duffy Sept 2011

Grampians staff will soon convene a working group to review the delivery of the Grampians Ark fox-baiting program so we can learn, adapt and improve the program into the future. This includes representatives from research institutions, DSE, DPI, and local Landcare. The four year funding source for the program is now complete. The good news is the State Government has committed to fund pest plant and animals programs across public land within Victoria on an ongoing basis. We are hoping this review will help us obtain a slice of these ongoing funds.
Grampians staff recently re-located some historic graffiti within a cave close to the Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby release site. The graffiti had peoples’ name or initials and the date ‘1879’ inscribed below. Although the significance of this site is yet to be determined, this highlights that there are still many hidden cultural treasures within the Grampians. Updating our information about … Read the rest

Friends of Grampians Gariwerd