Category: Articles

Mt Dryden Excursion – 23rd September 2018

Mt Dryden was the target of this excursion, with three objectives in mind: enjoy the view, look at the rocks, and look at the vegetation.

Mt Dryden is a greenstone outcrop, being volcanic material from the Cambrian era, the oldest rocks in Victoria. It is a particular igneous type with high magnesium, low silica content, with derived minerals including actinolyte which was prized as axe material by aboriginals.

Landholder Graeme Maher met us, and along with Geoff McPhee (previous owner) escorted us to near the summit where the views were quite spectacular. Those with a rock interest collected various specimens, and a good ramble round the peak was enjoyed. We then repaired to the shearing shed for lunch and examined specimens of greenstone axes (and other rocks) found over the years in parts of the Wimmera. Graeme told us about some of the local history including Chinese gardens watered by … Read the rest

Annual Biodiversity Seminar at Nhill

There was a good representation of local FOGG members once again at this most interesting day. We learnt so much.

A very quick summary:

  • The first speaker was Professor Libby Robin from Canberra who gave us a very interesting talk on how the Little Desert National Park came into being 50 years ago. Clive Crouch who was integral to the campaign followed her. One thing that struck me was how the campaign was headed by locals, not Melbourne activists.
  • Next came Peter Monkhorst from the Arthur Rylah Institute (he also was originally a local Nhill resident). Peter talked on mammal and bird treasures of the southern Lowan Mallee.
  • Next came Ben Holmes, from the Conservation Volunteers property adjoining the Little Desert Park, who talked about the ambitious rewilding programme on their predator proof properties. ( Some of us will remember Ben from his time as a ranger in our Park,
… Read the rest

From The Editor

Welcome to the newsletter, whether you are receiving it in the post or by email. Remember that you can also access previous newsletters via our website . https://friendsofgrampiansgariwerd.org.au

First of all I need to let you know that our Ranger in Chief Dave Roberts has resigned from Parks Victoria to work for DELWP in the Otways area. We all want to thank him for his leadership and vision over the last very challenging eight years. At this stage there is no news of who will replace him – or when. His farewell letter can be found here.

Next, an apology and an explanation: We have disappointed some of our members by not sticking firmly to a regular monthly time for activities, which has made it hard for some of you to get to things they would have liked to join in with. We’ve also had a request for some … Read the rest

2018 August Prez Sez

Winter is truly hitting us, but there doesn’t seem to be much wet, just a double dose of cold. It’s obvious through the park that things are dry, but it still looks verdant and green compared to inland NSW and Qld. So, dry as it is here, we haven’t got the worst of it. Our fungi location at Jimmy’s creek was a little disappointing, but the season just hasn’t been wet enough, and lots of frosts have taken their toll on the fruiting bodies of fungi. We were pleased to have young Dave and Lyn Munroe to share their knowledge. As protégé’s of Ian McCann it is always a pleasure to have their knowledge in the group on our Fungi Frolic. But even with experts present we still saw lots of bums!

I recently indulged in the pleasure of a big road trip through inland NSW and Qld. Beautiful country. … Read the rest

From Dave Roberts – The Next Chapter August 2018

It’s been an honour and a privilege to have worked in the Grampians National Park over the past 8 years and with Parks Victoria for over 18. The things I’ve learnt, from the people I’ve met have been brilliant and humbling. Your collective experiences, story-telling, observations and perspectives have ensured that the Grampians Gariwerd landscape is conserved and managed for the future and for the right reasons. Like with all things good, it is often about the people you come across. Just like the Grampians communities, I’ve been very fortunate to have worked alongside and lead an amazing team of people who tirelessly put everything into keeping this place as good as it can be – often under the radar. The Grampians Team have been so generous to me through really challenging times, and are a true example of what being resilient is all about. Through fires, floods, pestilence and … Read the rest

Peaks Trail July Update

Traditional Owners are engaged with Parks Victoria through collaborative governance on the Grampians Peaks Trail. The full delivery of the project has been pushed out to 2020 as a result of a native title claim lodged on 27 May 2016 which extends across the entire Grampians National Park. To enable works to progress, and to ensure native title is maintained under section 238 of the Native Title Act 1993, an Integrated Land Use Agreement was signed by the State of Victoria with the claimants on 5 June 2018.

Construction of Stage Two is well underway and continues with upgrades to approximately 60 km of existing walking tracks that will form part of the trail. Stage Two will be complete in September this year.

Approvals for the new works – approximately 85-100 km of new walking tracks and 10 new hiker camps and one school camp – are nearly complete.

GPT … Read the rest

Red Gum Walk Working Bee – May 12

A moist but not quite drizzly day saw a group of us doing our annual maintenance work on this track down in the Victoria Valley. The weather meant we could do weeding and pruning quite easily, but replacing worn out signs proved difficult and we had to give up on this planned task. Once we reached the remains of what used to be the huge drive- through tree we decided to see whether we could find where the track used to continue before the 2006 fire. with not too much difficulty we could, and made our way back to our picnic table to discuss what we saw as the future of the walk.
It was extremely useful to have both longterm members and more recent folk there. For longterm members like myself, there is so much sentiment attached to the walk that we see it quite differently to those who… Read the rest

Declines, denial and disconnect: Victorian reptiles in a time of mass extinction

On a wet and wild Saturday June 16th, a hardy group of people gathered at the Mural room, at parks office Halls Gap, for a passionate and informative talk given by Nick Clemann.

To the editor’s delight, two attendees Bill Gardner and David Steane sent reports from the talk, which I have combined. Many thanks to both of you. An example for others to follow!

Nick works on threatened species of fauna, in particular reptiles and frogs. He also does honorary work at the museum of Victoria, the zoo and university.

We are in the middle of the 6t h extinction period because of the emerging catastrophe of the Anthropocene (age of man). Prior to this the most recent mass extinction event occurred in the Cretaceous when the dinosaurs were lost due to collision with a large meteor. Factors leading to the current rapid rate of species … Read the rest

Fungi Frolic

On July 15th a group of 10 Foggies met at Jimmy’s Creek for our Fungi day. Those who arrived early shared a classic FOGGs picnic in the carpark. After all it was actually a beautiful sunny winter’s afternoon. Historically this site has been a winner for us. This year things are a bit dry compared to past fungi days. The constant frosts in recent weeks have also taken their toll on the fruiting bodies we were searching for. We were pleased to have Dave and Lynn Munroe in attendance as members, offering us their extraordinary knowledge. Over the years they spent much time with the great Ian McCann looking at fungi. And Dave is a Fungi (fun guy) to hang out with! The first thing you learn is that many fungi species do not have a common name. Latin is all you get!
We had barely crossed the bridge to… Read the rest

Tourism Update

Visitor numbers in the Grampians continue to increase, for better and for worse. 

The number of visitors visiting the Grampians increased in the past year by 15.7 per cent, with 931,000 visitors travelling to the Grampians between March 2017 and March 2018. 

The amount of expenditure in the Grampians has also significantly increased in the past year. 

Visitors spent 2,367,000 nights in the Grampians from March 2017 to March 2018 – a 26.6 per cent increase from 2016 to 2017. 

Grampians Tourism chief executive Marc Sleeman said the growth in tourist numbers and expenditure was ahead of both state and national averages. 

“It’s an amazing result for our region,” he said. 

“Our new multi-tactical marketing campaigns are working to increase visitor numbers, dispersing visitors across our entire region and importantly they are staying longer and spending more.” 

The marketing campaign includes promoting the Grampians region all year, as well as … Read the rest

Friends of Grampians Gariwerd