Category: 2013

Looking south from Reid’s lookout I see the vast burn on the Victoria Range ends in a brown line where it meets the green of the Victoria Valley. This is a role reversal from only a few years ago when the Victoria Range was an island of hopeful green rising from the brown/black devastation of that same valley. At the time, 7years ago, I remember hoping against hope that the Victoria Range would survive as an unburned repository of Grampians ecology.  Now that is has burned through so extensively I wonder how much recovery work will happen in that part of the park. The part that is far more seldom visited by tourists. A part not so vital to the local, state and national economy. A part thus more easily forgotten by the powers that be.

As that is my favourite part, and the area I most often visit from … Read the rest

It is still so dry here. Looking at the observations for Stawell, there was no rain at all in January, 50mm in February (most of it in one big dump which missed some areas completely), and 3mm by 28^th March.  Parts of the Park are looking quite stressed, and hot windy days are scary. Maybe the information on the front page as to the season is incorrect; we are still in Kooyang, late summer, season of eels. A parched landscape with a high risk of bushfires.

With now 85% of the Park having been burnt since 2006, we are hoping that some logic can come into the rigid quota of areas to be burned annually. The next FOP is not yet available for comment. It will be on www.dse.vic.gov.au later.

This map shows the extent of the 2006 and 2013 fires.

… Read the rest

Australian Zircon had a public viewing of a summary of where the project is up to thus far.

The mine area will be located 1.4 kilometres from the northern edge of the National Park and FOGGs feel there will be impacts on the National Park.

• The life of the mine will be 25 plus years.
• The active area at any given time will be around 300 ha.
• The mining and rehabilitation for any specific area is expected to be less than three years.

FOGGs committee made comments on the scoping study in September last year, and will be looking carefully at the Environment Effects Statement which will be available to the public in a couple of months. It will be a very large document and will be able to be viewed at a few public places, for those who don’t want to print off reams of paper. After its release … Read the rest

From time to time we get requests to spread the word about various environmental issues which members of FOGGs or members of the public (via our webpage) ask our group to promote. While most of these requests are reasonable and most of our members would probably agree with ‘the cause’, as committee we have to be careful what we take on board. Our priority is always the issues which affect our Grampians National Park. These may be issues affecting other Parks or may be ones unique to the Grampians.

Our current committee, who are all volunteers, try to organise activities for our members enjoyment and when the need arises write letters to politicians and newspapers on issues which may affect Grampians National Park. Our committee, like many others, are particularly worried about the attitude of both our federal and State governments towards the environment and especially the State watering down … Read the rest