Category: 2019 Spring Newsletter

Editor’s Piece

Once again there’s been no shortage of contributions to the newsletter, which is good news to an editor. But unfortunately there’s little room for the many photos which came with them. So there are just a few here, but we’ll get more up on our web page and our Facebook.

I myself am just recently home from visiting family in England and the Netherlands and had an interesting day in the World Heritage National Park in the extremely shallow Wadden Sea, puddling in the mud flats with a volunteer guide. She gave me a copy of their magazine (48 pages, out four times a year) and even with my rusty Dutch it was clear that her group was the equivalent of our Friends Group, and that we face some very similar challenges particularly “how to make tourism a blessing not a curse”.  They state their aim as:

“to protect the

… Read the rest

2019 October Prez Sez

August 2019

This is an exciting time of year in Grampians National Park.  The wildflowers are stunning with the golden and other wattles flowering, hakea in bloom along the Halls Gap Road and the grevilleas starting to come out.  This is one of my favourite times of year.  Both greenhoods and helmet orchids are showing their flowers.

While we have had below average rain, at least we have had some rain and now we can hear at least 6 different frogs calling in our wetlands.   The ducks are happy and for the first time we have grey teal.  We have been noticing the ducks up trees and on looking them up we see that mountain duck, grey teal and black duck all nest in tree hollows!

This is certainly the season for cockatoos and we have been seeing large flocks of long billed corellas grazing on onion weed in our … Read the rest

Gardens for Wildlife Program Pilot for Stawell and Ararat

Gardens for Wildlife is a program that aims to make gardens a place that supports the local, native plants and animals. This can be done through planting native species and providing habitat features such as logs, ponds and bird baths. A new group based around Stawell and Ararat will bring a pilot of this program to reinvigorate our towns for wildlife. The aim is to conduct garden visits to interested residents and offer practical advice on what species to plant and where to attract wildlife such as native birds, lizards and insects. The pilot will be run as a collective with support from Grampians Australian Plant Society, Ararat Rural City Council, Friends of Grampians Gariwerd, Project Platypus, Stawell Urban Landcare, Upper Hopkins Land Management Group, Yarrilinks and DELWP.

For more information about the program, check out the Gardens for Wildlife Victoria website: https://gardensforwildlifevictoria.com/

Next meeting at Pomonal Hall on 12th … Read the rest

Grampians Landscape Management Plan review

Parks Victoria is excited to share dates and locations of upcoming community engagement activities for the Grampians Landscape Management Plan review.

The new management plan will underpin strategic planning for the Grampians landscape over the next 15 years to ensure that precious environmental and cultural values of this iconic landscape are preserved for future generations to enjoy.

Those interested in the Grampians landscape are invited to take part in a community workshop through September 2019. Workshop dates and locations are as follows:

  • Halls Gap workshop, Thursday, 5 September 2019, 6.30-8.30pm
  • Laharum workshop, Tuesday 10 September 2019, 6.30-8.30pm
  • North Melbourne workshop, Thursday 12 September 2019, 6.00-8.00pm
  • Halls Gap drop-in, Tuesday 17 September 2019, 12.00-3.00pm
  • Dunkeld workshop, Tuesday 17 September 2019, 6.30-8.30pm
  • North Melbourne workshop, Thursday 19 September 2019, 6.00-8.00pm

At the workshops, participants will learn about the management planning process, explore the challenges and opportunities for managing this highly valued landscape … Read the rest

From the Park Desk October 2019

Rhonda McNeil

Area Chief Ranger Grampians T 8427 3612

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We are heading into a very exciting time over the next twelve months with the development of the Grampians Area Landscape Management Plan, including Black Range State Park. As a park ranger it is a major milestone to be lucky enough to be part of this process nd it is really about being in the right place at the right time to be involved in writing a management plan which sets the direction for the future. I am also excited to just getting around to as many of the community consultation sessions as I can to hear from the many people who value this landscape and learn about their experiences.

Key achievements for the team over the last few months have been the first year of the herbivore control programme and the sallow wattle programme. We welcome Annike who … Read the rest

Extract from Grampians National Park Newsletter

Park staff produce a most informative newsletter each season, with information about what is happening with plants and animals plus Park news and updates. It’s too long to include in full here but here are some extracts.

Road maintenance: Mount Zero Road is in the process of being graded. A long, dry summer followed by winter rains has led to lots of potholes and corrugation. Be cautious when travelling this
road as operations to repair the surface continue. Be sure to check the weekly road report and monthly park access update on the Grampians page on www.parks.vic.gov.au.

Annual goat monitoring: Rangers have been working hard conducting feral goat monitoring to gain a better understanding of their population size in the Grampians National Park. Feral goats cause significant harm to environmental and cultural values in the park. Impacts include compaction
and erosion from their hard hooves. Their browsing techniques are … Read the rest

Advisory Group Report (August 13)

Rock Wallabies: A new ranger is looking after this (Derek Sandow) and funding has been extended. There are five animals remaining, one of them is a male. In September a new young male is planned to be introduced.

Grampians Ark: Fox control is continuing in partnership with private landholders in Victoria Valley and the Dunkeld area. This project implements a best practice pulse fox-baiting programs to protect threatened species of the volcanic plains grassy communities in a target area of grassy woodland and wetland habitat adjoining the Grampians National Park.
The baiting is timed to coincide with the Grampians Park fox baiting

Sallow Wattle: The aim had been to mulch 100 acres but only 15 acres could be done. There is now a new ranger Anke Spiridis who will get the work going again.

Goats: Shooting has been both from the air and from the ground. The aim had … Read the rest

Advisory Group Report (June 21)

Not surprisingly much of the meeting was taken up with the rock climbing controversy, also that this controversy has brought forward the long awaited review of the management plan which this group has been requesting for some years already (the previous one was published in 2003).

Traditional rock climbing was mentioned in the previous management plan. At that time, they were few in numbers and came with clubs or groups. But today there are something like 45,000 rock climbers coming here, of whom only 5,000 belong to a club.

In the worthy aim to help tourism recover after the 2006 fires, changes were made to Summerday Valley to encourage climbing there. Most climbing clubs are respectfully asking for better information so they can do the right things and Park staff are working on the complex task of getting information on to various apps.

Several of our group asked for a … Read the rest

Clean up Australia Day (Sunday May 19)

Two FOGG members started out from Halls Gap collecting rubbish through the Botanical gardens and up one side of the creek to Venus Baths and back down the other side of the creek to the gap.  They then cleaned the car park at Silverband Falls and the track up to the falls where they also chipped out some spear thistles. Two bags of rubbish were collected plus a small bag of crushed Aluminium cans separated for recycling.

Ten people assembled at the MacKenzie Falls carpark and cleaned up the area there, plus the walking tracks to the falls and the lookout. About two full bags of rubbish were collected mainly from the carpark area. We then moved to the Smiths Mill camping area and did a general cleanup there and also along the road to the campsite.

And a Pomonal group found very little rubbish at the Tunnel Rd carpark … Read the rest

Visit to Summerday Valley (Saturday June 15)

Fifteen people turned up in reasonable sunshine to visit the Hollow Mountain area. Earl, of the rock-climbing company “hanging out” based in Halls Gap, conducted us on a guided tour of Summerday Valley, highlighting the track hardening work and fencing carried out to maintain and improve the tracks in the area. We learnt that the Grampians was regarded as one of the world’s premier climbing locations, attracting visitors from all over the world, and that numbers doing this had been growing very rapidly until the recent climbing bans. Summerday Valley is special in that it caters for beginner and school groups, with good access to climbs and good toilet and parking facilities.
We heard how the current climbing bans were placing additional strain on other areas where climbing was still allowed, such as Mt Arapiles and closer to Halls Gap.

A discussion evolved round the necessity of bolts for safety … Read the rest

Friends of Grampians Gariwerd