Category: Newsletters

WIN PIETSCH: An Inspiring Naturalist

A few years ago, when I was talking with Win Pietsch about the rich frog life in part of the Mt William Ck wetlands by our place, she replied: “Oh yes, Thelma and I were there the other night, we’ve been surveying it for years” … This really impressed me! Win’s keen interest in nature, and dedication to scientific research, resonated deeply; I also realised that, although she is still an active member, many current  FOGGies probably don’t  know much about the work of Win and her fellow enthusiasts – ‘citizen scientists’ – who over the years have added so much to our knowledge and understanding of the  nature around us.

This started the germ of an idea: to write this article! What follows is an abbreviated “CV” of an amazing naturalist.

One of the most rewarding aspects about going to FOGG outings is the wealth of shared expertise in … Read the rest

From The Editor

Welcome to our Autumn issue.

Despite the Covid 19 lockdown we have been able to get you quite a bit of news and interesting reading. Those of you who get the newsletter by email will have already received two quite lengthy articles, one on art sites by Ben Gunn, Jake Goodes and Leigh Douglas, and one on gnammas by Prof Brian Timms. If you are getting only a hard copy of this newsletter and would like to read either or both of these, do let us know and we can mail them out to you. But be aware they are both quite long. But most interesting.

Just today we learnt that the Park is now open -sort of. We have no idea of course when normal activities will be able to be restarted, but we will let you know as soon as we can. In the meantime, why not do … Read the rest

2021 June President’s Report

Good Day to Friends of Grampians Gariwerd,

On Friday 24th I will be attending the Grampians National Park landscape management plan Strategy meeting via teleconference.  We have come a long way in a few weeks with telecommunications!

This session will focus on preparation of a Draft Plan for public release and comment.  So please watch out for this and to respond with public comments.

We hope that you still have work and that you have been able to spend some time outside during this very difficult time.

We hope that you will enjoy the newsletter and thank you to Margo and Leigh for putting it together.

Thank you also to Bill for providing us an update on shield and clam shrimps and a very interesting article on gnammas.

Powerful owl

This is the time of year that Powerful owls are breeding and the other night we heard them at our … Read the rest

From Rhonda, Our Chief Ranger June 2020

Surprisingly things are still very busy in the park and assisting staff including myself juggle the home schooling thing.

The whole of the Grampians National Park is closed to all people, including not being available for locals to undertake exercise within. These closures are very different to anything we have had in place before as they are under the public health act which is administered by Victoria Police not by my staff. There were a number of stages to this full closures with us first closing campgrounds, then a week later closing picnic tables & BBQ’s and then a week later full closure. All this caused some confusion to locals, understandably.

We did have discussions regarding a potential part closure of the park eg allowing locals to exercise but with a park with 55 entrances and numerous communities who believe that the Grampians is their back yard including Ararat, Stawell, … Read the rest

Pest Animal and Plant Control Biodiversity Response Planning (BRP) Update June 2020

In the past 12 months the team has removed 188 red deer and 254 goats. The program is heading into Autumn deer control with ground shooting crews and aerial shooting planned to occur in late-April to Mid-May.

Sallow wattle mulching has been completed, however we still need to calculate the number of hectares treated.

Planning is full steam ahead for feral cat trapping and baiting hopefully kicking off in late July.

Grampians Ark

Fox baiting and fox leg-hold trapping is currently occurring.

Since two male Brush-tailed Rock Wallabies were released in spring our cameras have detected 1200 images of wallabies interacting and mating. Hopefully we will see some pouch young soon!

Matt White… Read the rest

Woohlpooer Excursion (20/10/2019)

Last October we had a fascinating day wandering in the Woohlpooer State Forest with Roger Edwards. Roger ran the Cavendish office for State Forests, and developed a deep affinity with, and knowledge of, Woohlpooer over many years. As well, he is a noted wildlife artist. We joined with Hamilton Field Nats for this, and it was lovely to see old friends/colleagues as well as meet others.

Woohlpooer is a Plains Grassy Woodland; only 3% are left throughout Victoria on public land.

Orchids were the stars of the day, and Roger knew where to find dense patches of these.

We drove to a few different sites within the forest, and had time to explore at leisure. Distance wandered may not have been great at each stop, especially when Dave Munro came in contact with fungi (!) but the excitement of discovery and learning ran high, aided amply by expertise among our … Read the rest

Another Woohlpooer Day

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend the FOGG excursion to Woohlpooer but soon after (Nov 1) I went with the Grampians Australian Plant society to nearby Woorndoo to look at work to protect the rare grasslands on the roadsides and on private property. Fascinating.

We started with looking at  beautiful grassland flowers on two sites alongside the roadside,

We then moved back to the hall to hear speakers present on why these grasslands are so important. Neville Walsh from the Melbourne  Botanic Garden introduced “The forgotten flora of the volcanic plains” . We learnt how rare indeed they are, and some of the reasons for this.  These plains were quickly settled for grazing, and the paucity of classic Australian groups like Grevillea, banksia, Acacia, Epacris meant they were not seen as worth protecting. So now remnants are mainly limited to railway lines and road reserves. And recent management of these … Read the rest

FOGG’s Clean Up Australia 2020

Some of us helped clean up Australia on 1st March, organised and helped by Hannah. We concentrated on Wonderland car park, and then Reid Lookout. For a small group, a lot of rubbish was collected! Most, and most disappointing, was tissues used for toilet paper. Thank goodness for gloves and the pick-up tongs.

We had some positive discussions with tourists, some of whom even assisted by taking bags with them on their walks.

A barbeque donated by Parks and cooked by Rod (thanks Rodney) was a pleasant finale.

Thank you all, especially Hannah, who organised, motivated and took part in such a large amount of cleaning by various groups during the week. Very inspirational, Hannah – thank you!

Leigh Douglas.… Read the rest

Rescuing our Wildlife

A few of us living locally were privileged to get a last minute invitation from Derek Sandow to hear from a group of scientists on where they are currently with working with endangered species in two states . Derek is the Co-ordinator of the Grampians Ark Project.

—

The first talk was an update on the Brushtailed Rock Wallaby by Ms Shannon Kleeman (Bsc Hons), University Adelaide, S.A. Shannon has just completed her honours on ‘Non-invasive monitoring and reintroduction biology of brush-tailed rock wallabies in the Grampians National Park’

In the Grampians From 2008 – 2012, 39 were released and only 7 survived. Mortality from predation by foxes actually increased due to people coming in to do monitoring and supplementary feeding. Camera monitoring was introduced in 2014 to minimise disturbance to rock-wallabies and as a more cost-effective option and from the camera data, it was estimated in 2019 that there … Read the rest

Book News

There’s quite a bit happening with new books. Progress is continuing with our reprint of Ian McCann’s wildflower book. David Welch is very soon getting a full colour-proof, so he can check each page, before the final printing. However even if it is OK to go, it will still take about 2-3 months before it gets printed and shipped to Darwin. So we hope by the end of the year it should be available here.

There are two more books fresh on the market. Available locally is “Best Walks of the Gariwerd/ Grampians National Park”, and available online is “Gariwerd, an environmental history of the Grampians” by Benjamin Wilkie. Would any of you who have ordered it like to review it for our next issue? We would love to have more of your voices in our newsletter.

“Best Walks of the Gariwerd/ Grampians National Park” is by Debra Heyes and … Read the rest

Friends of Grampians Gariwerd