CATTLE ‘TRIAL’ ON TRIAL JUNE 2014 NO 257 GROW WEST AND HINDMARSH MARINE AND COASTAL UPDATES SAVING LEADBEATER’S POSSUM PARKS AND HUMAN HEALTH ROYAL PARK OUTDOORS VICTORIA Be part of nature

PRESIDENT Russell Costello DIRECTOR Matt Ruchel CONTENTS Level 3, 60 Leicester St, Carlton, VIC 3053 4-5 Cattle ‘trial’ on trial ABN 34 217 717 593 Telephone: (03) 9347 5188 6 Grow West: Celebrating a million trees Facsimile: (03) 9347 5199 on Yaloak Estate E-mail: [email protected] 7 Hindmarsh planting weekend 2014: Web: www.vnpa.org.au improving habitat VNPA’S VISION 8 VEAC calls for more marine care We share a vision of Victoria as a place with a diverse, secure and healthy natural environment cared for and appreciated by all. 8-9 Bay wonders revealed

EDITORIAL COMMITTEE 8-9 Westernport: too precious to lose Matt Ruchel, Philip Ingamells, Michael Howes. 10-11 Linking parks and people: A perfect panacea ADVERTISING for human and ecosystem health? Emily Clough, [email protected] 12-13 The Port Campbell coast: Paradise lost? GETTING INVOLVED IN VNPA Everyone can help in the conservation of Victoria’s wild and beautiful places. 14-15 Victoria’s unsung treasure: You can: the Anglesea Heath • make a donation 16-17 Bandicoot battles • become a regular giver or member • volunteer. You’ll be welcome in the office, on a campaign or in a park 18-19 Saving Leadbeater’s or saving logging? • leave a bequest to VNPA in your will. 20-21 Outdoors Victoria: Towards a unified PUBLISHING POLICY outdoors community All advertisements should be compatible with VNPA policies. Publication of an advertisement does not imply endorsement by the VNPA Inc. of the 22 Forests Forever Easter ecology camp: advertised product or service. The VNPA reserves the right to refuse any East Gippsland 18-21 April advertisement at any time. 23 First time at Forests Forever Park Watch may be quoted without permission provided that acknowledgement 24 Alpine cattle grazing – it’s not science, is made. The opinions of contributors are not necessarily those of the VNPA Inc. it’s politics GUIDELINES FOR CONTRIBUTORS You’re always welcome to contact the editor to discuss ideas for articles. 25 Failed mine returns to threaten the Tambo Phone the VNPA or email [email protected]. Articles may be 26-27 Diamond in the rough – submitted by email, on disk or as hard copy. Include your contact details and Roseneath State Forest brief biographical information. Photos, maps and drawings are needed too. Digital photos should be 300dpi and around 8cm by 12cm. 28 Cheap as chips

COPY DEADLINE for September 2014 Park Watch is 4 August 2014. 29 Protect the Wellsford Forest!

DESIGN Mary Ferlin PRINTING Adams Print 30-31 Rethinking the fungal dimension FRONT COVER of biodiversity Snow Gum woodland, Bogong High Plains, Alpine NP. 32 Climate change affects plants in many ways See cattle trial article page 4. Photo by David Tatnall. BACK COVER 33 Viewin’ the Tuan Children encircle one of the nine giant ironbark 34-35 In Parks: Royal Park – lungs of the city ‘elders’ of the Wellsford Forest near Bendigo. See story page 29. Photo by Sue Fraser. 36-37 Book reviews Park Watch ISSN 1324-4361 38 A visit to Kurth Kiln

2 PARK WATCH • JUNE 2014 NO 257 We are after all the National Parks In a previous Park Watch, I contrasted Association. Our first purpose under the lack of environmental achievement of our constitution is “Promoting this Coalition government with the many the establishment and appropriate achievements of the Bolte, Hamer and From the management, in perpetuity, of an Kennett governments. Yes, Kennett! extensive, fully representative and I’m not alone in condemning the President ecologically healthy system of National performance of this government and its PHOTO COURTESY RUSSELL COSTELLO COURTESY PHOTO Parks and other protected areas”. environment minister. A recent survey Everyone knows this cattle grazing is of 624 environmentally active Victorians Standing up for parks not science or research, but a shabby showed a deep dissatisfaction with the political payback for 2010 electoral Napthine Government’s performance on By now, you would be aware that support in East Gippsland – a domestic environmental issues. your VNPA has taken action in the version of Japanese 'scientific whaling'. More than 97% of those surveyed rated Supreme Court against the Victorian From my memory of forty years’ service its performance as poor (66% ‘very poor’, Government’s cows in the Alpine NP. to Victorian conservation, this is the 31% ‘poor’). Less than 1% rated Ryan We are taking this action in partnership first government of any persuasion for Smith as a ‘good minister’. 10% rated him with Environmental Justice Australia which I can’t think of a single significant as ‘average’, 61% as ‘not very good’ and a (formerly Environment Defenders Office). positive outcome for the natural whopping 28% as the worst environment I thank them for their support. environment. A lot of spin, but little minister Victoria has ever had. action other than backward steps. In these difficult times, it’s not a thing More than 90% said environmental we take lightly or wanted to do. We They’ve achieved plenty of negatives. issues would be very important when would rather work constructively with Aside from the cattle, they’ve tried to they line up to vote at the state election in government as we have in the past, to effectively ‘sell’ parts of national parks November this year. deliver positive outcomes such as those in to big business by legislating new The Commonwealth is slashing funds to our soon-to-be-released ten-yearly Nature 99-year leases. the State and public concern about poor Conservation Review. They’ve slashed funding for Parks environmental management in Victoria is With the State and now the Victoria and other biodiversity on the rise. If the Napthine Government Commonwealth slashing community programs, and loaded any remaining does want to achieve something significant environmental grants, so that now they rangers with the office work once done and positive for the environment, it’s contribute a negligible amount to our by support staff. certainly starting from a long way back. budget, there has never been a time that we They tried to recommence commercial At the 2010 election, the Coalition failed have relied more on you, our supporters, logging in the red gum parks, disguised as to release an environment policy at all, and We are always extremely grateful for ‘environmental thinning’, and continue to ALP policy on the natural environment whatever support you can give, no matter log critical Leadbeater’s Possum habitat, was tarnished by misguided plans focused how much or how little. so scarce after the 2009 fires. on shooting. Victorian environment minister Ryan The state’s native vegetation clearing The natural environment is a key state Smith labelled our court action ‘a stunt’. controls have also been watered down, government responsibility. We need I can assure you that is not the case. We with the new ‘No Net Gain’ rules based on strong and comprehensive policies are very serious about standing up for computer-generated rubbish maps and from all political parties. • PW national parks and nature. Mickey Mouse offsets. The list goes on. Russell Costello, VNPA President

In future editions we’ll look more closely or 18% of Victoria’s area: 45 national parks, at the biodiversity and economic values of 26 state parks, 60 other parks (regional, parks, but it’s worth noting that Victoria’s coastal, historic, etc), 30 metropolitan parks contain examples of 93% of the parks and 2700 reserves. It also manages state’s native flora species and 86% of its 80% of our coast, 13 marine national parks From the native fauna species. and 11 marine sanctuaries. Editor Each year around 35 million visitors The parks have many other values too, PHOTO: MARY FERLIN MARY PHOTO: go to Victoria’s national parks, and as you’ll discover inside. 16 million to metropolitan parks. These Politicians have been making negative visitors generate some $2 billion for the Many thanks to all our contributors to comments about parks lately. So state’s economy and help support over this Park Watch. Feedback, letters and new Park Watch in this there are stories 40,000 jobs around Victoria. contributors are always welcome! • PW about the values of parks as well as articles on conservation issues. Parks Victoria manages 4 million hectares, Michael Howes

PARK WATCH • JUNE 2014 NO 257 3 PHOTO: TOTTERDELL COLIN PHOTO: Alpine Marsh Marigold threatened community, Bogong High Plains. This plant community is not in the Wonnangatta Valley, where the grazing trial is being held, but is a feature of the High Plains where cattle could, perhaps, be returned. The government’s long-term intentions remain unstated. This photo was taken by celebrated alpine botanist the late Colin Totterdell. CAttlE ‘triAl’ oN triAl

VNPA PARKS PROTECTION CAMPAIGNER PHILIP INGAMELLS EXPLAINS WHY THE VNPA IS TAKING LEGAL ACTION TO (WE HOPE) END ALPINE GRAZING.

The Victorian National Parks “…protection of ecosystems, natural reduce fire in the park, an argument that Association is challenging the habitats and the maintenance of seems to have taken prominence since Victorian Government’s alpine viable populations of species in natural their other arguments have been seen to cattle grazing ‘scientific trial’ in surroundings.” have failed. the Supreme Court. In other words, if we are to allow for But the evidence is already against them And contrary to Environment Minster the long-term well-being of our great here too. Ryan Smith’s claim that it’s just an natural heritage, we have to seriously ‘attention-seeking stunt’, we are taking protect whole ecosystems in viable Fire has raged across the alps on many this action very seriously indeed. areas, not just take action here and occasions when grazing was widely in there to avoid problems for threatened place, most notably in the 1939 Black First and foremost, Victoria’s species. Friday fire, the 1998 Caledonia fire and National Parks Act protects all plants the 2003 alpine fire. The 2006 alpine fire and animals in the parks, not just Cattle grazing has long been recognised took place when cattle grazing had been threatened species and communities. as damaging to alpine and sub-alpine removed completely from the Alpine This level of protection is recognised ecosystems, so it’s fundamentally not National Park, though adjacent areas in national park legislation around an appropriate management tool in a outside the park were still heavily grazed. the world. Indeed the international national park. Thatshould be the end of Convention on Biological Diversity the argument. A very clever peer-reviewed piece of (which Australia ratified in 1993) research into grazing and fire in the stresses the important role national But the cattlemen are now claiming Victorian alps was published in 2013. It parks play in the: that bovine grazing is a sensible way to took advantage of the fact that the 2003

4 PARK WATCH • JUNE 2014 NO 257 and 2006 fires collectively burnt over When the current government came political football game, with special 90% of the Victorian section of the to power at the end of 2010, it rushed interest ‘teams’ facing each other off. alps, including 99% of those areas the cattle into the Alpine National which were licensed for grazing. In Park in its first, failed attempt to run Park management, too, should be addition, remote sensing (satellite) the trial. Since that time, including spared political interference. data was available for both fires. This the most recent version of the trial in The VNPA, in challenging the was a rare chance to see how grazing the Wonnangatta Valley, we estimate government in the Supreme Court, actually, not theoretically, affected high it has invested well over $1,000,000 is simply asking that we return to country bushfires. of public money in the project. appropriate management of the The results of the study show that Yet there is still no scientist prepared Alpine National Park according to cattle grazing did not significantly to put his or her name to the trial, its clear objectives as listed in the reduce fire in the alpine region of no identifiable peer review process, National Parks Act: the protection of Victoria. Indeed there was evidence and indeed no clearly articulated flora and fauna. to suggest that grazing increased fire gap in our knowledge that the trial is While solidly backing the trial, severity in areas where it encouraged designed to answer. shrub growth. the government has been unclear And we have been given no reason about what it intends as a future for There are a number of other studies why the trial, if it must take place at grazing in the park. The Victorian that shed light on this issue but, as all, should take place in the Alpine people deserve to know, before the far as we can ascertain, the scientists National Park. November election, exactly what is who have done this work had not planned. been consulted by the Victorian Somehow this expensive experiment, Government when it made its decision while being trumpeted as important And it is high time the Victorian to attempt a cattle grazing and fire trial fire research, is also celebrated as Government acknowledged the in the Alpine National Park. a return to the cattlemen’s grazing importance of national parks in heritage, a heroic return of the Man protecting our great natural heritage. This is particularly odd, given many from Snowy River. It’s time they came up with a clear statements by members of the strategy, backed by real action and government that understanding the Fire is an important issue in Victoria, secure funding, to do that. • PW contribution of cattle grazing to fire which is why fire management management is important for public should be based on very good Read more – see ‘Alpine cattle grazing’ safety. evidence. It should not be used as a page 24.

New tracks pose development risks Please support us!

The long-proposed Falls to Hotham Alps Crossing track is back on the drawing We really need your help to fund the board, and the Grampians Peaks Trail is well advanced in its planning. legal case and our ‘Hands Off our Parks’ campaign. With your support Both tracks, which feature in Victoria’s Trails Strategy 2013-23, are geared we can challenge the Victorian towards commercial tour operators and dependent on built infrastructure, Government's reintroduction of such as huts and other shelters. cattle grazing to the Alpine National The route of the Alps crossing track (approx. 25 km) is still undecided, but the Park, and work towards stopping requirement of an ‘experience’ together with the comfort of serviced huts is our national parks being used for making planning problematic. commercial development and other damaging activities. The more advanced 140 km Grampians track takes hikers north to south through the park, with walkers doing all or part of the track at any time. To donate, please: Both walks are planned to use a mixture of existing and new tracks, and involve y Phone 03 9347 5188 the contentious issue of private facilities along the tracks. In the case of the (to donate by credit card) Grampians proposal, this could involve building accommodation on the Major y Send a cheque to VNPA, Mitchell Plateau, a designated Remote and Natural Area. 60 Leicester St, Carlton, VIC, 3053 Potentially the projects could see an improvement in track alignment and y Visit www.donate.vnpa.org.au structure. But they could also lead to ‘development creep’, with private Any and all contributions are very investors claiming a need to increase facilities over time. welcome, and all donations over $2 Watch this space. are tax deductible.

PARK WATCH • JUNE 2014 NO 257 5 Grow West Celebrating a million trees on Yaloak Estate PHOTOS COURTESY HELENA LINDORFF COURTESY PHOTOS Yaloak Estate Manager John Sheehan on the planting site at the estate. A number of children and young people enjoy the planting day.

GROW WEST COORDINATOR HELENA LINDORFF INVITES VNPA MEMBERS AND FRIENDS TO THE ANNUAL COMMUNITY PLANTING DAY NEAR BACCHUS MARSH IN JULY.

On Sunday 20 July, Serrated Tussock and reducing soil Australian Government to revegetate the Yaloak Estate will be erosion and sediment entering into the landscape and help protect and improve celebrating the planting waterways. hundreds of hectares of native vegetation of one million trees when within the Upper Werribee Catchment. The it again plays host to the Yaloak Estate, which hosted a successful project, titled ‘Brisbane Ranges National 9th annual Grow West Grow West planting day in 2011, is in Park to Werribee Gorge State Park Biolink’ Community Planting the Rowsley Valley, 20km south-west aims to connect the two parks with a Day event. of Bacchus Marsh. The 5,200 hectare corridor of native vegetation and a series of property carries 13,000 sheep, and this vegetation ‘stepping stones’. Grow West, part of the Port Phillip and year has 1,000 hectares of wheat and Westernport Catchment Management canola crops as well. Emma Muir is assisting with the Authority, appreciates its partnership coordination of the project, teaming up With its steep escarpments and deep with members of the VNPA and their with me in running the planting day. gullies, the property presents plenty families and friends, and welcomes them of challenges for Estate Manager John “I’m very excited to be part of the team to this year’s Planting Day, running from Sheehan. and part of the Grow West vision. We’ll 9.30am to 4.30pm. Lunch is provided. be helping John Sheehan plant 6,000 “This country has excellent cover for native seedlings on an eroded bank in the For more information about the day visit rabbits and carries a lot of Serrated www.growwest.com.au, where you need Rowsley Valley, and we’re keen for the local Tussock. However, we’re deep-ripping community, VNPA members and friends, to register for the planting day by Friday areas to remove rabbit harbour and 11 July. and Landcare group members to join us reduce rabbit numbers, and we’re and help Yaloak celebrate its millionth tree,” The planting day helps local communities planting out degraded areas with trees to said Emma. to be involved in restoring their landscape help shade out Serrated Tussock, as well as aerial spraying for weeds,” John said. Emma is also a facilitator for the Pentland and assuring a sustainable future. Hills Landcare Group, which hosted a John has joined the Grow West team Grow West Community Planting Day on For the past 10 years, Grow West has again, and will fence out some 259 assisted Yaloak Estate with a variety of David Muir’s property near Myrniong in hectares of land so that 56,000 native 2012. • PW grant incentives for revegetation, farm seedlings can be planted this winter. forestry and remnant protection which For more information about the day visit have all helped to increase biodiversity In 2012, Grow West was successful www.growwest.com.au to register by in the area, suppressing the serious weed in obtaining $1.39 million from the 11th July.

6 PARK WATCH • JUNE 2014 NO 257 Site of this year’s Hindmarsh planting weekend at the Lindorffs’ Wimmera- Mallee property.

Hindmarsh Come to the 2014 Hindmarsh planting weekend! planting weekend 15-17 August 2014 This year sees an exciting new This year we’ll be planting only on the 2014: improving location for the 17th annual Saturday, so on Sunday there will be bus Hindmarsh planting weekend. Instead tours, including one to Wyperfeld NP. habitat of the familiar Little Desert Nature Lodge, we’ll be based at Rainbow For more information, and to and putting in 15,000 plants at the register for the weekend, see ECOLOGICAL CONSULTANT CHRIS Lindorffs' property. www.hindmarshlandcare.org.au LINDORFF, HUSBAND OF GROW WEST’S You can also email Bus transport from Melbourne and [email protected]

HELENA, DESCRIBES THEIR PROPERTY, HEMPHILL STEVE PHOTO: back will be available as in previous ABOUT 15KM WEST OF RAINBOW IN or phone Steve Hemphill, local years. Three meals will be provided Landcare Facilitator, on 0429 006 936. NORTH-WEST VICTORIA, WHERE THIS to participants on the Saturday, and YEAR’S PROJECT HINDMARSH PLANTING two on the Sunday. There will be The event is supported by the ACE WEEKEND WILL TAKE PLACE. entertainment on the Saturday night. Radio Network, the Handbury Family Trust, Luv-a-Duck, Victorian Landcare Free camping will be available at the and Wimmera CMA. The 235 acre property site adjoins Rainbow Recreation Reserve, and outlet Creek, and is between Birdcage the town has two hotels, a motel Note: on Saturday 5 July there will be Flora and Fauna reserve and Weddings and a caravan park. There’s more a Mini Project Hindmarsh Planting Day reserve. We purchased it in 2010 and accommodation at Jeparit, 30 km on the eastern side of Lake Hindmarsh. are still gleaning useful information from Rainbow, and Hopetoun (45 km). See website for details. about its history from the locals.

The vegetation is predominantly Desert Yellow Gum woodland, with scattered Umbrella Wattle. A rare Rufa greenhood to monitor fauna before and after the areas of mallee woodland and dune orchid was discovered last year. planting. heathland. Much of the property was The vegetation in the adjoining reserves Past cropping and sheep grazing have cleared for farming, although its value for is significantly different: Buloke-Black brought weeds, particularly African Love- farming is marginal. Box woodland in Weddings Reserve, grass. This invasive grass grows to waist and mainly mallee and pine heathland height, and once mature is not a favoured There has been no long-term intensive in Birdcage. This makes the site valuable fodder species of stock or native wildlife. It farming, and native vegetation has as a habitat link, for example for the becomes thick and rank, competing with regrown in cleared areas. However, threatened Regent Parrot that nests in native grasses and herbs. Yellow Gum and mallee eucalypts have large red gums around Lake Hindmarsh, not recolonised, and will be a focus of the feeds in Buloke and Desert Yellow Gum, Fortunately it can’t grow under the drip- planting weekend. and flies into Birdcage Reserve to roost. line of trees, so planting trees and shrubs across the site will not only improve The soil is light sand, increasing in depth Other interesting birds in the area habitat values but also help suppress the towards the dunes. Yellow Gums grow in include Malleefowl, Peregrine Falcon, grass. the shallow sand, rooting down into the Spotted Harrier, Brown Quail and clay profile beneath. Splendid Fairy-wren. Other problem weeds include African Boneseed, Bridal Creeper (Smilax) and Mallee eucalypts include Yellow, Among mammals, Western Grey Perennial Veldt-grass. Foxes and rabbits Dumosa and Slender-leaf Mallee. Both Kangaroos, echidnas and Brush-tailed will continue to be a problem, with further Slender and Scrub Pine are present, with Possums are common. Swamp Wallabies control work needed. larger shrubs such as Silver and Desert are occasional visitors. Motion-sensing Banksia, Fringe-myrtle, Slaty Sheoak and cameras are being set up under the We look forward to welcoming you to the more. Wattles include Grey Mulga and VNPA’s ‘Caught on Camera’ project property in August! • PW

PARK WATCH • JUNE 2014 NO 257 7 Colourful bryozoans and sponges, Pt Addis Marine National Park.

VEAC Bay wonders calls for more revealed marine care REEF WATCH COORDINATOR WENDY ROBERTS DESCRIBES MARINE MONITORING IN PORT PHILLIP AND WESTERNPORT. VNPA MARINE AND COASTAL CAMPAIGNER SIMON BRANIGAN REPORTS. With the help of a Port Phillip and

PHOTO: MARK RODRIGUE PHOTO: Westernport CMA community grant, reef Watch volunteers and members The Victorian Environmental It’s home to many fish and plant species of the Victorian Field Naturalists Club Assessment Council’s two-year found only in our southern waters, but marine research group have been investigation into the performance and we must do more to protect them. able to monitor two areas of marine management of Victoria’s 30 marine conservation significance and concern VEAC’s recommendations are a solid protected areas, and the extent to which in Port Phillip Bay and Westernport. starting point for implementing a they meet the purposes for which they comprehensive marine plan for all The San Remo Community in were established, confirms the vital role Victorian waters. Now we need to see Westernport has been protected under these areas play in protecting marine life. all political parties back that up with the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act since But it also warns that the reserves are at strong marine policies ahead of this 1992. It is an area known for its species- risk from oil spills, coastal development, year’s state election. rich assemblage of opistobranchs (‘gills marine pests and illegal fishing. behind’, i.e. sea slugs) and bryozoans In its report VEAC made (colonial marine ‘moss animals’), two Victoria’s network of marine protected 38 recommendations, which the of which are listed as threatened. areas, comprising 24 marine national Government has six months to parks and sanctuaries that are fully consider. They include: Point Lillias in the western part of Port protected, and six multiple-use marine Phillip Bay is a coastal area fringed with areas, was established in 2002 with • updating policy and completing cross-party support and after more planning for management of the than 10 years of public consultation. no-take areas • resourcing and priorities for We must do more to protect our managing the no-take areas and marine reserves, including improving threats, including enforcing fishing Westernport: management through targeted research prohibitions, managing marine pests and monitoring, better resourcing, and and wider marine management stronger protection of no-take zones too precious to lose from illegal fishing. • several recommendations for improving research and monitoring VNPA MARINE AND COASTAL The report, released early in May, • improving public reporting and CAMPAIGNER SIMON BRANIGAN heightens the VNPA’s concerns that port annual interim audits of progress UPDATES US ON THE SAVE expansion plans at Hastings will turn WESTERNPORT CAMPAIGN, WHICH Westernport Bay into a super-highway • an appropriate process to develop biodiversity goals for the CONTINUES TO BUILD SOLID for container ships, creating unacceptable MOMENTUM. risks to marine life through the increased multiple-use areas possibility of devastating oil spills. • better boundary definition and The VNPA has recently released three legal status of the multiple-use areas, Westernport contains three marine more independent expert reports at plus visitor research and monitoring national parks and is an internationally public information seminars on the extended into these areas. recognised Ramsar wetland. Yet the Mornington Peninsula. Napthine Government is pushing “The recommendations are largely The first, prepared by the Australian through a port expansion that will around how we can improve the Conservation Foundation for the increase the risk of oil spills and marine management of the protected marine Westernport and Peninsula Protection pest invasions, and lead to substantial environments in order to manage Council, is a preliminary study into the dredging and clearing of marine and current and future challenges,” ecosystem value of the bay. A packed coastal habitat. said VEAC Chairperson the audience of over 130 people attended Hon. Phil Honeywood. Victoria’s marine environment is its launch at the Somers Yacht Club unique on a world scale, with colourful “It is important that we do what we can on 4 March, with world-renowned sponge gardens, sweeping seagrass to safeguard the marine protected areas ecological economics expert Prof. meadows and deep canyons. well into the future.” • PW Robert Costanza the keynote speaker. 8 8 PARK PARK WATCH WATCH • JUNE• JUNE 2014 2014 NO NO 257 257 PHOTO: JOHN GASKELL ROBERTS WENDY PHOTO: PHOTO: WENDY WENDY ROBERTS PHOTO: Clockwise from top left: Spotted Stingaree, Point Lillias; Common Sea-urchin at Point Lilias; Velvet Seastar in seagrass, Point Lilias; Blue Devil and sea-dragon at Pt Addis. basalt rock platforms and fragile seagrass Reef Watch facilitated three community beds. Stingarees, pipefish, snapper, seminars to raise awareness of the significant whiting and school sharks are frequent marine natural values of these areas and to visitors to this area, which is home to encourage community divers and marine over 70 species of invertebrates, including naturalists to document the species at both sites. the temperate stony coral Culicia tenella and the common sea urchin Heliocidaris Two successful monitoring events were erythrogramma. held, and species records and images were uploaded to the Atlas of Living Australia It is listed as a wetland of international and the Explore Underwater Victoria website. importance as part of the Port Phillip Bay (Western Shoreline and Bellarine Ongoing monitoring of these areas will Peninsula) Ramsar site. continue to reveal the natural wonders that can be found in both bays. PW Volunteers also searched for introduced • species at both sites, but only the ‘green There’s a free Reef Watch seminar at meanie’ crab Carcinus maenus was found, Warrnambool on 21-22 June, discovering at Point Lillias. The Northern Pacific the Merri Marine Sanctuary. For details seastar was thankfully not present at see www.vnpa.eventbrite.com.au either site. or phone 0407 165 125. PHOTO: MARK RODRIGUE. PHOTO:

Westernport has been assessed at a declining significantly in the past potential economic value of $2.5+ billion 40 years and critical habitats such in an unspoiled state. The ACF’s Jess as seagrass meadows reduced by as Abrahams says it is “far more than just much as 60% since 1975. a shipping channel for freight, it's a key green infrastructure asset for Victoria”. The port expansion would require substantial dredging for container Prof. Costanza agreed that the bay is ships at, and far beyond, Long

a significant natural capital asset that ANDREW COX PHOTO: Island Point Jetty, and the clearing “provides many of the ecosystem services WPPC President Karri Giles and VNPA's of marine and coastal habitat, that support our economy. Those services Simon Branigan with Prof. Robert Costanza including mangroves and seagrass. create an environment for flourishing fish at the Somers seminar in March. nurseries, regulate nutrients, clean and The VNPA continues to collaborate filter pollution and are the backbone of a these reports. Both report authors, seagrass with local conservation organisations thriving local tourism industry, yet these expert Dr Hugh Kirkman and BirdLife on the Save Westernport campaign, values are rarely quantified in dollar terms.” Australia’s Conservation Manager including a new Phillip Island group, Dr Jenny Lau, were keynote speakers. Preserve Western Port, a sub-group As a follow-on from the oil spill study of the Phillip Island Conservation that the VNPA released last year, we Their main finding was that even a single, Society. commissioned two more reports, both moderately-sized oil spill would have severe assessing the potential impacts of port and long-lasting impacts on Westernport’s For more information expansion on seagrass, mangroves and internationally significant populations of about the campaign, visit saltmarshes, and the bay’s birdlife. migratory shorebirds, and affect large areas www.savewesternport.vnpa.org.au, of seagrass, mangroves and saltmarsh. where you can also sign a petition Another capacity audience of over 150 addressed to federal environment attended an information seminar at The bay is already under immense minister and local MHR Hastings on 15 April for the launch of pressure, aquatic bird populations Greg Hunt. • PW PARK WATCH • JUNE 2014 NO 257 9 Linking parks and people A PErFECt PANACEA For HuMAN ANd ECoSYStEM HEAltH?

Otways serenity. PHOTO: MARDIE TOWNSEND PHOTO:

DR MARDIE TOWNSEND IS AN ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR IN THE SCHOOL OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT AT DEAKIN UNIVERSITY. HER TEACHING AND RESEARCH FOCUS ON THE HEALTH IMPACTS OF HUMAN CONTACT WITH THE ‘NATURAL’ ENVIRONMENT, AND OF ECOLOGICAL AND SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY, AND SHE LEADS RESEARCH ON RELATED TOPICS WITH PARKS VICTORIA AND OTHER ORGANISATIONS. over recent years, there has been a people unaware of the fragility of those living with a disability and Culturally and growing recognition of the important ecosystems) could undermine the Linguistically Diverse (CALD) communities health-promoting role played by health of those ecosystems. to visit and be more active in parks. parks, both national parks and more local and small-scale ones. Yet the catchphrase has gained Moreover, the IUCN World Parks currency. It is now commonly used Congress being held in Sydney in In 2001, Parks Victoria launched across Australia and around the world, November has ‘Healthy Parks, Healthy its new catchphrase ‘Healthy Parks, and has recently been adopted by the People’ as one of its eight ‘streams’. Healthy People’ (HPHP). For some it US National Park Service to increase was a statement of the obvious, but for “recognition of parks and protected So what is the evidence for HPHP, others it was challenging. areas (including state, local and and why is it such an important issue regional park systems) as places for for us to consider right now? Those locked into the so-called the promotion of physical and mental ‘medical model’ of health saw human health and social wellbeing”. Parks and activity health as deriving primarily from high-quality health services, while To achieve this goal, the US NPS has There is clear evidence that parks some concerned with the protection established formal partnerships with encourage physical activity, foster social of ecosystems were alarmed at the more than 50 health service providers connections, promote mental wellbeing risks posed by more people being and large employers. and provide opportunities for spiritual encouraged into pristine areas. expression. Similarly, through its ‘Active in Parks’ Both views, of course, have some merit. program, Parks Victoria has been Different types of parks are associated working with community organisations with different activities and, therefore, Without high-quality and accessible including the Council of the Ageing, have different benefits. For example, a health services, the health of Victorians the Heart Foundation, Conservation Finnish study found that, among young would be undermined. Likewise, Volunteers Australia and Lifesaving people, use of park spaces varied according opening pristine areas of nature to Victoria to encourage ‘at risk’ groups to the location, facilities and physical large numbers of people (and especially such as youth, the elderly, people characteristics of the parks.

10 PARK WATCH • JUNE 2014 NO 257 Like most children (given the opportunity), the author’s grandchildren Evie and Oscar love climbing trees.

Although such outcomes have typically been associated with so-called ‘wilderness’ experiences, recent Japanese research has shown that the holistic use of urban green spaces within the therapeutic treatment of cancer sufferers has resulted in improvements in both their functional and spiritual wellbeing. But not only do human-nature interactions improve things on the human side of the ledger; they have also been shown to have ecosystem benefits. The ‘Feel Blue, Touch Green’ project had the effect of “fuelling participants’ passion for the environment”. Similarly, recent research in France has shown

PHOTO: MARDIE TOWNSEND PHOTO: that participation in urban conservation activity days enhanced people’s Local ‘activity parks’ were used for social My own research, here in Victoria, has environmental knowledge, awareness, and active purposes, the in-between confirmed that parks can build bridges interest and concern. spaces (such as pocket parks and green between people of different ages, cultures, corridors) as sites for spontaneous and health and socio-economic status. And while evaluation of a South African informal activity, and more remote areas ‘Kids in Parks’ initiative showed limited as ‘fascinating places’ suitable for more Mental ill-health is posing an behavioural impacts, it nevertheless adventurous activities. increasing burden in our society. Here, demonstrated positive impacts on pro- too, parks play an important role. environmental attitudes. Research has shown that parks, broadly defined to include ‘pocket parks’ (small Recent Danish research shows that Compelling case localised parks with limited facilities), people living within 1 km of a green ‘neighbourhood parks’ (larger localised space are 1.42 times more likely to In the current Victorian context, this parks with a greater variety of facilities) experience stress than those living evidence makes a compelling case for and larger parks including national parks, within 300 metres. Canadian research linking parks and people, and for a wider promote physical activity. has found that nature contact (usually recognition of the many values of parks. through parks) is a significant predictor While the effect on physical activity of human happiness. Moves to ‘open up’ Victoria’s national parks resulting from the availability and for grazing, prospecting and development accessibility of good quality local parks My research (‘Feel Blue, Touch Green’), highlight the importance of mobilising is not surprising, research in USA in which people experiencing mental community awareness of these diverse has shown that programs to increase health issues spent time in hands-on values. The risks of undermining the community awareness of the health nature-based activities in the Anglesea ecosystem services provided by national benefits of visiting state and national Heathland, found that participants parks, diminishing the opportunity for parks have also contributed to increased gained confidence, increased self-worth transcendent experiences in nature, and physical activity. and an improved capacity to manage reducing the variety of settings for physical their stress and anxiety. activity and mental health restoration The importance of the links between parks (which cater to the needs of diverse and physical activity cannot be overstated, Eco-psychologists draw attention groups), are extremely worrying. especially in light of research published to the ‘restorativeness’ of nature- in 2008 by Medibank Private which based experiences, gained through Moreover, in the context of the recent estimated the cost of physical inactivity in fascination (involuntary and effortless Federal Government budget, with its Australia as $13.8 billion. attention), a sense of being away (an impacts particularly on lower income escape from pressures), extent (sense earners through reduced accessibility to Social and mental health of being part of a larger whole) and benefits and increased costs of health care, compatibility (satisfying innate needs universal access to high quality nearby Other research has demonstrated the and inclinations). nature is crucial. value of parks in creating and maintaining social connections, a key determinant A less commonly recognised aspect of The VNPA has a critical role to play, of human health and wellbeing. Dutch human health and wellbeing is that of along with Parks Victoria and local research shows that urban parks can spiritual health. Research has shown councils, in ensuring that the community enhance people’s sense of attachment and that spiritual wellbeing may be fostered understands and is able to capitalise belonging, and promote social cohesion by ‘transcendent’ experiences in natural on (and advocate for) the enormous by facilitating social interactions across environments, provoking a sense of benefits of a high-quality, sustainable different ethnic groups. harmony, freedom and wellbeing. and accessible park system. • PW

PARK WATCH • JUNE 2014 NO 257 11 the Port CAMPBEll CoASt Paradise lost?

MARION MANIFOLD, WHO HAS LIVED AT PORT CAMPBELL FOR OVER 40 YEARS, REPORTS ON A NEW PLAN THAT COULD BRING ABOUT THE DESTRUCTION OF THIS ICONIC COAST’S NATURAL VALUES. PHOTO: MARION MANIFOLD PHOTO: Outside towns like Port Campbell, the coast is supposed to remain undeveloped. But that’s not what the new plan says. our much-loved coast has recently been Limited brief suggests the 5km wide coastal strip is subject to yet another consultancy which a ‘regional’ solution which will assist It appears that the Plan’s brief was has environmentalists on edge: a Parks the ‘regional economy’, but many locals limited in scope, and it does not Victoria-led Shipwreck Coast Master believe the best way to improve tourism satisfactorily consider how it will Plan aiming to increase tourism stays. stays is to promote the attractions of a protect this environmentally sensitive wider SW regional tourism product – landscape, despite its first objective The Port Campbell National Park and Camperdown, Warrnambool, Port Fairy, being to ‘Conserve and protect the Bay of Islands Coastal Park coast is Glenelg, Grampians and the many other national, coastal and marine parks’. advertised as a top tourism destination smaller towns. due to its spectacular cliffs and scenic The Plan suggests that to create a hinterland. The Master Plan sees sustainable tourism product, traffic Bold developments? the area as a broad-scale tourism on the Great Ocean Road needs to be The option is given for developments development opportunity. reduced by dramatically slowing speeds to be up to three storeys high and to ‘sit to 60 and then 40 km/h to encourage The Plan has the potential to carve up boldly in the landscape’. This is contrary other modes of transport, such as and destroy almost every section of to all planning policy for this coast, shuttle buses, bicycles and walking. It the narrow 28km of park for tourism which states that development must be development – glamping, camping, also recommends the use of a traffic bypass on two small local roads a few low-scale and screened by the low-lying exclusive resorts, information centres, indigenous vegetation. cafes, kiosks, bus hubs, bridges, rest kilometres inland. areas, shelters and hides – which would This is an interesting concept, but the The Plan encourages private development destroy the scenic and environmental community is not convinced it will in the parks, but there is already plenty of values that visitors come to see. work, as most visitors want to see the land within towns, and ten large sites zoned coast. The other roads are inadequate for tourism by a 2012 planning amendment Its Stage 4 – the ‘Preliminary Master for large amounts of traffic and are not (C30) in which Corangamite Shire Council Plan’ – requires no vegetation or likely to be upgraded, and tourists see and Minister for Planning Matthew Guy environmental offsets within the parks plenty of non-coastal views on their went against the community’s and the or on other public land. The suggestion way to and from Melbourne. It may just planning panel’s advice. that Landcare groups and volunteers will make for frustration for both tourists assist in private land conservation works In proposing a private resort on the and locals. In any case, there does not historic and environmentally sensitive to ameliorate development impacts appear to have been consultation with Rifle Range (Commonwealth land) set in within the parks is an inexcusable cop- landowners on these routes. out, and irrelevant to the environmental the park just west of Port Campbell, the impacts that the Plan will have on It is recognised that Port Campbell’s Plan oversteps its boundaries. In any case countless sites within the parks. tourism is unsustainable. The Plan this is unnecessary, as there is already a

12 PARK WATCH • JUNE 2014 NO 257 MORE INFORMATION

Marion Manifold is Secretary of the Port Campbell Community Group Inc, which works to protect and conserve the area’s environment and biodiversity. The Group monitors threatened species with remote cameras and was granted $25,000 via Coastcare for expert reports and educational programs on the Southern Brown Bandicoot. For more information, email Marion at [email protected] Fragile wildlife corridors could be disturbed and disrupted.

TAKE ACTION

To see the Plan and comment, go to www.shipwreckcoastyourplan.com.au or comment via email to Parks Community Engagement, [email protected] PHOTO: MARION MANIFOLD PHOTO: DAVIS HAYLEY PHOTO: MARION MANIFOLD PHOTO:

A bridge is proposed at the mouth of the Sherbrook River. What?! Above: Southern Brown Bandicoots are just hanging on in Port Campbell.

major tourism development site rezoned landscape that is supposed to have its wild, large car parks (with meters); permits to on the north side of the Great Ocean untouched landscape values preserved. enter the park; and private sector tourism Road adjacent to this area. These facilities are unnecessary, as all development in the national park. walks are close to towns, and there are There are other major problems with four local camping sites. In Port Campbell township similar the Plan, including failing to consider problems abound. The community has climate change impacts like sea level rise Shelters are proposed at major won the first round against the Southern and storm surges. Many of the proposals, lookouts such as the Twelve Apostles, Ocean Beach House, a 10-year campaign such as golf courses and club rooms on purportedly for the few visitors who against a huge development on the cliff low-lying areas, wetland boardwalks and complain that they could not take a edge, but is waiting to see what the new cliff-top viewing tracks and platforms, good photo due to the extreme weather. owners propose. may soon be unfeasible. But experiencing the elements is what the Port Campbell coast is about! A VCAT decision to protect a bandicoot No protection nesting site appears to have been Too much is expected of this national contravened, with the council so far shirking The Plan contains no protection measures park, and not enough is returned. The responsibility. A poor council and VCAT for national park flora or fauna. Most parks are always short-staffed, and worse, decision will allow a dwelling on the land recommendations will significantly impact the Plan suggests moving the park office to sit high on the headland, overlooking the on wildlife corridors, critical habitat away from the centre of town, where and threatened species. The consultants’ walking track and heritage Beacon Steps, and the staff are part of the community, to a limited environmental research and lack of there is the potential for significant headland storage depot in the backblocks. understanding of biodiversity are shown Crown land bandicoot habitat to be cleared for bushfire safety. by their referring to the endangered Aghast Southern Brown Bandicoot as the Brown Other than these issues, the short stretch Nosed Bandicoot. No such animal One of the Plan’s few good suggestions is of coast has three helicopter landing pads species is known! resurrecting the now closed Glenample and an airfield. At peak times one can often Homestead, but the community is Tracks will dissect significant wildlife count five helicopters within sight and aghast at its recommendations for a corridors and habitat, and a proposed hearing. tiered structure (like those in swimming clifftop walk from the Twelve Apostles car The promotion of this coastline is out of park to Gibson’s Steps is unnecessary as stadiums) along the Port Campbell bay control, and environmental management is there is already a walk in this section on cliffs; a bridge at the Sherbrooke River the north side of the Great Ocean Road. mouth; a massive tourism ramp at Loch poor, at the expense of the fragile biodiversity Ard Gorge; a large viewing deck on and landscape values. Once the landscape Hides, pods and glamping will all add Peterborough’s sand dunes and a private values are destroyed, visitors will move on to unnecessary development clutter on a sector café on its town green; more the next undeveloped place. • PW

PARK WATCH • JUNE 2014 NO 257 13 The Alcoa power station and coal mine are in the middle of the Anglesea Heath.

Victoria’s unsung treasure tHE ANGlESEA HEAtH

ANGAIR HAS FOUGHT SINCE 1969 TO PROTECT THE INDIGENOUS FLORA AND FAUNA AND THE DIVERSE NATURAL ENVIRONMENTS AROUND ANGLESEA AND AIREYS INLET. NOW THE SALE OF A LOCAL BROWN COAL MINE AND POWER STATION PRESENTS ANOTHER CHALLENGE, AS ANGAIR MEMBER AND AUTHOR SALLY WHITE REPORTS. PHOTO: CHRIS BULL PHOTO:

tourists streaming along the distinction that earned it a place on the vegetation communities that meet their Great ocean road towards Anglesea Register of the National Estate. special needs. sometimes see grey-white plumes billowing from the Alcoa power station. The heath boasts no fewer than seven The Anglesea Heath is home to 29 native different vegetation communities, mammal species. Two of them—the The power station sits behind the from the shaded river valleys with New Holland Mouse and Southern township, on the edge of Alcoa’s their thickets of Scented Paperbark, Brown Bandicoot—are nationally 7000-plus hectares of leasehold land, Manuka and Woolly Teatree to the endangered. Other rare species, such as 665 of which comprise the open-cut heathy forests of Brown Stringybark the Swamp Antechinus and White-footed brown coal mine that supplies 40% of and Messmate and open heaths and Dunnart, find food and shelter in the the Point Henry (Geelong) aluminium woodlands. moist river valleys or the sweeping smelter’s electricity needs. heathy woodlands. In all, the Anglesea Heath has 620 In August this year Alcoa will close plant species, or about a quarter of The sky, the trees and the understorey the smelter, and its licence to generate Victoria’s flora. Eight species are rare support more than 100 bird species, electricity expires. It plans to sell its or threatened nationally and 20 more including the Grey Goshawk, Powerful Anglesea operations, although an are rare or threatened at state level. Owl, the rare Rufous Bristlebird and a application for extension of the licence Two species—Anglesea Grevillea and host of honeyeaters. In the swamps and is still being considered. Anglesea Leek Orchid—are endemic. tributaries of the Anglesea River live the vulnerable Swamp Skink and Warty Bell The move has profound implications for The area’s wealth of orchid species Frog, the Southern Pygmy Perch and jobs, the local economy and the complex makes it nationally significant. More Spotted Galaxias. and rich biodiversity of an unsung than a quarter of Victoria’s orchids— treasure—the Anglesea Heath. over 80 species and five hybrids—have But the Heath has more than its visible been recorded in the heath. Among treasures. Under its surface lie clues to the Rare remnant them are tiny helmet orchids, delicate time when—40 million years ago in the greenhoods, colourful sun-orchids and Eocene epoch—the coal that fires today’s The Anglesea Heath is a rare remnant cheerful donkey orchids. power station formed. In pre-history’s of the heathlands that once covered layers lie fossils that tell the story of the vast areas of Australia. Twenty Fauna, fossils and flowers wet tropical landscape of the time. Leaf years ago the Australian Heritage and flower fossils found on the site are the Commission reported that it contained Wherever there is flora, there is fauna: earliest known remains of an Ebenaceae the richest and most diverse vegetation the mammals, insects, birds, fish tree species, whose modern relatives are communities recorded in Victoria, a and reptiles drawn to the range of found almost exclusively in the tropics.

14 PARK WATCH • JUNE 2014 NO 257 PHOTO: MARGARET MACDONALD MARGARET PHOTO:

The endemic Anglesea Grevillea (G. infecunda) shown above and (right) Anglesea Leek-orchid (Prasophyllum sp).

Left: Heathland spectacle – pink and white heath in flower at Anglesea. PHOTO: HELEN TUTT PHOTO: PHOTO: MARGARET MACDONALD MARGARET PHOTO:

The Heath’s archaeological sites bear Protecting the Heath has caused debate and division in the town, witness to its historical and spiritual with protesters against the power station Although the lease exempted Alcoa from significance for the local Wathaurong and mine demonstrating in the township. statutory provisions that protect the people. And today a visitor can find integrity of national parks, the interested ANGAIR president Helen Tutt acknowledges peace in a place where the sense of parties got together in the 1990s to discuss that aspects of the coal mine do worry some remoteness and natural values is a the Heath’s future. The result was the locals. Emissions from an ageing power far cry from the bustle of Melbourne, Anglesea Heath Management Plan. station are a particular focus. But it is the barely 100 kilometres away. ongoing management of the Anglesea Alcoa, Parks Victoria, academics and Many of the thousands of visitors Heath that most concerns her and ANGAIR representatives of community groups— because of the organisation’s specific mission. who contribute so much to Anglesea’s which included the 45-year-old local Any new owner would have the right to economy are unaware of the Heath’s conservation group ANGAIR—all helped extend the footprint of the mine beyond the significance because its beauties change develop the plan that was incorporated current area, a possibility that is a real fear. daily. Locals recognise that first-time in a landmark agreement struck in 2002. visitors to Anglesea Heath may not Since then the management of the Anglesea “The Anglesea Heath is unique. It is Victoria’s be aware of the brilliance that can Heath has rested jointly with Alcoa, secret treasure. We hope that the co-operative transform its sometimes drab exterior. Parks Victoria and the Department of approach to biodiversity protection that has Environment and Primary Industries. been working so well to protect the heath The different seasons bring carpets of in recent years will continue, whatever the red, pink and white Common Heath, The agreement was Australia’s first example outcome of the sale,” she says. the gold and red of bush-peas, and of an explicit partnership between a “The Anglesea Heath is much too precious the blue tints of the buds of Victorian conservation agency and a mining company for Victoria to lose.” PW Smoke-bush. There are grand distant to manage an area so that its biodiversity • vistas and, close at hand, tiny ground- could be safeguarded. The standard of care hugging plants. adopted was that of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s description WILDFLOWER SHOW How has the jewel of the Anglesea of land that is in essence a national park, Heath managed to survive more than to be managed mainly for ecosystem Don’t forget Angair’s annual 50 years of mining, the pressures of conservation and recreation. growing resident populations and Wildflower Show tourist traffic, feral animals, weeds and Fast forward to Alcoa’s decision to close its at Anglesea, the devastating effect of the root-rot Point Henry smelter and consequently sell 20-21 September!

water mould Phytophthora cinnamomi? its Anglesea operation. The announcement ELLINOR CAMPBELL PHOTO:

PARK WATCH • JUNE 2014 NO 257 15 Bandicoot Battles PHOTO: HAYLEY DAVIS HAYLEY PHOTO:

Southern Brown Bandicoot THE VNPA AND LOCAL GROUPS HAVE BEEN CAMPAIGNING TO PROTECT THREATENED (Isoodon obesulus). SOUTHERN BROWN BANDICOOTS IN SOUTH-EAST MELBOURNE BY THE ESTABLISHMENT OF HABITAT CORRIDORS. VNPA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MATT RUCHEL REPORTS. recently, local Cranbourne people and Wildlife corridors allow bandicoots and years later, in January 2014, after nothing the VNPA presented a petition with other animals to move between different had been heard from the Victorian over 1500 signatures calling on federal populations in their search for new Government or the Department, a new environment minister and Member mates, increasing their numbers and ‘final plan’ was released and submitted to for Flinders Greg Hunt to reject a keeping each group genetically healthy. the Federal Government for approval. Victorian Government plan which would remove plans for Southern The loss of the habitat corridors from The new final strategy showed no specific Brown Bandicoot habitat corridors in Melbourne's urban growth plans would biolinks, but instead one large proposed an urban development area. strand the very healthy bandicoot Southern Brown Bandicoot management population at the Royal Botanic Gardens area with no concrete commitments As part of the final approval process (Cranbourne) in a sea of housing. about what will occur within it – this is for the urban growth plans, Greg to be determined via the development of Hunt is responsible for signing off The draft sub-regional species strategy, an Implementation Plan. on a sub-regional species strategy released in 2011, was a good plan for the bandicoot. His electorate of which included: There are no commitments for any Flinders also happens to contain a large links within or immediately adjacent • key 200 metre wide biolinks between proportion of the Melbourne area’s to the Growth Area (where the impacts the significant population at the remaining population of bandicoots. will occur), leaving the Cranbourne Botanic Gardens, and the green wedges population isolated. There are in fact Disappointingly, the Minister has • options for broader biolinks in the few firm commitments at all in the final exempted himself (citing a ‘conflict green wedges, ultimately linking to strategy, which is vague and has no of interest’ because the issue is in his known habitat nodes such as Koo measurable targets. local electorate) from his ministerial Wee Rup Swamp Although there was no formal responsibilities to protect this • over $30 million to deliver the plan. nationally threatened species by consultation period, the VNPA and local delegating the decision on these vital This draft strategy was dropped by the groups produced a combined submission habitat corridors to his Parliamentary Baillieu Government in June 2012, in which we argue for the reinstatement Secretary, SA senator Simon after lobbying from the property of biolinks through the urban area Birmingham. development industry. Almost two adjacent to the Royal Botanic Gardens.

16 PARK WATCH • JUNE 2014 NO 257 PHOTOS: MALCOLM BROWN MALCOLM PHOTOS: Preparing to present the petition at Greg Hunt’s electorate office. All smiles for the camera: Minister Hunt with bandicoot researcher Sarah Maclagan (centre) and Yasmin Kelsall of VNPA. We then look further ahead to the establishment of larger links, probably delivered via voluntary payments and planning controls, through the green wedge to key habitat nodes.

New research has shown that bandicoots can effectively use smaller habitat links than the 200 metres originally proposed in the draft 2011 strategy. As a compromise, groups have suggested that a minimum 30 metre corridor with appropriate buffers (total 80 metres) should be established through the urban area.

This is less than half the size of what LEGEND was originally proposed, and should Southern Brown Bandicoot Records as of 2011 be considered the absolute minimum Federal Electoral Divison of Flinders (see diagram below). The expectation would be for larger and wider habitat corridors in the more rural green South-east Melbourne is a hotspot for Southern Above: Bandicoot records to 2011. wedge area. The green shading shows the Flinders Brown Bandicoots, and one of the few places electorate. 'The Cranbourne Botanic where they are found on the urban fringe. Gardens bandicoot population needs to The Southern Brown Bandicoot be connected to other populations. is a harmless, affable creature that We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get was once a common sight snuffling planning for them right, and an opportunity around backyards in Melbourne's to showcase sustainable urban development. southeast. But it is being increasingly Once these areas are covered in roads and pushed out by poor urban planning. houses, it will be impossible to go back. • PW

25 m 30 m or greater 25 m

Fire buffer and open space Dense planting: grasses and sedges Fire buffer and open space

Waterway Dedicated fox baiting Modified compromise Urban Bandicoot Connectivity Corridor 1.5–2.0 m station

PARK WATCH • JUNE 2014 NO 257 17 Saving leadbeater’s STEVE MEACHAM OF THE FRIENDS OF LEADBEATER’Sor saving POSSUM REPORTS. logging?

Leadbeater’s Possum was assumed to be extinct until rediscovered near

Marysville in 1961. Ten years later, it was adopted as Victoria’s faunal emblem. MEACHER STEVE PHOTO: STEVE MEACHER OF THE Its preferred habitat is the Ash forests of the Great Dividing Range, the same FRIENDS OF LEADBEATER’S forests favoured by the logging industry. POSSUM REPORTS. A reserve system was established in 2008, but 45% of it was burned in the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires. Last year the Arthur Rylah Research Institute published let me not mince my words. The a study concluding that the reserve system is inadequate. leadbeater’s Possum Advisory Group’s The Victorian Government set up a Leadbeater’s Possum Advisory Group (LPAG) recommendations, as accepted by the to develop recommendations. It reported to the environment minister in January Victorian Government, are, in Prime 2014 and he announced government support for its recommendations in April. Ministerial terms, ‘crap’.

It’s not that the work of the group was worthless. It gathered information, The state government’s Terms of So what are the recommendations? The considered a range of proposals and Reference (ToR) demanded that Friends of Leadbeater’s Possum group generated powerful conclusions. recommendations be “focused has reviewed and assessed them. on supporting the recovery of the However, a mediocre outcome was Leadbeater’s Possum while maintaining Inadequate recommendations made inevitable by the government’s a sustainable timber industry”. Terms of Reference, imposed to ensure First are those that appear well- a result consistent with its declared Packages of proposals fell into two intentioned but inadequate. They include: policy of allowing continued logging of groups: those that would do little either • To establish a 12 hectare buffer around Leadbeater’s shrinking habitat. to support the possum or to threaten the industry, and those, like the new colonies. In practice this will protect Of the many individual proposals park and the ANU prescriptions, only 3ha, the area needed to support assessed by the group, those for a Great that had a real chance of effectively a single colony. Possums surviving in Forest National Park finished a ‘country addressing the possum’s extinction risk these tiny pockets will be isolated for mile’ ahead of all the others, improving by significantly reducing the scale and generations. the species’ prospects by a full 10%. intensity of logging in its habitat. • To delay harvesting for two years in Most of the short-listed actions scored areas where modelling has shown a Because they challenged the industry, 1% or less, and the runner-up only 4%. 0.65 probability that possums may be the latter had to be rejected as ‘not present. 83% of those areas are already When ‘packages’ were compiled and within the ToR’. In this way, the within parks or reserves, so few, if any, compared, new prescriptions developed government (and industry group animals would benefit. by the Australian National University, members, the Victorian Association including a new park, increased the of Forest Industries and VicForests) • To use ‘Retention Harvesting’ probability of a ‘good’ outcome by a ensured that only recommendations in 50% of logging coupes. To be score of 19. In contrast, the accepted consistent with supporting logging credible, a retention option must be recommendations scored a paltry 7! could survive analysis. accompanied by reduced production.

18 PARK WATCH • JUNE 2014 NO 257 Left: Trashing the forest: logging coupe off Kalatha Creek Road, Toolangi State Forest. Trees at the edge of coupes are often damaged or killed by the post-logging burning.

The recommendations, limited by an industry-imposed cap of 5% yield reduction, do not reflect this, so it must be concluded that it would be little more than a re-badging of traditional logging practice, with some retained islands of forest surrounded by clearfelling. • To establish buffers to protect ‘old growth’. DEPI figures show that less Above: Leadbeater’s Possums. than 1.2% of Mountain Ash forest in Left: The threatened species Sooty Owl the Central Highlands is unlogged also lives in these forests. and unburned since 1939. This tiny

area is mostly already protected; KUITER STEVE COURTESY PHOTOS adding buffers will make little or no difference. if there were suitable (yet vacant) old trees. This is an important omission protected habitat to translocate of a significant proposal. To amend the Leadbeater’s Possum • animals into. habitat zone (1A). The change The best option proposed, reducing the requirement All remaining proposals deal for 12 potential nest trees per 3ha to with incidental issues such as fire In stark contrast to the Advisory 10, is minimal (ANU proposed 8). management, community engagement, Group’s derisory recommendations, Importantly, it excludes improved and monitoring and review. These are, there is the proposal for a new Great protection for dead trees, the or should be, already occurring to some Forest National Park. This was clearly preferred nest sites. These, vulnerable extent. They mean well but are unlikely identified by LPAG as the option to decay and fire, are increasingly to produce any tangible benefits to “considered most likely to have the few and far between and not being support the possum’s survival. greatest benefit to the species”. replaced. Critically, several important proposals LPAG’s model “suggests that the • To ensure that 30% of the Ash forest didn’t make the cut and have been Lindenmayer et al. prescriptions in each ‘Management Unit’ of the omitted. option [which includes establishment possum’s range is protected to reach of a Great Forest NP], offers the best its ‘oldest growth stage’. Only two of The government’s own research, and chance of recovery for the species”. It the 21 units do not already qualify, that of the ANU, found that the current was also the ‘strongest call’ from the so little will change. And in those Reserve System is inadequate to public, appearing in 70% of written two, logging is currently continuing. provide for the species’ survival. Yet the submissions. But it was excluded by the Critical forest could be destroyed recommendations contain no proposal Terms of Reference. before it can be assessed. If the for a significant increase in the reserve, government were serious, it would and none to compensate for the 45% The gulf between effective proposals declare an immediate moratorium lost in the 2009 bushfires. to conserve the state’s animal emblem until this re-assessment has been and those accepted by the logging conducted. Nor is there any recommendation industry is clear evidence that we can to protect the critically important no longer pretend that the recovery All downhill individual hollow-bearing trees that of Leadbeater’s from the brink of have become so rare. extinction is compatible with the So much for the ‘good’ recommendations. continued destruction of its habitat by From here on it’s all downhill. Trees germinated before 1900 are industrial logging. The time has come not supposed to be harvested, but to choose. A couple can be reasonably any retained are frequently destroyed characterised as ‘investigations’, with or damaged during logging or post- It appears the government has made its unknown and possibly negative results logging fires. Any that remain are choice. Maybe it’s time to choose a new taking decades and coming too late, exposed and often lost soon after. They government. • PW given the species is on a rapid trajectory must be protected from logging and its to extinction. These include trials of after-effects within adequate buffers. Forest educator Steve Meacher, who alternative post-logging regeneration lives on the edge of Toolangi State practices, nest-boxes, and methods of There is no recommendation to Forest, is a committee member of artificially damaging trees to encourage increase the width of streamside Friends of Leadbeater’s Possum, a accelerated development of nest hollows. buffers, as called for in the ANU community group established to prescriptions. Currently these are advocate for protection of the species. Translocation is also to be considered too narrow to provide habitat for He is the group’s representative on the – a high-risk strategy indeed, even Leadbeater’s, though they often contain official Recovery Team.

PARK WATCH • JUNE 2014 NO 257 19 Walkers on a VNPA overnight trip take a break at Cobungra River, Alpine NP. Outdoors people believe that connection to nature is fundamentally important. outdoors Victoria towards a unified outdoors community

CHARLES (CHUCK) BERGER, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF OUTDOORS VICTORIA, EXPLAINS THE ROLE OF THIS NEW ORGANISATION AND ALSO HOW HE CAME TO BE AN ‘OUTDOORS PERSON’.

A maths teacher takes a group of kids into a park to learn about fractal patterns in nature. A commercial guide leads a group of birdwatchers from overseas on a tour through coastal wetlands. A rock climbing club enjoys a weekend climbing at Mt Arapiles.

A father takes his daughter fishing

in their tinnie on the Murray River; PHOTO: CHUCK BERGER CHUCK PHOTO: a lone bushwalker escapes for a week 'Chuck' Berger FERLIN MARY PHOTO: of camping, solitude and reflection; a 4WD group goes into the high country a volunteer with a biodiversity survey Without the distractions of modern to help Traditional Owners map in Kafue National Park, Zambia. entertainment, and with very few cultural heritage. possessions, we became more inventive At the time, I was a young corporate What, if anything, unifies these people? and spontaneous. I laughed more, learned lawyer, working long hours in offices to draw (sort of), and quickly grew closer At a superficial level, they are all and board rooms. I had never spent to my bush colleagues than I ever would undertaking activities in natural areas. a night camping, never cooked over have been with office co-workers. But that by itself doesn’t make them a an open fire, never been away from unified community, any more than a electricity or running water. Outdoors Victoria few dozen people on a commuter train For three months, I and a dozen other are a community. Eleven years later, after a decade in the volunteers worked, cooked, played and conservation movement and many more Connection to nature lived outdoors, very close to nature. positive outdoors experiences, I am Sometimes too close: twice we were honoured to have been chosen to lead I think there is a deeper common charged by elephants while on transect, Outdoors Victoria. thread. Outdoors people share an once we had to skirt a bushfire on foot, understanding that connection to and I still carry a scar from a nasty Outdoors Victoria was established in nature is fundamentally important razor-grass cut on my hand. (Not to 2012 to foster a vibrant, sustainable to our human identity. The presence mention getting urinated on by a outdoors community, and carries on of nature enlivens us, improves our vervet monkey sitting in a tree above the work previously done in part by health and wellbeing, sharpens our me. Not funny.) the Outdoor Recreation Council and sense, and enriches our social lives. It the Victorian Outdoor Education is this conviction that is at the core of I noticed changes in myself almost Association. our outdoors community, not just our at once. My senses became more presence in natural areas. acute, my body became tough and As a non-profit, member-based fit. Mentally, I felt far less stressed, far community group, Outdoors Victoria My own journey towards this more able to focus on the moment. My is a voice and a forum for the full range conviction began in 2003, when I spent relationships with those around me of people and organisations involved in three months living entirely outdoors as were more complex. outdoor activities.

20 PARK WATCH • JUNE 2014 NO 257 Living outdoors in Zambia sparked an interest in drawing for Chuck. These evocative sketches are some of the results.

Of course, there is no guarantee that everybody in the outdoors community will always agree. There should be room for legitimate differences of opinion. But where that exists, Outdoors Victoria can operate as a forum where some common ground can be established, and any unnecessary polarisation in the media and political realm can be avoided.

This year, Outdoors Victoria will be releasing the first-ever comprehensive policy agenda for Victoria’s outdoors community, drawing on the best expertise and policy ideas from across the community.

Second, we can provide forums and platforms for people in the outdoor community to share knowledge and stories, network with one another, and strengthen each other’s skills and capacities.

Our upcoming conference, Outdoor Education 2014, is an example of how we can fulfil this role for teachers. The conference, on 15-16 June at Somers on the Mornington Peninsula, will explore how outdoor educators can operate as a more tight-knit community of practice. We will be rolling out a broader series of events over the next year. At times, that community can feel Role and activities dispersed and disorganised. Rock Third, Outdoors Victoria can provide climbing, surfing, bushwalking, First, Outdoors Victoria will lead on the tools and research to empower the bird watching, and dozens of other development and advocacy of policies outdoors community. An example here activities all have their own strong that will best facilitate sustainable outdoor is the adventure activity standards which organisations, clubs, publications activities for the whole community. We’ll establish industry best practice for leading and events. Other activities, like be stronger speaking with one clear voice dependent groups on a wide range of geocaching, are simply networks on priority issues, rather than engaging in outdoor activities. of participants. policy debates in an uncoordinated way. These are big ambitions for a relatively And alongside these are professional This is particularly necessary in light of new and small organisation. What gives educators, bush therapists, nature- the multiple pressures our natural areas me confidence that we can achieve based tourism companies, land face. Some of these are ecological threats, these goals? managers, equipment suppliers and like climate change and biodiversity many others, each with their own loss. But others are threats to human Most importantly, it is the passion, networks and institutions. experience of the outdoors. expertise, goodwill and sheer bloody- mindedness of outdoors people across Clearly, people commit great effort For instance, according to the 2014 this state. And as a monkey in Africa to these specific pursuits. Indeed, Victorian budget, 46% of recreational once taught me, aim high, maintain what the sector may lack in terms of facilities in state forests will require focus, and you’ll hit your target! • PW funding, compared to large industries replacement in the next five years. But like finance and retail, it more than current budget allocations are almost For more information about makes up for in commitment and certainly inadequate to keep pace with Outdoors Victoria, and about Outdoor participation rates across the state. replacements, let alone new facilities. Education 2014, visit our homepage at Parks are in the same situation. www.outdoorsvictoria.org.au But perhaps it’s not always clear how this diverse community can come together. This is where Outdoors Victoria can help.

PARK WATCH • JUNE 2014 NO 257 21 Forests Forever Easter ecology camp EASt GiPPSlANd 18-21 APril

East Gippsland VNPA MEMBER JENNY ROLLAND REPORTS ON AN panorama near ENJOYABLE AND SUCCESSFUL CAMP AT GOONGERAH. Errinundra NP. PHOTO: DAMIEN DEVINY, COURTESY ANN BIRRELL COURTESY DEVINY, DAMIEN PHOTO:

The Easter ecology camp has been held every year since Environment East Gippsland (EEG) was formed in 1982. it’s a great opportunity for people to enjoy and learn about the area’s ancient forests, and is also EEG’s main fundraiser for its campaigns.

This year, for the first time, the VNPA co-hosted the camp with EEG, sharing its members’ commitment to

preserving the area’s magnificent high JENNY ROLLAND PHOTO: conservation value forests. Above left and left: Regeneration The East Gippsland forests stretch after the recent fire was striking. from the ocean to the alps. They are Above: Young Thea Sydes (Homo of great biological significance, but are sapiens) took her Angry Bird threatened by clearfelling for timber persona seriously as she checked and woodchipping. out a bait station. About 80 people, young and old, attended the camp. Activities included Campers were treated bird-watching and spotlighting with to wonderful photos of Euan Moore and me, forest photography kangaroos, wallabies, with Jude Deland, and tours with wombats, antechinuses, botanist and ecologist David Cameron. JENNY ROLLAND PHOTO: brush-tailed possums and bush rats (and one small David explained the critical role burning, are particularly harmful child) attracted into the camera’s range the forests play in storing carbon, for forest survival and may actually by the bait-station’s tasty food mix. This moderating climate and producing clean increase the fire risk. activity showed just how successful wildlife water. We visited a sphagnum bog which cameras are for monitoring wildlife. In the evenings, participants gathered he said was up to three metres deep and for hearty soup and dessert, and talks had not been burnt for 10,000 years. Self-guided walks were another option, and including an overview of the East campers could browse Irina’s ‘bower bird’ We also learnt that it takes at least 150 Gippsland campaign from ardent op shop and the EEG and VNPA books years for the trees to develop suitable campaigner Jill Redwood, bushfire and merchandise. On Sunday morning, hollows for owls and animals like risks and myths by David Cameron, campers were delighted to find that the the Yellow-bellied Gliders we heard and ‘Trials and Tribulations’ by Easter bilby had visited overnight! gurgling each night at the campsite. Brendan Sydes from Environmental Justice Australia (formerly the EDO). On Monday morning, Jill showed us David also showed us first-hand the Euan Moore talked about the VNPA’s around her organic orchard and farm and impact of bushfires on the forest. We activities and campaigns. we gained a deeper understanding of her saw how rainforest gullies can act as love for the East Gippsland forests. fire dampeners, but that after intense VNPA members Garry and Wilma van fires the forest type can be irreversibly Dijk led an enjoyable wildlife camera We all left the camp refreshed and changed. demonstration. On the first afternoon impressed by the beauty and antiquity of they took a group out to place wildlife the forests, enlightened by their complexity Some management strategies to cameras, then on Sunday recovered the and importance for biodiversity, and better contain fires, such as burning ‘islands’ cameras and presented the results in armed for ensuring their survival through in unburnt sites and excessive back- the evening. campaigns and education. • PW

22 PARK WATCH • JUNE 2014 NO 257 Botanist David Cameron (right) interprets the rainforest.

First time at Forests Forever

ELIZABETH HOWES AND PARTNER ARIEL DE RAMOS FIND THAT THE EAST GIPPSLAND FORESTS NOW HAVE A SPECIAL PLACE IN THEIR HEARTS. it was a perfect autumn day in the East Gippsland bush. only the bellbird calls pierced the silence of the ancient forest, and there was a smell of damp earth, eucalyptus and wood smoke in the air. PHOTO: ANN BIRRELL PHOTO: It was our first time at the Forests Forever camp. We had travelled the state, rather than carefully studying forests, a visiting antechinus, and a along the winding Bonang Highway, different types of land and vegetation slideshow of animals (and one child) that brilliantly green epicormic growth a and burning according to need. had inspected the infra-red cameras. sharp contrast to the blackened trees following the February fires. However, it was good to learn more On the last night, looking up at the clear about issues like these, and be able night sky adorned with millions of stars We were to learn much more about to enlighten people who believe in and listening to the crickets, we felt like this forest. On our first night, we were indiscriminate control burning. the only people in the universe. treated to a talk by long-time forest botanist David Cameron about what It was also good to see Jill Redwood’s This sort of connection is a vital first step makes the East Gippsland forests wonderful organic farm. An Eden towards gaining support for protecting special. surrounded by pristine forest, it houses the forests, and nature in general. People a large covered orchard and veggie need to really know, feel and care about Lying in a convergence zone between garden, goats, alpacas, handsome them to want to protect them. It was two trade wind systems, their climate Clydesdale horses, guinea fowl and particularly heartening to see children is unique among forests. There is both an elderly dog. Jill, an EEG founder, following in their parents’ footsteps as warm temperate and cool temperate built the farmhouse in stages herself, forest lovers. rainforest, as well as eucalypt forest. and has lived a low-impact lifestyle there ever since. As for us, Forests Forever first-timers, the The recent bushfires in the area East Gippsland forests now have a special were a ‘hot’ topic on the camp. Other highlights of the camp were place in our hearts. We definitely plan to David impressed on us that the only an inspirational protest song for the return next year! • PW intervention (if any) in rainforests after a fire should be to pull out any eucalypt seedlings that had sprouted from seeds VicForests’ East Gippsland woodchip contract to end carried by the fire. Excess eucalypts in a rainforest make it more fire-prone, On 12 May, the woodchip exporting VicForests is looking for alternative as they suck more water out of the company based in Eden (NSW) markets for East Gippsland woodchips. ground and burn more easily than announced that it would not be A big danger is that it will promote rainforest plants. renewing its contract with VicForests the use of this timber in power station from the end of 2014. furnaces to produce so-called ‘green’ To identify eucalypt seedlings, said power. The VNPA strongly opposes this. David, you look for symmetrical heart- The Japanese company owning the Eden woodchip mill has been losing on shaped leaves and a purple-reddish It’s time for VicForests and the State these operations, and is increasingly colour on the underside, and then you Government to recognise that the best relying on plantation woodchips from and most profitable use of these forests taste – yes, taste – the seedling. You’ll south-east Asia and Australia. know straight away if it’s a eucalypt! is to protect them for their long-term The loss of the Eden contract gives carbon storage value and for their flora Concern was expressed about the State VicForests an opportunity to reduce and fauna. Government’s policy of burning 5% the financial losses it is incurring at of Victoria’s public land each year. It is taxpayer expense. Euan Moore worrying that they are doing this across

PARK WATCH • JUNE 2014 NO 257 23 Alpine cattle grazing – Cow at left: it’s not science, it’s politics “The grazing’s not bad here, but go up those steep slopes? No way!” FORMER ALPINE NATIONAL PARK RANGER PETER LAWRENCE REVEALS THE ELEPHANT (OR COW) Cow at right declined IN THE ROOM: CATTLE GRAZING CAN NEVER BE A USEFUL TOOL FOR BUSHFIRE MANAGEMENT. to comment. PHOTO: MATT RUCHEL MATT PHOTO: in March, federal environment as venues for activities that contravene If the trial continues for the full three years minister Greg Hunt finally approved the very legislation set up to manage and is not stopped by an incoming Labor the Victorian Government’s cattle these areas in the first place. state government, we can expect a report grazing trial in the Alpine National to be written by paid external contractors Park. The three-year ‘scientific’ trial Often this is done primarily to shore up which will probably say yes, cows eat is being conducted in the remote votes with vocal minority interest groups grass, and if you put enough stock in a Wonnangatta Valley, about 40 km east and some constituents in conservative small area the amount of grass or biomass of Mt Buller. rural electorates. Unfortunately this left will be less. It will also probably say truth is never acknowledged or even that burning reduces biomass, at least in Sixty cattle have been munching their discussed. the short term. way around in a fenced section of During an interview with Gippsland the trial area for several months. It’s All this will be nothing new, and of little ABC radio before the trial commenced, proposed to introduce 300 head into the relevance to the stated aim of this trial. the Victorian environment minister valley in years 2 and 3 of the trial, which was at pains to point out that the according to the proposal documents The problem with using a unique area for Wonnangatta Valley was an appropriate is intended to ascertain the effects of a land management trial is just that: it is place to conduct this trial as it was only grazing and fuel reduction burning on unique, and therefore not typical of most a place for ‘big four-wheel drives, trail reducing bushfire fuel loads. of the mountainous country across the bikes and deer hunting’ and the area was state. The great majority of the Alpine NP What is this trial really about? It’s not not of ‘high conservation significance’. consists not of river-flat grasslands, but about science, it’s all about politics. Peer- Actually, the valley just happens to be a of steep ridgelines bounded by deep reviewed science over many decades quite unique part of the Alpine National stream valleys. has repeatedly found that ‘grazing does Park. It’s that very uniqueness that The layout of the trial site has relied on not reduce blazing’ and both federal and attracts visitors to the area. state governments have been advised of advice from the cattlemen, who have said this by their own bureaucrats and many It is true that most of these visitors use that cattle will not go up the steep slopes eminent scientists. four-wheel drives, as the only access is on either side of the valley. via generally steep 4WD tracks. Trail But if cattle cannot travel up steep But as the climate change debate has bike groups also make the valley a stop- mountain slopes, how could cattle shown, if you don’t like what scientists off point, and deer hunters have used the grazing possibly be used to reduce fuel are saying about environmental matters area for decades. you can just go and make up your own loads across a landscape where steep mind. And while you’re at it, you can use The negative connotations implied in mountainsides predominate? the media to discredit the scientists and the Minister’s comments are surprising, The cattlemen are, perhaps without even their science. given the constant push by governments to encourage people into our parks. realising it, admitting that what they have If it wasn’t so serious it would be funny. been saying for years is based on a fallacy The valley is also has considerable – that in fact cattle grazing can never be Politics has always had some influence conservation value. Extensive native a useful tool in managing fuel loads in on how conservation land managers act, grasslands, a very rare orchid and a the mountains, and therefore that this but in recent times this has been raised number of restricted native plants all trial is nothing more than a political stunt to unprecedented levels. These days exist along the upper reaches of the conducted at the expense of one of our politicians regularly promote our parks heritage-listed Wonnangatta River. premier national parks. • PW

24 PARK WATCH • JUNE 2014 NO 257 Failed mine returns to threaten the tambo

THE VNPA’S PHIL INGAMELLS TAKES A LOOK ILLUSTRATION: GOOGLE EARTH ILLUSTRATION: AT EAST GIPPSLAND’S The original containment dam (circled), with a 300 metre long dam wall. The containment dam PROPOSED STOCKMAN (renamed ‘Lake St Barbara’) will be expanded considerably, and the dam wall raised by 25 metres. MINE AND ITS POTENTIAL The Mine and dam are in remote country at the headwaters of the Tambo River, about 6km from IMPACTS. the Alpine National Park. in the early 1990s a highly Environmental Effects Statement (EES) • Many threatened species have been controversial copper mine in was presented for public comment in recorded in the mine area, yet flora remote country 20 km east of April this year, with panel hearings and fauna surveys, such as in Straight Benambra was given the go-ahead in June. Creek (which feeds into the Tambo), by the Victorian government. have been inadequate. Several years in preparation and 600 It had optimistically been promised pages long, the EES is a challenge for • There are significant issues with to return $2 million annually to anyone, and particularly for members groundwater. Mine operations will Victoria, but the mine closed after of the East Gippsland community, to take around 2,500 ML of groundwater just two years of operation when the deal with. from the Benambra Plain, and price of copper dropped. groundwater pollution from mine This mine’s impacts are potentially seepage is a potential issue. This wasn’t the only problem. A considerable: large tailings dam, needed to contain • Regulatory processes are inadequate toxic waste from the mine, had been • The old containment dam is insecure to guarantee either the safety of constructed over the most extensive at its current level. waterways and hence the local area in the region of a threatened community, or the long-term ecological community, Montane • The greatly expanded containment integrity of the area’s natural values. Swamp Complex. And the dam dam (the height of the dam wall will was leaking heavy metals into the be increased by 25 metres) poses Most importantly, we see no evidence headwaters of the Tambo River, a long-term stability risks. that future management of the waterway crucial to farmers around containment dam, and other likely Bruthen, and eventually to the • Toxic waste in the containment long-term impacts, will be covered by a Gippsland Lakes. dam must remain covered by three suitable bond. metres of water for tens of thousands The mining company, Denehurst, of years. Given the small catchment An adequate bond amount, such that walked away from the project in area for the dam, and climate change the Victorian community will not have 1992 leaving a hopelessly inadequate predictions of increased drought, this to carry any future financial burden or bond and a massive $7 million is an improbable situation. suffer any environmental impact, would clean-up bill for the government. have to be very large indeed! • Expansion of the dam will destroy the The Benambra mine has now been remaining adjacent area of Montane The long-term environmental re-invented with a new company, Swamp Complex. sustainability and security of the the Independence Group, and a new Stockman Mine project is a serious designer name for the project: the • Widening of the access road to concern which should be openly Stockman Mine. allow 40 heavy vehicles per day will addressed by the local community, necessitate removing some 600 old the wider Victorian community and It is bigger, much bigger, than trees, with a consequent loss of tree the Victorian Government before any the original mine, and an hollows for owls and mammals. approval is given for the project. • PW

PARK WATCH • JUNE 2014 NO 257 25 Diamond in the rough roSENEAtH StAtE ForESt

JOHN KOTSIARIS STUDIED ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION AND HAS BEEN AN ACTIVE VOLUNTEER WITH THE VNPA’S ‘CAUGHT ON CAMERA’ PROJECT. AS HIS ARTICLE BELOW Sandy track in SHOWS, HE LIKES TO EXPLORE NATURAL AREAS IN VICTORIA AND ELSEWHERE. Roseneath State Forest. PHOTO: JOHN KOTSIARIS PHOTO: little-known roseneath State Forest Within one afternoon I saw Gang- and open vegetation, and like to graze is in far south-western Victoria in gangs, Sulphur-crested Cockatoos, along the edges of swamps in Roseneath. the upper parts of the Glenelg Plain Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos and Protecting such areas would be important bioregion. endangered South-eastern Red-tailed for Red-necked Wallaby conservation in Black-Cockatoos. Not to mention a the Glenelg Plain. Scruffy yet handsome, Roseneath and pair of trumpeting Brolgas. adjoining forests contain remnant The Brown Stringybark woodland and Brown Stringybark woodland and West and north-west of Casterton are sand heath in Roseneath is potential sand heath in excellent condition. Drajurk, Nangeela, Dorodong and habitat for many other animals, including The landscape is dotted with Roseneath State Forests, Roseneath several threatened species. Examples of numerous swamps and wetlands Reference Area, Tooloy-Lake Mundi mammals could include the Southern and supports an array of native Wildlife Reserve, Dergholm State Park Brown Bandicoot, Swamp Antechinus, mammals, birds and wildflowers. and some other smaller reserves. Heath Mouse, Silky Mouse and Western Pygmy-possum. Roseneath is not far north of Roseneath caught my attention with Casterton, birthplace of the Australian its eerie damp woodlands, stunning Among significant birds could be the Red- Kelpie. The forested areas around wildflowers, cracked swamps, and the tailed and Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo, Casterton consist mainly of remnant distant and at times haunting calls of Swift Parrot, Brown Treecreeper, Flame woodlands plus pine and hardwood the Red-tailed Black-Cockatoos. and Hooded Robin, Chestnut-rumped plantations. Heathwren and Southern Emu-wren. Wildlife Casterton is an attractive and friendly The South-eastern Red-tailed Black- town with a rich history. There’s Inspired by Nature Watch’s ‘Caught on Cockatoo is one of Roseneath’s most food, shops, accommodation and an Camera’ projects, I decided to set up iconic species. This impressive bird is information centre which can supply my own camera to get a closer look at found only in SW Victoria and SE South brochures and advice on exploring the some of the wildlife. Among the images Australia and is highly dependent on region (though bring your own detailed were Red-necked Wallabies, Western Brown and Desert Stringybark seeds for maps if you plan to go bushwalking). Grey Kangaroos, Emus and Grey its survival. Sadly, because of the clearing Currawongs. South-west of Casterton is the Wilkin of woodlands there are now only about Flora and Fauna Reserve, with the Red-necked Wallabies are declining in 1400 of the birds remaining. Victoria, probably because of the loss Glenelg River flowing nearby. It Planned burns has awesome displays of spring of suitable habitat and illegal hunting. wildflowers, and the area is serious These colourful wallabies prefer the Current planned fuel reduction burns may cockatoo territory. ecotone (junction) between dense pose a further threat to the availability of

26 PARK WATCH • JUNE 2014 NO 257 PHOTO: NICK SHAW NICK SHAW PHOTO: PHOTO: JOHN KOTSIARIS PHOTO: PHOTO: JOHN KOTSIARISPHOTO: NICK SHAW PHOTO: JOHN KOTSIARIS PHOTO: PHOTO (REMOTE): JOHN KOTSIARIS (REMOTE): PHOTO Clockwise from top left: Lemon-scented Sun Orchid (Thelymitra antennifera); Rabbit Orchid (Leptoceras menziesii); SE Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo; Emu in the forest; Common Fringe-myrtle (Calytrix tetragona); Butterfly on tea-tree.

the birds’ main food source: stringybark Reserve is marked for planned burns The benefits of rotating tree plantations seed capsules less than a year old. between now and 2016. This could on nutrient-depleted agricultural land The South-eastern Red-tailed Black- significantly impact the abundance of should also be further investigated. Cockatoo Recovery Team advises on wildflowers in the reserve. For example, planting a mix of fire management in Red-tail stringybark hardwood eucalypts like Blue Gums habitat, and has endorsed and developed Burning large areas of forests to achieve and leguminous plants like acacias might a list of fire management strategies to a target amount of hectares is damaging help increase soil nutrient banks. minimize the impact of burns. our natural heritage. Strategic fuel reductions burns in bushland very I believe we can have large intact areas Where canopy scorch has occurred close to townships would be much of permanently protected bushland it takes an average of 10 years for the more sensible and justified. and also have healthy agricultural land stringybark food trees to return to their rotating with plantations. previous level of seed production. Care Future visions Australia has limited arable land and needs to be taken during planned burns It would be really good to see a national extremely limited renewable water to minimize canopy scorch and avoid park created in the upper parts of the resources. We depend on healthy rivers, areas with high seed loads and/or recent Glenelg Plain bioregion to encompass forests and rainfall. seed crops. and protect the remnant woodlands We need to maintain a healthy environment At least 85% of Red-tail stringybark in and around Roseneath State Forest. and we need to leave behind a diverse habitat should remain unburnt in Currently these forests are largely natural heritage for future generations the previous ten-year period. At the fragmented by pine plantations and are to admire and enjoy. moment 25% of the habitat range has not fully protected. already experienced scorch, and this In 1869 almost 88% of Victoria was As pine plantations mature and are could increase further due to Victoria’s covered in forest. Today only about a harvested, it is possible to revegetate current controversial fuel reduction third of the State has forest cover, and key areas with indigenous trees to burn policies and the 5% of public land much of it is fragmented and degraded. reduce woodland fragmentation. annual target. However, we must also take into Maybe for now we could aim for better Large areas of Red-tailed Black- account the importance of the protection and management of our Cockatoo habitat are to be burnt this plantation timber industry. remaining natural areas such as Roseneath. year and over the next few years. This If we create a Roseneath National Park I am The logging of our remaining includes about 5000 hectares in and sure the Red-tailed Black-Cockatoos, Red- native forests and exporting them around Roseneath State Forest. necked Wallabies, wildflowers and many as woodchips must stop as soon other species would thank us for our support. Unnatural autumn, winter and spring as possible. The plantation timber fires can also have big impacts on industry needs to be supported so And they might just stick around to wildflowers and vegetation. A large that a transition to a plantation-only be admired for many more years to percentage of the Wilkin Flora and Fauna industry is realistic and achievable. come. • PW

PARK WATCH • JUNE 2014 NO 257 27 Cheap as chips

THE VNPA RECENTLY MET MEMBERS OF THE STRATHBOGIE SUSTAINABLE FORESTRY GROUP WHO ARE DEEPLY CONCERNED AT THE LATEST MOVE BY VICFORESTS INTO THEIR AREA’S FORESTS. THE VNPA’S NICK ROBERTS, AND BERTRAM LOBERT FROM THE GROUP, REPORT.

The Strathbogie ranges east of Euroa have lost more than 80% of their original forest cover to clearing, agriculture and softwood plantations. Most of the remaining forest area is highly fragmented, and now the last forest stronghold is under direct threat.

More than 100 years of selective logging has left today’s forest managers with a valuable forest asset that supports biodiversity, education and ecotourism, as well as supplying timber products. PENNY ALGAR COURTESY PHOTOS These remaining forests also contribute Top: Strathbogie Sustainable Forestry Group important ecosystem services for the members check possible logging sites. catchments of the Goulburn and Above: old gold mine in the Strathbogies. Broken Rivers. Left: the dense understorey is However, with modern industrial valuable habitat. logging, all bets are off. It appears that, not satisfied with woodchipping precious native forests at a loss to Is this what’s in store for the Strathbogie this case just to grow tomatoes! Are we the Victorian taxpayers, VicForests now forests too? To the greenhouse owners’ clever country or what? has a cunning new plan for the future. credit, they are apparently looking Firewood! Or to use the more politically for a more sustainable source of And don’t think that this is just ‘forest neutral term, ‘biofuel’. woodchips, now that local communities residue’ that would otherwise go to waste. After logging, there’s plenty of waste left on are becoming vocal, but that may not Its rationale for this is hard to fathom. the ground to be burnt, but the logs sent to dampen VicForests’ push to expand its Everyone, including the timber industry, the chipper are straight and long and should biofuel business. recognises firewood as one of the lowest- never have been cut down – or cut up. value uses of native timber, yet that’s the Brown coal is one of the cheapest major forest product VicForests sources VicForests has clearly run out of ideas and fuels in the world. Apparently now from these north-east forests. is struggling to find new markets for its VicForests is selling native timber to the products. In the meantime the decimation VicForests has recently been logging greenhouse at a lower price than brown of precious native forest and habitat 35 year old native forest at Tolmie, near coal! And the change is arguably worse continues. Benalla, most of which has been sold to a for the environment than burning coal. hydroponic greenhouse to chip and burn The small communities around the in its furnaces as a source of heating. When you burn coal, you end up with Strathbogies have good cause to be worried, The greenhouse was previously heated a hole in the ground and the resulting but they’re not simply standing by while using brown coal briquettes, but was CO2 in the atmosphere. When you burn VicForests decides the fate of these very able to change over to biofuel through native forest biofuel, you get a similar important public assets. See what they’re up a Victorian Government grant. That amount of CO2 in the air (for the heat to at www.strathbogiesustainableforests. greenhouse now consumes 10,000 tonnes generated), but you lose a massive area wordpress.com and find ‘Our Strathbogie of woodchips per year. of carbon-holding forest every year, in Forest’ on Facebook. • PW

28 PARK WATCH • JUNE 2014 NO 257 A Lace Monitor or goanna (Varanus varius) in a Wellsford tree hollow. PHOTO: PHOTO: LIZ MARTIN

Stuart Fraser (back to camera) addresses the PROTECT THE WELLSFORD FOREST! crowd at the Big Trees Walk. PHOTO: LIZ MARTIN PHOTO:

STUART FRASER REPORTS ON ACTION TO PROTECT THIS IMPORTANT AND BEAUTIFUL IRONBARK FOREST NEAR BENDIGO.

The Wellsford Forest’s pre-European perpetuity as habitat for our vanishing It’s time we gave this forest in Victoria’s red ironbarks (Eucalyptus tricarpa), wildlife and as a place for Bendigonians dry interior a better future. In short, the at least 400 years old, are touchstones and others to enjoy. It should not be a Wellsford Forest needs and deserves the for modern Bendigo, their thick black source of cheap firewood! protection of national park status. • PW trunks palpable links with the times before us. These ancient trees are And they understand that it will not revered by all who visit them. survive without our help. Climate change, Big Trees Walk draws crowd with lower rainfall and drier, hotter The Department of Environment and summers will change the way forests grow On Sunday 18 May more than 110 Primary Industry plans to allow the and regrow after disturbance. people came on the Wellsford State forest around them, which has sustained Forest Big Trees Walk. If the Wellsford is finally included in the them for so long, to be cut and trampled The Wellsford Forest Conservation conservation reserve system it will be a for free firewood, or other products of Alliance organised the walk to little value. When the old trees died, they protected biolink of great significance. highlight the need for better would never be replaced. From Bendigo Creek (which links with protection for the forest. The Big Kow Swamp on the Murray) to Bendigo Trees are the nine remaining pre- If this were to happen it would mean Regional Park, through to the Mt Sugarloaf European ironbarks on public land we had abandoned the flora and reserve and the Longlea Commonwealth in Bendigo. fauna of our locality. It would mean land, there will be a continuous ribbon of we were finally, truly and disastrously box and ironbark forest. These trees are the elders of the disconnected from nature and our past. forest, a great asset, part of our There are also good links to Axe Creek heritage. They are a window into the This has galvanised locals into action. and the Campaspe River line of forest, past, and if we treat the forest with In February 2014 the Wellsford Forest the Heathcote forest to the east and the respect and stop logging they can Conservation Alliance was formed with Whipstick/Kamarooka parks to the also be a window into the future. the goal of protecting the Wellsford west. These areas are excellent examples as national park. It’s an alliance of of recovering forest, particularly the environmental groups, field naturalists, understorey and trees with developing Landcare groups, students and hollows. TAKE ACTION: interested individuals across the Contact your local state MPs and City of Greater Bendigo. The Wellsford Forest was excluded when ask them to support protecting the the box-ironbark national parks were Wellsford Forest under the National These people recognise that the declared because it was still being logged, Parks Act. entire forest should be maintained in despite its recognised ecological values.

PARK WATCH • JUNE 2014 NO 257 29 Rethinking the fungal dimension of biodiversity PHOTOS: ALISON POULIOT PHOTOS:

Left: Russula persanguinea grows in eucalypt forests and woodlands. Top right: The mushroom is the reproductive structure of the fungal mycelium which is seen here as a matrix of interconnected hyphae that is decomposing this log. Bottom right: Ascocoryne sarcoides decompose a log.

EXPLORING THE NATURAL An entire kingdom – the fungi, which Arguably, every species of animal and ENVIRONMENT IS ECOLOGIST AND are not plants – is often overlooked. plant relies either directly or indirectly PHOTOGRAPHER ALISON POULIOT’S on fungi. Fungi therefore need explicit FOREMOST PASSION. SHE ALSO HAS Current approaches to Australian recognition in biodiversity legislation to A DEEP CONCERN FOR THE RAPIDLY biodiversity management focus enable not just their own conservation, CHANGING STATE OF OUR NATURAL predominantly on plants and vertebrates but that of all biodiversity. ENVIRONMENTS. YOU CAN SEE – that is, they address less than 10% of The importance of fungi as vital organisms MORE OF HER PHOTOGRAPHS AT Australia's total megadiversity. underpinning terrestrial ecosystems WWW.ALISONPOULIOT.COM State legislation overlooks fungi and contributing to their resilience and persistence is well documented. Victoria’s national parks are Our state protective legislation, the Flora Hence, it is time to recognise the need tremendous refuges for Victoria’s and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988, is one for their inclusion in definitions and biodiversity, including Homo sapiens. such example that largely excludes fungi. representations of biodiversity, legislation, education and conservation. But what actually is biodiversity? The summarised purpose of the Generally speaking, biodiversity Act is to ‘to enable and promote the Secret relationships (biological diversity) describes the conservation of Victoria's native flora variety of life on earth. More specifically, and fauna and ... the management of So what are all those fungi doing exactly, this may refer to variation within genes, potentially threatening processes’. and why are they so important? species or ecosystems. But what about fungi? Many of the functions that they perform Biodiversity is more than an ecological are not always readily apparent. Firstly, Dozens of mammals – such as bettongs, concept. It’s also an important political tool most of the action happens underground. potoroos and wallabies – and numerous of global environmental conservation. other animals rely on fungi as food, and We’re usually only aware of fungi when Although the term biodiversity was the great majority of plants can’t take up we see their reproductive structures – intended to include all life forms, it is nutrients and water effectively without mushrooms and other forms of fruiting often used to refer only to flora and fauna. the help of their fungal partners. bodies such as puffballs, brackets, cups

30 PARK WATCH • JUNE 2014 NO 257 PHOTOS: ALISON POULIOT PHOTOS:

Far left: Every eucalypt in Victoria's forests has mycorrhizal fungal partners. Above: Fungi such as Pyronema omphalodes are among the first colonisers of burnt soil. Left: These tiny Marasmius alveolaris play an important role decomposing leaf litter.

and discs – push through the soil or We need to do this both at society and Conserving fungi first requires knowledge appear on trees or other substrates. government levels. of their diversity and distribution. Volunteers like field naturalists and other However, most of the work is performed Our current national biodiversity fungal enthusiasts collect most of the by the fungal ‘body’, a matrix of strategy – a requirement of being distribution data on Australian fungi. interconnected filamentous hyphae a signatory of the Convention on These data are managed by the national collectively known as mycelia. This part Biological Diversity – does not non-profit citizen-science organisation of the fungus forms an underground include fungi. It’s perplexing that Fungimap, which is dedicated to framework, stabilising soils, improving we’ve managed to overlook an entire advancing fungal knowledge of and water retention, cycling nutrients, and kingdom of organisms, but there is conserving fungi. connecting organisms and systems. fortunately an opportunity to rally for change. This resource then feeds into further Many fungi form mutually beneficial research, conservation and policy relationships, known as mycorrhizal Australia’s Biodiversity Strategy 2010- development and the Atlas of Living associations, with plants. By forming a 2030 is to be reviewed in 2015, and this Australia. sheath around the tiny rootlets of plants, is an opportunity to push for public or directly penetrating them, the fungus contribution to the review process. Approximately 15,000 fungal species have effectively extends the plant’s root been described in Australia, but the actual system, increasing the plant’s capacity to Most national park management plans number in existence could be ten times access greater volumes of soil in search also exclude fungi, or only recognise that or more. of water and nutrients. The fungus also them as agents of destruction. protects the plant from soil pathogens. Although the enormous destructive Where are they? Victoria's national potential of fungi needs to be parks are undoubtedly repositories of In return, the plant provides the fungus acknowledged, to recognise only this undiscovered fungi, and Fungimap is with carbohydrates produced through role is to overlook their many vital keen to know what’s out there! Next time photosynthesis. beneficial functions. Such a limited you spot one of the Fungimap target perspective on fungi potentially species in a national park or elsewhere, The majority of fungi play another vital influences public perception of their tell Fungimap about it and contribute role in colonising and decomposing significance. to Australia’s knowledge of fungi. organic matter such as fallen trees and Information about how to submit records leaf litter. These fungi secrete enzymes However, this is also something we can be found on the Fungimap website that break down compounds, including can change, as well as lobbying for the www.fungimap.org.au. cellulose and lignin, into simpler inclusion of fungi in the biomonitoring compounds, thereby making nutrients of Victoria’s national parks. This in turn Responses to environmental issues such as available for other organisms. may help to get fungi included in state loss of biodiversity require a combination and national biodiversity conservation of scientific, societal and political Other fungi are parasitic. While for legislation. perspectives. Scientific understanding of some people the word parasite conjures biodiversity is a predecessor to practical less pleasant associations, indigenous Calls to conserve fungi are not just social and political action. pathogenic fungi are an essential part about efforts to preserve a favourite of functional ecosystems. kingdom of organisms. They’re It would be unthinkable to lose our about conserving all biodiversity, and wonderful fungal species before they’ve Making a difference for fungi about understanding the inherent even been named, or their stories told. • PW We can begin by simply recognising interdependencies, interconnectivities Thanks to Tom May for his assistance that fungi are a vital part of biodiversity. and functions of ecosystems. with this article.

PARK WATCH • JUNE 2014 NO 257 31 Climate change affects plants in many ways

VNPA MEMBER AND KEEN BUSHWALKER DENISE FERNANDO IS A POSTDOCTORAL BOTANIST AT LA TROBE UNIVERSITY RESEARCHING METAL ACCUMULATION IN PLANTS. SHE RECENTLY BEGAN DELVING INTO THE POTENTIAL RELATED EFFECTS ON PLANTS OF GLOBAL PHOTOS: DENISE FERNANDO PHOTOS: CLIMATE CHANGE. Left: Checking rainforest trees, Queensland. Some of these trees growing on manganese-rich volcanic soils are extraordinarily tolerant to manganese, and remain healthy while incremental shifts in plant health accumulating potentially lethal amounts in their leaves. driven by climatic factors may not Right: Physiologically stressed maple tree leaves on the Allegheny Plateau, Pennsylvania, USA. be immediately obvious. long- term effects are difficult to evaluate, to provide chemical defence against the leaves of Red Maple and Sugar Maple. particularly where data pre-dating insect herbivory. These trees are affected by physiological stress climate change impacts are scarce. In contrast, North American maple as shown in symptoms of nutritional imbalance, The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate trees growing on soils relatively low disruption to photosynthesis, damage from free Change (IPCC) develops evidence- in manganese have been in decline radicals (highly reactive chemical fragments) based evaluation of changing weather – including becoming increasingly and insect attack. patterns, useful for studying associated susceptible to insect attack. This has Certain soil conditions and higher air plant physiological damage. been linked at least in part to manganese toxicity induced by altered climate temperatures cause manganese over- Funding by the Australian Research conditions. Rising temperatures and drier accumulation in leaf tissues, while other Council is enabling me to study plant seasons are among other climate stressors. factors such as extended periods of UV over-exposure to manganese, a heavy radiation trigger damaging manganese toxicity metal that is common in soil and Human-induced climate change damage mechanisms, the effects of which are not essential to plants in trace amounts. to plant communities initially became initially obvious. apparent through alterations to soil My research focuses on the varying chemistry by decades of acid rain that But a gradual downward spiral begins, abilities of certain eastern Australian caused plant nutritional imbalance and where visible symptoms of ill-health such rainforest trees, Australian agricultural over-accumulation of metals. In some as tree-crown dieback, insect infestation plants and American maples to tolerate regions, soil metals that were previously and malnutrition become noticeable over excess manganese. biologically unavailable to plants became consecutive seasons. bio-available upon acidification. Eastern Australian soils are naturally This occurs as physiological stress is enriched in both manganese and Although the causes of acid rain have compounded and plants are weakened, aluminium, which are mostly chemically now largely been addressed, at least in becoming increasingly vulnerable to disease bio-available to plants. These ecosystems developed countries, the effects of early and pest attack. Leaf analysis generally shows support highly specialised native floras practices are still evident. However, nutrient imbalance, high manganese content and evolved to tolerate such conditions, by other altered climate variables such free radical damage. metal exclusion or by accumulation. as higher temperatures and rainfall, drought, increased UV radiation and The implications for the welfare of both Manganese and aluminium toxicity are cultivated and native plant communities in elevated atmospheric CO2 and ozone problems for crop and pasture plants in levels pose new threats to the future eastern Australia should be concerning, given eastern Australia (particularly NSW and health of plants. that our changing weather patterns include Queensland), where extreme weather increasing air temperatures, longer periods can cause waterlogged or very dry soils, Taken individually, these factors alter of sunshine, greater frequencies of extreme both conducive to metal release for plant life; but their mutual interactions flooding events, and drought. plant uptake. have far worse effects. These climatic factors can drive manganese Metal-tolerant native plant species are Last year I spent six months in toxicity stress at both soil and plant levels by therefore invaluable for improving our Pennsylvania, USA, studying the further enhancing manganese availability in understanding of how such tolerance phenomenon of North American soils that are naturally manganese-rich, while occurs. Excessive metal accumulation in forest decline. I undertook fieldwork to also greatly increasing the potency of damaging the leaves of some species is even thought examine manganese accumulation in physiological mechanisms within plants. • PW

32 PARK WATCH • JUNE 2014 NO 257 Viewin’ the tuan

VNPA NATUREWATCH VOLUNTEERS HAD AN EXCITING FIND IN WOMBAT FOREST OVER THE ANZAC DAY LONG WEEKEND. NATUREWATCH COORDINATOR CHRISTINE CONNELLY REPORTS. PHOTO: KEN STEPNELL, KEN STEPNELL, PHOTO: VICTORIA PARKS COURTESY

Above: A Brush-tailed Phascogale or Tuan. Right: A curious Tuan arrives just before 5am and explores the bait station. It stays for an hour then disappears, presumably Finding a number of candid to sleep in a hollow. Probably the same animal returns at 9pm and hangs around photographs of the threatened Brush- until just after midnight! tailed Phascogale (tuan) on a remote sensing camera during a field activity on Saturday 26 April was a thrill for They feed mostly on large insects, NatureWatch volunteers. including spiders and centipedes, and need a large area of bushland in which to forage. The photos were collected as part of our ‘Caught on Camera’ project. This is a The species has some interesting quirks. long-term community-based wildlife The hind foot can be rotated backwards, monitoring project looking at the so that they can climb upwards or response of mammals to fire in Wombat downwards with ease. State Forest, near Blackwood. Mating occurs in early winter and, as with Gayle Osborne, Secretary of Wombat antechinuses, males are so worn out from Forestcare, was especially enthused by competition that they generally die soon the find. “Capturing an image of a Brush- after their first mating period. They are the tailed Phascogale at this location is really largest mammal in which this is known to rewarding,” she said. occur. Females also rarely survive to their second year, and usually only raise one litter. “This photo establishes its presence in an area for which there are no current The Brush-tailed Phascogale (Phascogale records. It’s the third Tuan sighting from tapoatafa) is listed as ‘threatened’ in our camera studies in the southern Victoria and is considered ‘vulnerable’ section of Wombat Forest.” according to the Advisory List of Threatened Fauna. This new record shows the importance of the Caught on Camera project as a tool Its decline in Victoria is most likely due to for monitoring wildlife. It also shows that clearing and fragmentation of its habitat. comprehensive research needs to be carried Tuans can be found in the foothills out to establish the value of Wombat Forest east and north-east of Melbourne; as habitat for threatened species. the Brisbane Ranges; around Ballarat, Heathcote and Bendigo; NE Victoria from Brush-tailed Phascogales are small, males Broadford to Wodonga; and far western weighing up to around 300 grams. They are Victoria from Mt Eccles to Apsley. well known for their intensely black ‘bottle- Wombat Forest is an important central brush’ tails, which can be up to 23 cm long. area of habitat for this fascinating They are members of the Dasyurid animal. • PW family, or carnivorous marsupials, which Caught on Camera is running in the include the quolls, antechinuses and Wombat until the end of June and will Tasmanian Devil. Tuans are nocturnal start in Bunyip State Park in August. and primarily arboreal, usually sleeping If you’d like to volunteer, contact Christine during the day in a hollow and emerging on [email protected] at dusk to forage. or 9341 6510 (Thurs/Fri). ON CAMERA CAUGHT PHOTOS:

PARK WATCH • JUNE 2014 NO 257 33 iN PArkS

roYAl PArk lungs of the city

GEOFF DURHAM DESCRIBES THE MANY VALUES AND ATTRACTIONS OF THIS THREATENED PARK. PHOTO: GEOFF DURHAM PHOTO: In the peaceful Australian Garden near the corner of Royal Parade and Gatehouse Street.

A furore is raging over the proposed recreation areas, open space and Mixed plantings over the years have East-West link freeway and tunnel. conservation values. resulted in many fine specimens of River Red Gum, Sugar Gum, Moreton Bay Fig Twelve months ago, in Park Watch for Royal Park is managed by Serco Services and Spotted Gum. June 2013, Victoria Strutt wrote of the for the Melbourne City Council, and in adverse impacts the tunnel would have my opinion it is very well managed. ‘Parks are the lungs of a city’ is a phrase on the park. that comes to mind when I visit the park, In 1998, after much community particularly its highest point - the open She also outlined the incremental consultation, the council produced a grassland area behind the RCH. It seems reduction of Royal Park from its Master Plan for the park. An objective that William Pitt the younger (British Prime original 1036 hectares, reserved in of the plan is “to provide a guide for Minister, 1766-68) first used the phrase, 1854 by C. J. La Trobe, Victoria’s first long-term development of the Park although it is often attributed to American Governor, to the present 180ha. Major in a way that will ... evoke the original landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead excisions have been the Zoo, the Australian landscape character of land in relation to Central Park, New York. sell-off of land for housing in the late and space ...” with an emphasis on 19th century, and the Royal Children’s indigenous eucalypts, Drooping Sheoak Open to the wind from every direction and Hospital (RCH), officially opened in and associated species. with no overhead wires, this must be the best 1963 and recently redeveloped. kite-flying site in inner Melbourne. There The plan is still being implemented, with are, in Baron Ferdinand von Mueller’s words, Most of the park is given over to sports some deviations. There has been much ‘commanding views over the landscape’, and grounds and other facilities, notably tree planting around the perimeter and the complete sky is open for stargazing. a nine-hole public golf course, tennis scattered plots of indigenous trees and courts, various ovals and the State shrubs throughout the park, enhancing The intention (partly achieved) is to restore Netball and Hockey Centre with its bird habitat and bird numbers. this area to native grasses, but ideally this large buildings, extensive car parks and requires the use of fire, which is inhibited obtrusive light poles. Around the circular grassland path and because of the proximity of the air- along the Macarthur Road path are conditioning intakes of the new RCH. But this article is not about these or plots of indigenous grassland plants, the impact of the East-West tunnel. including the unusual ‘Blue Devil’, Elliott Avenue and Macarthur Road, the Its focus is the park’s present passive Eryngium ovinum. West Coburg tramline and the Upfield

34 PARK WATCH • JUNE 2014 NO 257 PHOTO: GEOFF DURHAM PHOTO:

Above: Looking towards the city from the native grassland ‘circle’. Left: One of Royal Park’s magnificent eucalypts. Photo from David Tatnall’s exhibition ‘Royal Park – the Last Summer’. PHOTO: DAVID TATNALL DAVID PHOTO:

railway line cut across the park. The terraces from the old Melbourne City lives under the rubble slabs on which it popular Capital City bike path runs along Council nursery. basks. Enhancement works and a path have the northern side of the railway line. recently been undertaken. North of the railway are three significant The section south of Macarthur Road conservation areas. One of these The remainder of the northern area is features the Australian Garden on the is said to be the only true remnant sports fields and a golf course, irrigated corner of Royal Parade and Gatehouse bushland in inner Melbourne. It is east with reclaimed water from Trin Warren Street, a convenient and attractive of Manningham Road above the Ross Tam-Boore. landscaped picnic area with a pond, Straw Field on the slope up to the railway The park has a web of paths for walkers, pagoda and toilets. cutting – a strip of natural bush of a joggers and cyclists. There are off-lead, on- couple of hectares with over 60 species lead and no-dog areas and plenty of places Adjacent is Walmsley House, one of the of indigenous plants. For several years a for simple relaxation. 36 prefabricated iron houses imported ‘Friends of Royal Park West’ tended by La Trobe in 1854 and on this site since the area and enhanced it with The most precious thing in any at least 1862. It is Victorian Heritage appropriate plantings. metropolitan area is open space, and as the registered. Nearby are some very old and population of inner Melbourne grows, this gnarled Peppercorn trees. On either side of Oak Street is Trin becomes more important than ever. Warren Tam-Boore (the Royal Park A drainage line running north from here Wetlands), constructed at a cost In the suite of parks that contribute so much close to The Avenue features River Red of millions of dollars as part of the to Melbourne, Royal Park is prime open Gums. It leads to the Burke and Wills development of the 2006 Commonwealth space. That is its particular significance. memorial at the spot where in 1860 the Games village. The wetlands are fed doomed explorers set off with much by the degraded Royal Park Creek and Its threatened despoliation is fanfare on their expedition to cross stormwater from the netball/hockey deplorable. • PW Australia from south to north. centre and surrounding streets. Geoff Durham will lead a two-hour Near the intersection of Elliott Avenue This is a highly successful creation of and Flemington Road are two features ‘Easy-going Amble’ in Royal Park South waterbird habitat, and has a bird hide. on Saturday 26 July. Bookings: 9523 5559. of note: an impressive metal sculpture, After making its way through a series of ‘Fruition’ by Matthew Harding, and ponds, any excess cleansed water ends ‘The Billabong’, a dam-like construction up in tanks for irrigation or in Moonee EAST-WEST LINK: 20% of with granite boulders providing a quiet Ponds Creek. retreat behind an embankment that is an Royal Park severely impacted effective noise barrier. At the intersection of Manningham and y 5200 trees to be cut down Oak streets is a small triangle of remnant y Trin Warren Tam-Boore wetlands On the slope to the north of Elliott indigenous grassland. trashed Avenue are open woodland, thick native y Threatened plants and animals affected bushland and the unobtrusive Urban East of the wetlands and south of the y Cultural heritage impacted Camp with two ‘sentry boxes’ and Anzac creek, a slope which was a dumping y Loss of sports fields and open space Hall – all that remains of the World War II ground for rubble, concrete and logs is y Noise and vibration to affect military camp. Between the netball/ now prime habitat for White’s Skink. Zoo animals hockey complex and the railway line are This diurnal lizard, about 20cm long,

PARK WATCH • JUNE 2014 NO 257 35 Book rEViEWS

The book is a great resource for parents Herbert Peabody and teachers. Its themes can be woven into the curriculum in many ways: and his units about healthy eating, plant growth Extraordinary or communities, to name a few. More information and teaching materials are Vegetable Patch available at www.herbertpeabody.com It’s also perfect for reading aloud, or By Bianca Ross, shared reading. Herbie encourages the illustrated by Tabitha Emma Bray. plants with this chant: Farinet, 2014. Hardback, 120 pages. Yo, grow! RRP $18.95. To order, email Yo, grow, [email protected] Yeah, grow, Yo, GROW! one of our most pressing issues is Herbert Peabody is a farmer in a ensuring that the next generation has small town who supplies produce to Imagine a child or class jumping up and the knowledge and love of nature to be Theo Knead-A-Lot's local bakery. down to this, never forgetting it, and able to protect it. When Herbie’s niece and nephew going on to teach their children in turn. come to stay, they initially spend their With its engaging, charmingly illustrated Part of this is connecting children with time in front of screens, but with characters, toe-tapping rhymes and where their food comes from, and encouragement from Herbie they learn vitally important messages, this book is giving them the skills and motivation just how satisfying growing and eating sure to become a firm favourite. PW to grow their own. This engaging book your own food is - much more fun than • does just that. phones and TV! Review by Elizabeth Howes.

The Billy that died with its Boots on

By Stephen Whiteside, Others are serious, emotional and illustrated by Lauren Merrick. suspenseful, such as escaping a bushfire, Walker Books Australia, 2014. written from a child's point of view. The Paperback, 160 pages. RRP $22.99. poem on Ned Kelly won a special award last year. The illustrations are delightful.

i once taught a poetry unit to a Year 3 My favourites are ‘Two Little Raindrops’ class. We discussed the various (who fall in love, become separated elements of poetry and verse, and and reunite in the Southern Ocean); the students wrote their own poems. ‘Weather Report’, which rolls satisfyingly But the most entertaining part was off the tongue (“Today it’s fine/At reading and performing poems aloud. Most of the poems use ballad rhythm Jindabyne/It’s very dry/At Gundagai/ Here’s a book which is perfect for that. – compare Paterson’s ‘The Man from Cold and bitter/Mitta Mitta/Still a chill/ Ironbark’ – though a few limericks At Marysville”); and ‘If I was a Sailor’, The Billy... is a collection of Australian feature as well. written in an evocative sea shanty style. verse by Stephen Whiteside, a GP in one life and a poet in another The subjects are wide-ranging and This collection will give children (see Park Watch March 2014). In the very Australian, including the beach, and adults hours of read-aloud and introduction, he recalls his father the bush, the snow, and the quirks of educational entertainment, and reading Banjo Paterson and C. J. everyday suburban life. Some are light- develop a love of Australia’s country Dennis poems aloud to him: “The hearted: dropping a piece of onion and culture. • PW poems sounded almost musical... they from a sausage sizzle on your shoe, or were at their best when read aloud”. an ice cream falling off the cone. Review by Elizabeth Howes.

36 PARK PARK WATCH WATCH • JUNE• JUNE 2014 2014 NO NO 257 257 So if you’re planning a ‘shelterbelt’ (is recreating the this now the right word?), what are the Country principles that must underpin your design? Murphy has developed 10 design A blueprint for the design principles, covering adequate numbers of of sustainable landscapes plant species, genera and families; adequate potential food sources for wildlife; By Stephen Murphy adequate plantation width and potential to develop habitat diversity (e.g. hollows, Published by emPress for Ballarat fallen timber); capacity to ‘connect’ Region Treegrowers, 2009. to remnant vegetation; proximity to Paperback, 142 pages. RRP $25.00. permanent water; and sufficient numbers To order see www.afg.asn.au or of structural layers. www.empresspublishing.com.au He then takes five examples of extant There’s a lot of fascinating detail in this Stephen Murphy’s book brings ‘plantings’ and assesses their likelihood of sustainability, based on how they measure book, and it’s all in the name of how to these assessments together, with a up against the principles. This is a brilliant create ‘shelter belts’ and ‘plantations’ step-by-step guide on how to get way of understanding the principles and that will last at least 200 years, as well as better value both in creating shelter what they mean in practice. ‘recreating’ the landscape and providing in agricultural landscapes and in some income to the landowner. ‘recreating’ indigenous species There is a huge need for ‘revegetation’ habitats. He includes the value of being (and natural regeneration) over much Early settlers knew about the value of able to harvest some species in these of Victoria, for both economic and shelterbelts in protecting stock, and plantings. ecological reasons. This book is a very planted rows of cypresses or sugar useful ‘how-to’ guide. gums. But their biodiversity value has Murphy has the credentials to write often been questioned. A film, ‘Rediscovering the Country’, has this book. He has run a native plant recently been made to complement the Some more recent shelterbelts, or nursery (with his wife Lena) and has book. It is being launched at Melbourne ‘landcare’ belts, are now decades old, been actively involved in managing Museum on Friday 20 June; details at so their effectiveness in achieving reserves and revegetation projects over www.rediscoveringthecountry.org • PW biodiversity and shelter values can 25 years. And he has consulted a wide be studied. range of academics and experts. Review by Karen Alexander.

Flora of Mosses of Melbourne dry forests

(new edition) By Cassia Read and Bernard Slattery. 101 pages. RRP $15.00. By Marilyn Bull. 600 pages. RRP $89.95 VNPA members $12.00, inc. postage, from FOBIF, PO Box 322, A new edition of the comprehensive Castlemaine, Vic. 3450. guidebook Flora of Melbourne will be launched on 21 June and be available from July. This new book was produced by the Friends of the The book has 1367 plant descriptions, with line drawings for Box-ironbark Forests, generously supported by the almost all and colour photos for more than 90%. Each plant Norman Wettenhall Foundation. The authors have has its identification features highlighted. worked with volunteers over a number of years to develop an understandable guide for both students Seventy-nine plant communities (EVCs) are described and and beginners. listed in a cross-reference to show most of the species found in each EVC. There are maps of Melbourne’s soils, and Dozens of moss species are described and illustrated. locality maps to show the 222 reserves and parklands used in The introduction explains their life cycle and ecological the descriptions. • PW importance, and there are tips on identification. For more information contact Marilyn Bull at Discovering mosses opens a new, fascinating and [email protected] beautiful world. • PW

PARK WATCH • JUNE 2014 NO 257 37 A visit to kurth kiln

VNPA MEMBER AND BWAG LEADER JULIE HUNT TOOK EIGHT PEOPLE ON A WALK, TALK AND GAWK IN APRIL TO THIS INTERESTING SPOT IN THE FOREST NORTH OF GEMBROOK.

Old forestry workers’ huts at Kurth Kiln. kurth kiln regional Park is about camping and walking. The loop track 70 km east of Melbourne CBd and 7 km around Tomahawk Creek is particularly north of Gembrook on the Gembrook pleasant. – launching Place road, with a 1 km Lyrebirds are often sighted in the area, drive on a gravel road to reach the and there’s a colony of wombat holes just kiln itself. it is well signposted. off the track at one point. There is a Parks Victoria park note The Friends of Kurth Kiln group of (visitor guide) for the 3,500 ha park. volunteers was formed in 1999 under The Kiln was built during World War II the auspices of Parks Victoria. The to produce charcoal, which was used to group is actively led by Alfred and make gas as a substitute fuel for cars and Ursula Klink, who this year published an The Kiln itself. Wood was loaded trucks. It was a revolutionary new design excellent little book E. E. Kurth and his in at the top and slowly burnt, and charcoal extracted at the bottom. that produced high quality charcoal work: Reflections on a creative life. • PW JULIE HUNT PHOTOS: continuously, and worked round the clock, seven days a week, for about a year (until petroleum supplies resumed). Sound familiar?

The site was chosen because there was The following paragraphs appeared in New Scientist on 3 May as part of an interview plenty of timber left from ring-barking with Russian zoologist and bat specialist Suren Gazaryan, who received the 2014 and the 1939 bushfires. The adjoining Goldman Environmental Prize for Europe. Tomahawk Creek supplied the water required, and the kiln was built against “Q: What caused the shift in policy? Q: What was the impact of those changes? a bank to enable easy loading of wood A: Well the big problems began A: Some caves where I did research into it. when Vladimir Putin became have been turned into show caves for president in 2000. He put tourists and no longer have any bats at The kiln was invented and patented by environmental protection within all. There was also illegal construction of Dr Ernest Edgar Kurth, first Professor of the remit of the Ministry of Natural huge palaces for leaders such as Dmitry Chemistry at the University of Hobart. Resources, which is in charge of Medvedev and Putin.” Dr Kurth was born at Broken Hill (of a exploiting nature, and weakened German family) and brought up on the Suren Gazaryan is now living in exile in environmental laws. In the West Australian goldfields – a pathway Germany. Caucasus, the authorities started to employment taken by many Victorian taking public lands – including It’s enough to make you wonder where our and New South Wales families around current group of environmental vandals parts of the Sochi National Park, the end of the 19th century, following the in State and Federal parliaments got their a world heritage site – for tourist 1890s depression. ideas from. developments, roads and projects As well as the interesting kiln complex for the Sochi Winter Olympics. Euan Moore and exhibits, this is a lovely area for

38 PARK WATCH • JUNE 2014 NO 257 Walk WA’s Cape to Cape track with no roughing it

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PARK WATCH • JUNE 2014 NO 257 39