A love letter to pArks JUNE 2017 No 269 VoicEs from thE forEst Will We stop NAture’s decliNe? makiNg parks aNd toUrism work Free rEsUrrEctiNg rEEfs YArrA BeNd pArk Be part of nature

prEsidENt Euan Moore dirEctor Matt Ruchel coNtENts Level 3, 60 Leicester St, Carlton, VIC 3053 3 From the President ABN 34 217 717 593 4 Updates Telephone: (03) 9341 6500 Facsimile: (03) 9347 5199 5 We Love Parks E-mail: [email protected] 6-7 Voices from the forest Web: www.vnpa.org.au 8-9 Alarm at logging of western forests VNPA’S VISION and woodlands The Victorian National Parks Association vision is to ensure is a place with a diverse and healthy natural environment 10-11 Will we stop nature’s decline? that is protected, respected and enjoyed by all. 11 A step in the right direction for nature protection EDITORIAL COMMITTEE Euan Moore, Matt Ruchel, Philip Ingamells, Meg Sobey (editor). 12-13 A tale of two marsupials

GETTING INVOLVED IN VNPA 14-15 Sanctuary or developers dream? Everyone can help in the conservation of Victoria’s 15 Horses hurting hoodies wild and beautiful places. You can: 16-17 Free Mount Stirling • make a donation • become a regular giver or member 18-19 Making parks and tourism work • volunteer. You’ll be welcome in the office, on a campaign or in a park 20-21 Resurrecting reefs • leave a bequest to VNPA in your will. 22-23 Celebrating two decades of growth PUBLISHING POLICY All advertisements should be compatible with VNPA policies. 24-25 Forests, forever Publication of an advertisement does not imply endorsement by the 26-27 Looking after country VNPA Inc. of the advertised product or service. The VNPA reserves the 28-29 In Parks: Yarra Bend Park right to refuse any advertisement at any time. 30 Grow West volunteers to plant Park Watch may be quoted without permission provided that 7,000 trees on historic site acknowledgement is made. The opinions of contributors are not necessarily those of the VNPA Inc. 30 Wildflower and Art Weekend featuring creepy crawlies GUIDELINES FOR CONTRIBUTORS You’re always welcome to contact the editor to discuss ideas for articles. 31 Loss of remnant vegetation, Phone the VNPA or email [email protected]. Articles may be coming to a roadside near you submitted by email, on disk or as hard copy. Include your contact 32 Tribute: Defender of the bay details and brief biographical information. Photos, maps and dies hiking in the hills drawings are needed too. Digital photos should be 300dpi and around 8cm by 12cm. 33 Tributes: Alan Yen and Murray Bird copY dEadLiNE for September 2017 Park Watch is 24 July. 34 Book review: Repaying My Debt dEsigN Mary Ferlin priNtiNg Adams Print 35 Book review: FRONT COVER The Australian Bird Guide Hundreds of nature-lovers gathered on the summit of 36-37 Snow shoe fever in May to create a giant human sign spelling out support for a new Great Forest National Park. 38 Wild Families: Looking after nature Read why on page 5. Photo: Hexacam, Mark Webber. with the family Park Watch issN 1324-4361 39 Wild Families launch

2 PArk wAtch • June 2017 No 269 From the President

I would like to start by thanking the proven that VicForests does not carry $10 million for the next two years, hundreds of passionate nature-lovers out proper surveying for endangered which is very welcome. However, our who rugged up against the cold species before commencing logging parks and reserves system continues to mountain air of late May for our activities that threaten the long-term be underfunded, especially considering Great Forest Picnic. Forming a huge survival of these species. Indeed, the contribution that it makes to the ‘We ♥ Parks’ sent a clear message Australian governments are actively state’s economy. Our national parks to the Victorian Government that opposing the protection of native fauna provide an important destination we support protecting our forests and flora, as demonstrated by the for many tourists who in turn spend and the creation of a new Great Deputy Prime Minister’s recent call for money in local towns. Providing Forest National Park. Your joy and the Leadbeater’s possum to be removed funding to rebuild run-down visitor enthusiasm during the creation of from the threatened species list so that information centres and track and to the human sign created a wonderful its remaining habitat could be logged. undertake pest control in parks, while positive atmosphere. allowing the private sector to build But it is not just in the east and the facilities outside the park, will boost Over Easter I attended the Forests Central Highlands that logging of old- regional tourism and employment. Forever camp at Goongerah in East growth forests is a threat to our flora and , an event jointly run fauna. Recent announcements by the VNPA has welcomed the release of the by VNPA and Environment East state government have put native forest Victorian Government’s Biodiversity Gippsland (EEG). The camp provided logging back in the western districts. 2037 plan. The vision is familiar, being an opportunity for more than 100 I was astounded at some of the areas almost identical in sentiment to our attendees to learn about these forests proposed for logging in the region west own VNPA vision, and the goals and from experts in forest ecology. Beneath of the . Like the east of the targets are ones that we wholeheartedly these giant trees—which are up to five state, many of these forests are home support. Increasing funding to Parks metres in diameter and more than to threatened species. But these forests Victoria for management of the parks 70 metres tall—is a diverse ecosystem are not the tall forests of the mountains. and their infrastructure will be major of rainforest species that only establish The trees are much smaller in height contributor to the strategy’s success. after centuries without fire. These and diameter. At best these forests People must know what our parks forests are home to around ten per cent would provide firewood and fence protect for our parks to be valued. of all mammal species recorded from posts. Hardly a good use of remnant One of the biggest challenges will be , and they have the greatest woodlands in a heavily cleared region. in the implementation and bringing mammal diversity outside the wet organisations such as VicForests into tropics of northern . New Unfortunately the forest industry is based line with the strategy. • PW species of plants and invertebrates are on lazy management. It is much easier to regularly described, and rare species log (‘mine’) native forests than to grow Euan moore, VNpa president are found when people take the time timber in plantations that require on- to look. Today much of the survey going attention. The viability of plantation work in the area is carried out by forestry is not helped by the ongoing citizen scientists at the Goongerah subsidies for native forest logging. Even this year we celebrate our Environment Centre (GECO). This the employment arguments do not 65th anniversary. i would like is work that should be done by hold up. There are more employment to invite you, our Park Watch professional researchers employed by options within plantation forests readers, to help us celebrate the government. than in old-growth forest logging. by considering a special gift The sooner the industry moves to to vNpA, so we can continue In spite of the species richness of the plantations established on marginal and our essential work protecting natural forests, and the important unproductive farm land, the better for nature in victoria. You can find a donation form on the role they have in providing ecological industry, employment and conservation. services such as reliable water supplies, back cover, or visit: our government continues to subsidise The state budget provided some www.vnpa.org.au/ the logging of native forests. A number additional operational funding for support/forests of legal actions taken by EEG have also Parks Victoria, essentially an additional

PArk wAtch • June 2017 No 269 3 UPdateS

I am pleased to introduce myself as the new editor of Park Watch, as part of the publications and online coordinator role I have recently started at VNPa.

I love using creative ways to encourage connection with and care for our natural world. Like many of you, my love of nature started young—I grew up wandering the bush in western Victoria near the Grampians. After several years as a journalist in , I followed my heart to work in communications for environmental organisations, most recently over in Adelaide for the Conservation Council of . I’ve recently relocated to a bush block on , and I am excited to join the team at VNPA advocating for national parks in Victoria. What a privilege to join an organisation with such an impressive (65 year!) history of nature protection. I would like to acknowledge the generous guidance of former Park Watch editors Chris Smyth (who continues at VNPA as the marine and coastal coordinator) and Michael Howes. Thank you to all the contributors to thisPark Watch, it has been a pleasure receiving your words and images. I look forward to working with many more talented writers and photographers—please do not hesitate to get in contact with story ideas and feedback.

Meg sobey

thank you for sending in annual general meeting – To nominate for Council, you must your supporter surveys advanced Notice be a current financial member and indicate your intentions by writing to We rely on contributions from VNPA’s 65th Annual General Meeting will the executive director, Matt Ruchel via you, our wonderful supporters. be held on Tuesday 10 October 2017 at [email protected] by 5pm on Whether you donate your time, 7pm in the Ground Floor Meeting Room, Tuesday 12 September 2017. money or skills–every bit of 60 Leicester Street, Carlton. progress we make for protecting More information on our Council, nature in Victoria is all thanks Nominations for VNpa council please visit www.vnpa.org.au/about to you! are now open Naturewatch needs you! We really value your support, Nominations for the VNPa Council Would you like to become a citizen which is why we sent out a are now open to members who would scientist with VNPA? supporter survey in March to find like to participate in the governance out what’s important to you. of the organisation. Come along to our NatureWatch community day on Saturday 5 August We had an overwhelming response The Council play an important role in in Bunyip State Park. You’ll learn all to the survey and we are really the life of VNPA—establishing policy about Caught on Camera, our long-term grateful to those who took the time guidelines, approving annual budgets research project monitoring mammals to fill it in. We appreciate getting and undertaking strategic planning for using motion-triggered cameras, as well as your feedback and reading your the association. a range of other NatureWatch projects. stories about why protecting nature is important to you. Elected councillors are unpaid volunteers Then we will do a hands-on training and are asked to participate in six Council activity to learn how to use the cameras If you are waiting for a response or meetings and relevant committees and help us launch our monitoring for the information you requested; (usually around two hours each) over season for 2017. we’ll be in contact soon—thank the course of the calendar year. you for your patience! For more information contact The Annual General Meeting (see above) our NatureWatch coordinator If you have any queries please elects the volunteer Council and includes Christine Connelly on (03) 9341 6510 contact Amelia Easdale, supporter a president, vice-president, honorary or [email protected] or check development on (03) 9341 6505 or secretary, honorary treasurer and up out our winter Bushwalking and [email protected] to nine councillors. Activities Program. • PW

4 PArk wAtch • June 2017 No 269 We Parks

IT WAS A HeARTWARMInG SIGHT On A CHILLY MORnInG AS HunDReDS CReATeD A LOVe LeTTeR FOR nATIOnAL PARKS.

Over 400 passionate people gathered on the summit of Mount Donna Buang on Saturday 13 May for our Great Forest Picnic. Together we created an impressive 60 metres long by 50 metres wide human sign spelling out support for a new Great Forest National Park.

If you were one of the happy, smiling picnickers, thank you for being part of this special event. The Great Forest Picnic was a major part of our push for new national parks in Victoria. a new Great Forest National Park, less than 90 minutes from Melbourne in the Central Highlands and Gippsland, would protect forest-dependent native plants and animals, including our state’s faunal emblem, the critically endangered Leadbeater’s possum. It would be a beautiful nature- based playground for Victorians, and boost local tourism businesses and employment. the great Forest picnic But with a state election just 18 months away, Premier daniel andrews is running was organised by vNpA. out of time to clearly commit to the creation of the Great Forest National Park. • PW it was and supported by the Wilderness society victoria, Friends of Leadbeater’s Possum, You can help spread the message that Victorians want a new Great Forest warburton Environment, Warburton Habitat tree, National Park by sharing our story and video from the day on social media: knitting Nannas of toolangi, www.vnpa.org.au/do-love-letters-get-any-bigger-than-this and by emailing Save Mt St Leonard community or phoning Premier Daniel Andrews directly, contact details are on his website: campaign, Environment East www.premier.vic.gov.au/contact-us gippsland and the goongerah Environment centre. PArk wAtch • June 2017 No 269 5 PHoTo: BETTE DEVINE Few people are aware of the massive scale of year-round logging occurring behind a thin veil of protected forest on the escarpments overlooking the major tourist roads from toolangi to Marysville, alexandra and eildon, only 100 kilometres north east of Melbourne.

Only a few years ago, horse-riding, outdoor education and recreation businesses were extremely popular with local and international visitors; enjoying, exploring and learning about these magnificent forests. Now they cannot even access many of their previously used wilderness routes and camping sites on account of logging operations. Many have disappeared altogether, others are blocked off with locked gates, or have succumbed to dusty Friends of the forest: a Rubicon Forest Protection Group tour group gravel roads, log trucks and rampant enjoying the greenery on the 10 kilometre return walk to Rubicon Dam. blackberries. These valuable businesses have had to drastically relocate and change or even cease their operations.

Concerned residents of Murrindindi formed the Rubicon Forest Protection Group Inc. (RFPG) in Voices from the forest late 2015. Our group promotes the significant biodiversity, scenic, historic and cultural heritage values of our area’s forests. We also highlight the EcoLogist aNd mEmBEr of thE rUBicoN forEst exceptional tourism, education and protEctioN groUp ANN JELINEK sharEs hEr iNsights recreation opportunities and their oN thE rELatioNship BEtwEEN commUNitY aNd forEsts. associated economic benefits. There are similar community groups in the Toolangi area, East Gippsland and Devastation in the Rubicon State Forest: logging area recently burnt, . older logged area with wattle regrowth, and log dump. A key concern of RFPG is the long- term sustainable management of these montane ash forests—mountain ash, alpine ash and shining gum—which are restricted to a small part of Victoria. The future of these precious environments is being rapidly compromised by the ongoing massive scale and intensity of logging of the Central Highlands. Especially when combined with the devastation caused by the 2009 Black Saturday bushfire and subsequent salvage logging. This contrasts with the isolated, selective logging that occurred in the area in the past.

In 2016 the RFPG released an analysis of logging intensity, clearly demonstrating the unsustainability of current operations (www. rubiconforest.org/sites/default/files/ RFPG_Submission_v5_160525.pdf).

6 PArk wAtch • June 2017 No 269 PHoToS: ANN JELINEk The results were further scrutinised and clearly documented alleged breaches. logging coupes. It is clear that The Code reported following access to additional Nevertheless, RFPG and other local is not being adhered to or rigorously freedom of information data showing community groups are persistently monitored to ensure compliance. a doubling of the rate of logging disregarded by bureaucracy in originally determined as sustainable in response to our requests for acceptable A recent assessment by the Victorian the Central Forest Management Area, environmental protection procedures— Environmental Assessment Council but especially concentrated in Rubicon detailed field assessments of biodiversity identified the high conservation State Forest (‘Panicking over timber and other important values within a values of the Central Highlands and jobs is not a sustainable strategy’, bioregional context, minimising habitat East Gippsland forest communities. Sydney Morning Herald, 29 March fragmentation, and strict adherence to However the state government’s 2017). VicForests’ own analysis also Biodiversity 2037 plan, also recently confirms the lack of ash supply once released, contrasts radically with the remaining post 1939 regrowth is what is actually happening in these logged or subject to future bushfires. forests. Time is rapidly running out as the extent of native forest clearing These tall montane ash forests, and greatly exceeds that being revegetated. associated Antarctic beech rainforests Moreover, these resulting ‘plantations’ along waterways, are renown for their ultimately form a monoculture. They unique, rich biodiversity. Yet detailed have no resemblance to the original, bioregional field assessments of these weed-free diversity of the montane and other important values have not ash forests, with their complex, dense been carried out prior to the current understory and succession of aging intensive, large-scale logging. Loss trees throughout the landscape that of habitats of varying ages and their gradually develop a multitude of connectivity, and changes to plant and habitats for a diversity of plants and animal interrelationships within the animals, sequestrate large amounts of forest, including invasive weeds like carbon, and create the world-renown blackberries, are critical considerations scenic landscapes and vistas. for maintaining forest biodiversity and functioning ecosystems. The 20-year-old Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) for East Gippsland Equally, the health and wellbeing Forest Management Area expired in of local communities is dependent February 2017, yet was extended by the on the essential environmental national and state governments without services provided by the integrity of any community consultation. The these forests; clean air, water quality Central Highlands Forest Management and quantity, carbon storage and, Area RFA is due for renewal in early importantly, a place to enjoy and 2018. It is essential that extensive Ready to be logged? This 1939 regrowth appreciate nature. mountain ash in the Rubicon State Forest community consultation occur and is proposed for logging. independent scientific expertise be RFPG has recently organised several PHoTo: ANN JELINEk sought well in advance of the expiry popular tours of Rubicon State Forest dates for the respective RFAs. to help our local community connect with its special natural, historic and This is an urgent call to highlight the cultural features. Essentially, we The Code of Forest Practice for Timber immediate, significant threats to our believe that tourism, recreation and a Production 2014 (The Code), and state montane ash forests and the need healthy environment are integral to a and national environmental legislation. for action now. A general lack of sustainable future for the Murrindindi Similarly, RFPG’s detailed responses to understanding of ecology and short- community. We want to promote VicForests’ Timber Release Plans are term vision needs to be addressed, significant features of the area, not reflected in the final logging plans. possibly through a series of on-site including the Cerberean Caldera, one information workshops involving of the biggest volcanic eruptions on Instead, the survival of critical habitats local community and Aboriginal earth, and the Rubicon Valley Historic depends on citizen scientists from groups, scientists, politicians, state Area, now recognised on the Victorian Wildlife of The Central Highlands government representatives and Heritage Register. (WOTCH), together with local industry stakeholders. Together we community groups, who volunteer need to develop a long-term vision and In theory, Victoria has effective many days and nights to carefully management to ensure the future of our environmental legislation, strategies record on film selected threatened wonderful montane ash forests. • PW and operational codes. However, species like the Leadbeater’s possum, these are blatantly or deliberately sooty owl and greater glider. But even Ann Jelinek is an ecologist ignored by bureaucracy, even when their tireless efforts are only protecting and freelance journalist those responsible are provided with small, isolated patches within individual and photographer.

PArk wAtch • June 2017 No 269 7 aLaRM at LoGGING oF WeSteRN FoReStS aNd WoodLaNdS

Red-tailed black cockatoo. PHoTo: BoB MCPHERSoN

A NeW report FroM vNpA sHoWs WHY proposed coMMerciAl loggiNg iN tHe West oF tHe stAte sHould Be ABANdoNed, sAYs matt rUchEL.

Until recently the Victorian Threatened species have been found Government’s logging agency either within or near 33 per cent of VicForests managed commercial the planned logging coupes. In certain forestry operations only in the forest management areas, including the east of Victoria. In 2014 it was also Portland forest management area, that handed control of forests in the west. figure leaps to 67 per cent.

Now, in February this year VicForests In addition, there are 34 threatened published its Timber Utilisation Plan. species (20 fauna and 14 flora) listed It proposes commercial logging in in the forestry codes that have been This has been done as part of the VNPA about 60 state forests and woodlands recorded occurring in or adjacent to analysis and the maps are organised in the west—areas that are historically coupes listed in the Timber Utilisation according to forest management areas in the most cleared in our state. Plan, yet no detail has been provided our report. on how the plan addresses these species In response, VNPA undertook and relevant code prescriptions. Some areas in the central west that are an analysis across the western listed for logging, such as the Wombat, Victorian forests, with the findings For example, the endangered southern Wellsford, Mount Cole and now published in our latest report: red-tailed black cockatoos have been Range state forests, are also subject to a Western Forests And Woodlands recorded in 11 proposed coupes in recently announced investigation by the At Risk. the Horsham and Portland forest Victorian Environmental Assessment management areas. There are thought Council (VEAC). They should be The analysis found 70 per cent of the to be only 1,400 of these birds left in the removed from logging schedules while areas targeted for logging contain wild and they are already subject to an this investigation is completed. native vegetation types that are listed extensive recovery effort. as either endangered (19 per cent), This planned logging across almost 50,000 vulnerable (11 per cent), or depleted On reading, the so-called ‘plan’ is actually hectares of some the most fragmented and (40 per cent). In some forestry a just a list of geographic reference points, depleted landscapes in Australia will be management areas like Horsham, and it is not until the information is extremely ecologically damaging. It will Mid Murray and Bendigo this jumps properly mapped that you can actually also be of limited commercial or economic up to between 80–100 per cent. start to understand the scale and impacts. value. It is all incredibly misguided.

8 PArk wAtch • June 2017 No 269 VicForests’ Timber Utilisation Plan concerns about threatened species, lacks important details, contains is out how the conservation significance of of whack with state-wide biodiversity vegetation types will be managed, and With your help we can protect policy and in all likelihood in its relevant forest code prescriptions and our western forests—and current form does not comply with the tenure inconsistencies. those right across the state. Code of Practice for Timber Harvesting Make your gift today by: It is very odd indeed that the Andrews and other state government policy. It y Government would continue to Filling in the coupon also includes logging in some forest on the back cover implement Coalition policy from the parks, which appears inconsistent Napthine government, and endorse y phoning (03) 9341 6500 with legislation. logging plans which damage some of y donating online at Commercial native forest logging in the last remaining fragments of native www.vnpa.org.au/ the west of state should be cancelled. vegetation on public land in the west support/forests of the state. PW At the very least the Timber Utilisation • together we can ensure we Plan should be withdrawn, significantly You can read more on our website: have forests forever. reviewed, reassessed and re-advertised, www.vnpa.org.au/why-the-wests- with relevant details to address woodlands-are-important

Horsham FMA Mid Murray FMA Area: 13250 ha Area: 1885 ha No. Coupes: 115 No. Coupes: 22 • Coupes with rare, threatened of depleted vegetation types (EVC): 81%–100% • Coupes with rare, threatened of depleted vegetation types • Coupes with threatened species within or adjacent: 49% (EVC): 100% • Places: Twenty six state forest areas and two other reserve types including • Coupes with threatened species within or adjacent: 59% Cherrypool State Forest, Connewirricoo State Forest, Glenisla State Forest, • Places: Four state forests including Benwell State Forest Woohlpooer State Forest, Kalingur State Forest. Gunbower State Forest.

Bendigo FMA Area: 8616 ha No. Coupes: 120 • Coupes with rare, threatened of depleted vegetation types (EVC): 93%–100% • Coupes with threatened species within or adjacent: 27% • Places: Fourteen state forests including Wellsford State Forest, Bealiba - Barp State forest, Redcastle-Greytown State forest, St Arnaurd & Pyrenees State forest.

Midlands FMA Area: 5533 ha No. Coupes: 134 Melbourne • Coupes with rare, threatened of depleted vegetation types (EVC): 86%–76% • Coupes with threatened species within or adjacent: 22% • Places: Nine state forests and three other reserve types including the Wombat State Forest, Mt Cole State Forest, Mt Lonarch/Berumgomer State Forest, Beerimpmo State Forest.

Portland FMA Otway FMA Area: 2616 ha Area: 9179 ha No. Coupes: 27 No. Coupes: 115 • Coupes with rare, threatened of depleted vegetation types • Coupes with rare, threatened of depleted vegetation types (EVC): 84%–33% (EVC): 52%–48% • Coupes with threatened species within or adjacent: 23% • Coupes with threatened species within or adjacent: 67% • Places: Otway Forest Park. • Places: Eight state forests and two other reserve types including Cobboboonee Forest Park, Annya State Forest, Homerton State Forest.

Indicative location of Timber Utilisation Plan Coupes in Western Victoria. Note not to scale.

PArk wAtch • June 2017 No 269 9 Protecting Victoria's

Environment – Biodiversity 2037 Will we stop nature’s decline?

it’s BeeN 20 YeArs coMiNg, But A NeW strAtegY to protect victoriA’s eNviroNMeNt HigHligHts tHe iMportANce oF our NAturAl plAces, sAYs matt rUchEL.

Protecting Victoria’s environment – Biodiversity 2037 is The strategy includes 20 priorities with 74 associated the first formal state-wide, long-term biodiversity plan initiatives around these two goals. in two decades. There was a process undertaken by the Importantly, the strategy includes a range of targets, Brumby government for a land and biodiversity white and reinforces the role of government in leadership in paper that flagged a biodiversity strategy, but it did not delivering the plan. pass the draft stage before a change of government. The state Environment Minister Lily D’Ambrosio While some of our natural areas are doing well, others face described the strategy as “…not just a plan for action, threats from pest plant and animal invasions, land clearing but a blueprint for our success in stopping the decline of and destructive development. Increasingly, the impacts of Victoria’s unique biodiversity”. climate change are adding to these pressures and require new management strategies. Overall, our natural assets and Delivery will however be hamstrung without significant biodiversity are still in decline. new funding. There are some significant new goals and directions flagged Funding levels for nature conservation and protection in the new plan. Of particular note is the emphasis both on across the board are at record lows. Management nature and people. These two key goals are interlinked. resources must be significantly increased over coming years. VISIoN: VICtoRIa’S BIodIVeRSItY IS HeaLtHY, The new strategy calls for a ‘sustained period of VaLUed aNd aCtIVeLY CaRed FoR investment’ and, critically, guides the effective application GoaL: Victorians value nature of resources, linking knowledge and expertise to Victorians understand that their personal wellbeing strategic actions. and the economic wellbeing of the state are dependent The strategy also recognises the critical importance of on the health of the natural environment. our national parks, indigenous protected areas, and GoaL: Victoria’s natural environment is healthy other reserves on public and private land. It calls for both Victoria has functioning plant and animal populations, the extent and condition of these protected areas to be improved habitats and resilient ecosystems, enhanced. To meet Australia’s international commitments even under climate change. the strategy estimates that the gap in Victoria’s estate is about 2.1 million hectares.

10 PArk wAtch • June 2017 No 269 The plan also shifts the focus of threatened species The plan also invites new, and potentially critically management away from one species at a time and the important, evidence-based management actions to manage most endangered species. It notes that focusing only on climate impacts on our natural areas. the ‘emergency end’ of biodiversity decline is unlikely to be the most effective way of preventing extinctions. These tools can really help guide action, but as we have seen At least on paper, the plan instead seeks to focus on with native vegetation rules—an inflexible black box can also how whole ecosystems and ecological processes can be generate perverse and even nonsensically outcomes. If these managed for the benefit of all species. Conceptually this a tools are to take such a central role in the decision-making about threatened species, they need to be subject to serious sound approach, but implementation will be the key test. rigour, independent peer review and transparency. The plan introduces the target 100 per cent net positive For our children and grandchildren to have the same ‘change in suitable habitat’ in 50 years for threatened opportunity to enjoy our unique natural places as we species, with co-benefits for non-threated species. In an have, let’s hope the plan works and we are not in the same appendix to the strategy is an explanation of the ‘change situation lamenting decline in 2037. in suitable habitat’ methodology, essentially a computer model (or in government parlance a ‘decision support The direction is set. We just need the secure funding, tool’) that ultimately aims to spit out ‘predicted areas the education programs, and the involvement of us that provide the highest and lowest return on investment all—government agencies, corporations and the broader for management’. community—to make it work. • PW a step in the right direction for nature protection

EXamiNiNg thE 2017–18 statE BUdgEt.

Funding for nature protection in Victoria has been at Nature-related highlights of the Victorian budget include: record lows in recent years. • $86.3 million over four years for much-needed nature The 2017–18 state budget does include some important protection and biodiversity work identified in the Biodiversity nature protection initiatives, and could offer the 2037 plan beginnings of the long-term rebuilding of the state’s • $31.8 million increase in Parks Victoria funding, mostly over capacity to look after its natural environment. two years, with the bulk to be spent on much-needed core operations, such as rangers Funding for the recently-released Biodiversity 2037 plan, • $22.8 million for new additions to Victoria’s national parks estate as well as increased short-term core funding for Parks • $7.2 million for management of marine and coastal Victoria, are welcome. environments • $33 million for improved forest and wildlife regulation However our national parks estate still needs far more • $110 million for establishing new plantations to continue the secure and substantial long-term core funding. transition of the timber industry away from native forests Funding gaps include no new or explicit commitments for • $19.2 million towards the eradication of invasive red fire ants the creation of the Great Forest National Park to protect • $162.5 million to rebuild Environment Protection the critically endangered Leadbeater’s possum. Authority Victoria There is still plenty of room for more leadership in this area, and We were also disappointed not to see an increase in VNPA will continue advocating for increased funding for nature funding for Trust for Nature’s revolving fund. This would protection in our state now and into the future. PW have helped the Trust purchase high-conservation land, • covenant it and then re-sell it, creating a ongoing pool of Additional detail available from the department’s website: funds for future investment, while protecting land and the www2.delwp.vic.gov.au/environment-and-energy-big- wildlife that inhabit it at the same time. winners-in-the-201718-budget

PArk wAtch • June 2017 No 269 11 Leadbeater's Possum, Gymnobelideus leadbeateri,1884 by John James Wild. A tAle of two mArsupiAls

HigH up iN tHe tree tops, tHe leAdBeAter’s possuM ANd greAter glider Are relYiNg oN us For protectioN.

12 PArk wAtch • June 2017 No 269 The future is still up in the air for both Victoria’s largest to critical habitat of the Leadbeater’s possum—including sawmill, australian Sustainable Hardwoods, and the timber-harvesting operations—immediately. ash forests of the Central Highlands. The andrews Government cabinet remains split and seemingly Group president Steve Meacher called on Minister paralysed about how to handle an increasingly aggressive D’Ambrosio to declare an Interim Conservation Order across misinformation campaign from the sawmill owners and more than 170,000 hectares of ash forest in the Central the CFMeU forestry division. Highlands. An Interim Conservation Order is a mechanism within the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act (FFG Act) that has VicForests have stayed firm on their statement that there is never been used before—but we’ve never had a state faunal insufficient wood available to fulfil the current 130,000 cubic emblem on the edge of extinction before either. metre plus per annum contracts for supply of ash forest to the Heyfield mill. The Andrews Government even offered In further developments, the Victorian Scientific Advisory to buy the mill, but this was rejected by the current owners, Committee (SAC) has made a final recommendation to list who said they would prefer to move to . the greater glider as a protected species under the FFG ACT. The Heyfield mill owners, backed by SAC concluded: the union, are pursuing a strategy to try and open up areas set aside for “Timber harvesting in greater glider the Leadbeater’s possum under the habitat has been proven to cause previous government’s Leadbeater’s declines and or local extinctions of Possum Action Plan process. greater glider populations. Timber Covering only a couple of thousand harvesting practices reduces the hectares, at most this area would number of hollow bearing trees provide a few years wood supply, available for denning by tree removal while dramatically undermining or as a result of regeneration burns future recovery efforts for the possum. after logging… In Victoria timber harvesting is widespread in the In an attempt to ignite ideological eastern and central parts of the state. battle grounds around jobs versus This is also the main distribution environment, Deputy Prime Minister and habitat of the greater glider. Barnaby Joyce unhelpfully also stuck Considering the known impacts of his nose in from up in Queensland, timber harvesting on greater gliders, it calling on the Victorian Government is likely that other local extinctions of to open up possum protection areas the species have already occurred and to save jobs at Heyfield. His call was will continue to occur in the future.” ridiculed by many and described by Victoria’s Environment Minister Lily The greater glider was nominated D’Ambrosio as “reckless” and lacking for listing last year, and the SAC understanding of the forestry industry. final recommendation has now been Greater glider, Petauroides volans, forwarded to Minister D’Ambrosio In the meantime, the Federal 1863 by John Gould. who has 30 days to decide whether Environment Minister Josh the species will be listed. Frydenberg is yet to approve and release the final recovery plan for the Leadbeater’s possum, According to Goongerah Environment Centre Office following its listing as critically endangered over two years (GECO) (www.geco.org.au/greater_glider_set_to_be_ ago. This is an important document and will have significant listed_on_ffga) listing the greater glider on the FFG political weight, if it ever gets released. At the end of the day Act must be swiftly followed by measures to strengthen though, there is little that the federal government can do protections for the species in state forests subject to logging. without the support of the state government, as most of their direct powers have been delegated to state level under the The greater glider is Australia's largest gliding marsupial. It Regional Forest Agreements. occupies very small home-ranges, needs old-growth trees with hollows for denning and eats gum leaves. There are no Almost 50,000 people have called on Premier Andrews protections elsewhere in Victoria for greater gliders. Recent to create the Great Forest National Park, with a full-page surveys by Wildlife of the Central Highlands (WOTCH) in advertisement taken out in The Age newspaper on 8 April the Central Highlands and the community in the Strathbogie by groups including The Wilderness Society, The Australian Forest found greater gliders in areas earmarked for logging. Conservation Foundation, Environment Victoria, GetUp! The federal government listed the species as vulnerable to and the Victoria National Parks Association. extinction on the federal threatened species list in May 2016. Meanwhile, Friends of Leadbeater’s Possum has called on The future survival of these two marsupials depends on our Minister D’Ambrosio to prohibit any activity damaging forests—and our forests depend on us taking action. • PW

PArk wAtch • June 2017 No 269 13 PHoTo: DAVID TYTHERLEIGH

A flock of red-necked avocets and banded stilts enjoy the Moolap , which will be under Sanctuary or developer’s dream? greater pressure from coastal development proposed in the Moolap Plan. groWiNg At 2.5 per ceNt eAcH YeAr, is A citY tHAt NoW desperAtelY Needs A greAt pArk, sAYs vNpA MAriNe ANd coAstAl coordiNAtor chris smYth.

New York has Central Park and Not so at Moolap, where closure of meadows surrounding Point Henry London Hampstead Heath. But the Cheetham Saltworks and Alcoa’s are some of the largest in Port Philip Geelong’s green space is largely Point Henry aluminium smelter, and Bay. And remnants of once extensive limited to eastern Park and the a proposed canal estate, have been the native vegetation are found along the Barwon River corridor, areas simply impetus for a major planning process foreshore and in corridors restored by too small to cater for the growth— covering 1,200 hectares of coastal land the community. another 100,000 people by 2036. and nearshore waters. But Moolap is also a coastal area with Parks and nature are good for It’s a special place on the front doorstop water access and elevated views of Port community health, so when the chance of Geelong. The coastal wetlands each Phillip Bay. to create a big new park presents itself, year attract thousands of migratory you would think that planners would birds in need of our protection To ‘take advantage’ of this, the draft be all over it. under international treaties. Seagrass Moolap Coastal Strategic Framework

one possible great nature experience for local option residents and visitors alike. it will also boost the local economy and create jobs through national and international ecotourism. initially the area was also Red-necked stint are among the thousands of migratory birds that fly in earmarked for housing to the Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary from around the world. development, but an extensive PHoTo: ED DUNENS, FLIkR CC and progressive government- When south Australia was faced with in 2015 the Adelaide international lead consultation process saw a a similar situation of repurposing Bird sanctuary was established, and shift in focus to conservation and industrial salt fields, it made the last year became the state’s first new community interests. the new most of the unique opportunity national park in a decade. only 30 park has been enthusiastically to maximise the benefits for minutes from Adelaide, the sanctuary embraced by South Australians. the environment, economy and protects habitat for thousands of why not do the same here community, all at the same time. migratory shorebirds, while offering a in Victoria?

14 PArk wAtch • June 2017 No 269 BCRAG member and Killarney resident Clinton Williams monitors commercial horse training at 'The Basin' in the Belfast Coastal Reserve.

Plan prepared by the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) has proposed that Point Henry be designated a new growth area for Geelong. That would see up to 2,000 people living in medium and high-density residential Horses development, mooring their boats in new marinas and rubbing shoulders hurting hoodies with thousands of visitors staying in multi-storey tourist accommodation. IT HAS Been A POOR BReeDInG SeASOn FOR Another large area of residential THReATeneD HOODeD PLOVeRS In THe BeLFAST development is also proposed for rural COASTAL ReSeRVe, RePORTS CHRIS SMYTH. land that for many years has acted as an PHoTo: JENNY FAWCETT, FLICkR CC important buffer between Geelong and the . Local community monitoring of one this case coastline protection, wildlife The plan does suggest that part of beach alone revealed that of 11 hatched conservation and passive recreation. the coastal wetlands be zoned for chicks, only one survived. disturbance Such a recommendation exists for the environmental purposes, but more by commercial horse training and Belfast Coastal Reserve. for recreation than conservation. And unleashed dogs is almost certain to The second clause states that where there may have to be commercial have been a contributing factor. Horse a reserve does not have an LCC development to generate revenue to training was so intense that dog owners recommendation applying to it, the pay for wetlands management. moved to other beaches where plovers minister has to cite special reasons which came under added pressure. The area’s seagrass meadows are she believes make the issuing of a licence largely ignored, except as a location for Evidence like this clearly shows that the ‘reasonable and appropriate’. marinas, and remnant vegetation will Andrews Government’s approach to The minister mistakenly chose the suffer from urban development and managing the Belfast Coastal Reserve second clause, an easier test for the horse visitor pressures. between Warrnambool and Port Fairy training to pass. In her choice, the minister is failing—dismally. These proposals in the plan are would appear to have ignored the existence inconsistent with the 2014 Victoria The government’s decision to of the LCC recommendation. Coastal Strategy, which urges the licence commercial horse training If the minister had chosen correctly and conservation of natural values and the in the reserve is a slap in the face for used the first test, we believe she could not avoidance of linear development. volunteers working to protect hooded genuinely argue that commercial horse plovers. It’s also likely unlawful. The final plan is due out by the end of training was consistent with the reserve’s 2017, signalling the start of planning Legal advice to VNPA from purposes. Nor do we accept that the issuing zone amendment processes to integrate senior counsel indicates that state of a licence under the second clause is it and the ’s Environment Minister Lily D’Ambrosio ‘reasonable and appropriate’. planning scheme. Download the draft did not follow the relevant provisions in Our legal advice also indicates that plan at www.coastsandmarine.vic.gov. the Crown Land (Reserves) Act 1978 and commercial horse training in coastal au/coastal-programs/moolap the Coastal Management Act 1995 when reserves requires ministerial consent under in November 2016 she approved the VNPA, along with the Geelong section 37 of the Coastal Management Act issuing of a licence to the Warrnambool Environment Council, Geelong Field 1995, and only after a public notification Racing Club and trainers to use Naturalists Club, Birdlife Australia and process. VNPA has found no evidence of the reserve. other groups, are deeply concerned such consent or public process and, in their about the scale and type of development Two key clauses in section 17B of the absence, the reserve’s use for commercial proposed for Moolap. They will continue reserves act apply to the licensing; horse training is likely unlawful. to advocate for the conservation of they set out two mutually exclusive At the time of writing, VNPA was its wetlands, seagrass meadows and tests for the minister to choose from considering its legal options in response remnant vegetation, and for a plan when approving a licence. The minister to the Environment Minister’s decisions. that takes advantage of these natural chose the wrong one. values by recommending a park—a great We will continue to work with the Belfast one—for Geelong. PW The first clause states that where the Coastal Reserve Action Group (BCRAG), • Governor-in-Council has given notice Birdlife Australia and other groups seeking download a copy of vNpA’s of a reserve recommendation from the the removal of commercial horse training submission to the Moolap framework Land Conservation Council (LCC), the from the reserve, and the area’s protection plan at www.vnpa.org.au/publication- use to be licensed must be consistent as a park under the National Parks category/submissions with the purposes of the reserve—in Act 1975. • PW

PArk wAtch • June 2017 No 269 15 Free Mount Stirling

matt rUchEL ANd gErard mcphEE eXAMiNe tHe cAse For sHAkiNg up MANAgeMeNt oF victoriA’s AlpiNe AreAs. PHoTo: BAHNFREND, WIkIMEDIA CC

Victoria’s alpine resorts are hugely Then there is Mount Stirling, a unique The Alpine Resorts Governance Reform popular and draw people attracted natural landscape with dramatic views of Project is looking at the governance of all to all sorts of outdoor fun – skiing, Victoria’s alpine area. Popular with cross- alpine resorts in an attempt to streamline snowboarding, cross-country skiing, country skiers, bushwalkers, campers and overlapping, inefficient governance snow hiking, snow camping and school groups, it is also home to many structures and the impacts of climate change. day visits. threatened plant and animal species. You may have seen news coverage of But not every resort is the same. chance to protect the scandal around the Some, such as Mount Buller, Mount mount stirling and Mount Stirling management. The Hotham and Falls Creek have become Victorian Ombudsman found that more largely urbanised areas surrounded A new Victorian Government review now than $85,000 worth of public funds was by the . They offers the chance to finally manage the used for such things as international are all about snow sports and unique Mount Stirling landscape the way family travel and the entertainment of accommodation. it should be managed—as a national park. friends and associates.

16 PArk wAtch • June 2017 No 269 There has been a tendency of this board Under the proposed reforms VNPA • Mount Stirling can then be managed and management team over the past supports the major commercial ski as an integral part of Victoria’s largest years to try open Mount Stirling up to resorts being consolidated into a national park, improving ecological development, including most recently northern authority, and Mount Stirling management, recreation experiences efforts to build a major sealed road to and possibly being and the overall integrity of our link Mount Buller and Mount Stirling. removed from the alpine resorts and alpine region. instead be incorporated into the Alpine There is no stand-alone management National Park. This will require the The departure of the previous plan for Mount Stirling, even though one addition of an adjoining piece of state management team and the review and has been required under the legislation. forest to form a seamless extension reform project represent opportunities for VNPA and its members to once again Mount Stirling has never fitted of the Alpine National Park. The Stirling-Alpine Link proposal has been press for the inclusion of Mount Stirling the economic model of an alpine in the Alpine National Park. We urge you resort. A 2008 review of alpine developed by VNPA and can be read on our website: www.vnpa.org.au/ to write to the Victorian Environment resort areas by the State Services Minister Lily D’Ambrosio today. • PW Authority, the body responsible for wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Stirling- reviewing the functionality of state alpine-Link.pdf government departments, recognised This current review is a fantastic climate change in this, recommending de-coupling opportunity to make Mount Stirling our alpine areas management of Mount Stirling from part of the Alpine National Park. The Mount Buller. This recommendation many reasons include: studies show that under a high should be followed. greenhouse-gas emissions • Mount Stirling is a largely natural scenario: According to that review, Mount Stirling area and does not fit with the highly is “more akin to a national park and commercialised downhill-focused y temperatures across the should be positioned and managed Mount Buller. could increase as such”, and only “the Parks Victoria by 4–5 °c. Climate change will radically management option offers any practical • y Natural snowfall may decline improvement over the status quo”. change the area’s environment, and by 60 to 80 per cent Mount Stirling should be managed y predominantly for its natural values. Snow cover may contract the case for a and only occur on the stirling alpine Link • Making Mount Stirling part of the highest peaks Alpine National Park is an elegant To include Mount Stirling in the nearby y these impacts will result in solution allowing consolidation Alpine National Park will require the a reduced ski season with a of the larger commercial resorts, later start and earlier finish addition of a parcel of land to the north without the burden of unprofitable and east of Mount Stirling to form It is imperative that preparing natural areas. a seamless extension of the Alpine for climate change impacts National Park. It can then be managed • Any existing commercial be embedded in core as an integral part of Victoria’s largest infrastructure at Mount Stirling management of our alpine national park, improving ecological could be managed by Parks Victoria, region, and that the natural management, recreation experiences and under traditional leasing and areas are properly protected. the overall integrity of our alpine region. licensing arrangements.

Left: The Bluff Spur Hut at Mount Stirling.

Right: Telemark skier at Mount Stirling. photo: shogUN, wikimEdia cc PHoTo: SHoGUN, WIkIMEDIA CC

PArk wAtch • June 2017 No 269 17 MAKInG PARkS AND ToURISM WORK

We DOn’T neeD LARGe PRIVATe DeVeLOPMenTS In OuR PARKS, SAYS PHIL INGAMELLS. PHoTo: PHIL INGAMELLS

There is no visitor accommodation at all within Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, and climbing Uluru is now actively discouraged and rarely allowed. Park impacts are very low, and visitor satisfaction is rising.

How do we, and the rest of the ever back facilities there and in many other The only facilities now in the national curious world, satisfy our appetite for parks across the USA, but it’s proving a park are the modest Anangu Cultural nature without loving it to death? difficult job. Centre, and some well-sited tracks and viewing points. Even roadside parking is How do we accommodate visitors I once found myself in the middle of forbidden, to protect vegetation. Visitors of widely different capabilities and south India’s Periyar National Park, get a broad range of accommodation expectations for comfort while where an annual religious festival options close to the park, and they get to still offering that increasingly rare attracts a million pilgrims in one day. see an unencumbered national park in experience—time in the wild? Lawyers, bus drivers and bankers, all really good condition. barefoot and in black, walked for days These are questions park managers to pay homage at the shrine of Ayappa, ’s remarkably are wrestling with around the world. a socially-levelling, nature-loving, tiger- successful World Heritage area also There are plenty of good, bad, and riding godling. But will he, or the park’s follows this model. But this time not just sometimes disastrous examples we can managers, be able to protect the wild the accommodation but also the park learn from. It’s always a challenge to get world his devotees are drawn to? visitor centre is outside the proclaimed the right answers. Then there’s Australia’s own Uluru- There’s Yosemite National Park, one Kata Tjuta National Park. The first Visitors of the world’s oldest, where a series vehicle track reached Uluru (then Ayers respect limits of chalets and cabins were already in Rock) in 1958, sparking a tourism if they are place in the late 19th century. More boom that is now unstoppable, and sensible and than 4 million visitors now come to could have been uncontrollable. But explained. This Uluru Yosemite each year, with most arriving in the 1970s it was decided to move all sign prohibits at the spectacular 18 square kilometre accommodation-related infrastructure photography Yosemite Valley. But the wilderness out of the park, and relocate it in a of an Anangu experience so evocatively suggested by new Yulara resort area beyond the sacred site to Ansel Adams’s famous photographs boundary, owned by the Aboriginal the right of it. is now unattainable. The National community. It was a brilliant

Park Service has been trying to wind management move. PHoTo: PHIL INGAMELLS

18 PArk wAtch • June 2017 No 269 Permanent Park Preserve. Lord Howe Island and Uluru are the examples we should be following—they both show that vigilant protection of a park is no impediment to tourism. we should have this sorted in Victoria Thankfully Victoria’s policy settings

and guidelines for national park photos: hYLgEriak, wikimEdia commoNs mark JamEs miLLEr, wikimEdia commoNs tourism infrastructure, signed off in 2015 by then environment minister Left: Climbers on the Half Dome in Yosemite National Park. Lisa Neville, are also very good. They Right: Unnecessary accommodation infrastructure in Yosemite, (such as the Ahwahnee Hotel actually have the capacity to help pictured above) and a lack of control over visitor access, seriously compromises the visitor experience. protect nature in our parks, while USA park authorities are trying to wind back visitor infrastructure in many parks. allowing visitors the access, and the ambience, parks should be providing. • A development must not impact is any guide, Parks Victoria is also arguably on Aboriginal cultural and historic failing to follow the Department of Treasury The trouble is, no one seems to be heritage, and must engage and and Finance’s important 2015 protocols for following them at the moment. benefit Traditional Owners. ‘market led’ development proposals. Current proposals for extensive tourism • Public access to the site must be infrastructure in maintained, and any impacts on the so what should tourism National Park, accommodation for the use and enjoyment by other park in our parks look like? Alpine National Park’s Falls to Hotham users minimized. For a start, we should strenuously stick track, and for boat cruises at the Prom • There should be extensive to the Victorian Government’s idea that all substantially fail to follow the consultation with the public, and significant park accommodation should be current government’s Tourism Leases in the outcomes of that consultation situated outside the national park boundary. National Parks published guidelines. should be published. It’s a no-brainer really. The so-called ‘community-led’ proposal They are wise and useful guidelines, for Mount Buffalo, which asks for more or less following the Uluru-Kata It allows for any amount of private six hectares of the park to be excised Tjuta model of fostering commercial investment, expansion and re-planning of to allow a new private alpine resort developments outside, but adjacent to, facilities as demand and expectations grow. development, is so outrageous it should national parks. It means those facilities can be built without be dismissed out-of-hand (see Park impacting on a park’s natural areas. They Watch, March 2017, pp 8-9). The guidelines should have ended can also be protected by any mandatory ad hoc, pie-in-the-sky proposals for firebreaks without these encroaching on The guidelines include the over-arching developments inside parks that take time the park. statement that “…the government and energy away from park managers, will generally provide any tourism governments and the community. That gives investors far more certainty, and and recreation infrastructure or And they should have handed a much flexibility, when planning developments. facilities aimed at improving the visitor greater degree of certainty to people It frees park managers from the onerous experience. However there may be and corporations planning to invest in business of assessing proposals within the occasions where private investment regional tourism. But they seem to be park. And most usefully, it frees parks staff could be utilized to fund the installation being ignored, or simply forgotten. from the costly business of managing large of small scale visitor facilities in a commercial operations in parks and dealing manner which compliments those that It is hard to tell what’s currently with their inevitable impacts and tendency the government provides”. really going on. Some argue that the to expand. government and/or its agencies have More specifically the policy states: inadvertently adopted the policies of Park funds can then be freed up to improve • Any proposal that could be sited on the previous government. Or that a visitor access and interpretation. In the public or private land outside the perceived policy void has been filled by major parks, well-messaged visitor centres park would not proceed in the park. the enthusiastic momentum from the can greatly improve public understanding tourism industry and other departments and enjoyment. In Victoria, over the last • Any development must be consistent interested in developments in parks, and couple of decades, most park visitor centres with the objectives of park legislation that has not been curtailed due to a lack have been closed or greatly diminished. (primarily nature conservation). of clear policy guidance. • Any development must encourage Most importantly, visitors get to enjoy visitors to appreciate and conserve And, if the flawed process for assessing nature at its best—the very thing our parks the park. the ongoing Prom boat-tour proposal are there to provide. • PW

PArk wAtch • June 2017 No 269 19 PHoTo: kADE MILLS

The beginnings of a shellfish reef? Oysters growing on a settlement plate. Resurrecting reefs

reeFWAtcH’s kadE miLLs reports BAck oN AN AMBitious strAtegY to BriNg BAck tHe ForgotteN sHellFisH reeFs oF BAY.

We all know what an oyster is. Many of us even enjoy their in the Melbourne metropolitan areas of Sandringham and creamy, briny taste. But did you know that there are oysters Brighton. But it was European settlement that would lead to in Port Phillip Bay? and that once there were vast tracts of the collapse of the shellfish reefs. Since European settlement oysters and mussels covering the seabed of the bay creating it is estimated that we have lost over 95 per cent of native flat what we refer to as shellfish reefs? or there were once oyster and blue mussel reefs in Victoria, with overfishing, around 60 oyster saloons in the ? No. dredging, pollution, introduced species and disease all playing Me neither, and I have spent years diving, exploring and a part in their demise. researching in the bay. However, isolated individuals and small clumps remain on the It was only after I starting working on a project to restore sediments of Port Phillip Bay, giving us hope that they can be shellfish reefs in Port Phillip Bay and read the fantastic returned to being a dominant habitat-forming species. publication The Forgotten Shellfish Reefs Of Coastal Victoria documenting the loss of a marine ecosystem over 200 years Why restore shellfish reefs? since European settlement (available free from the Royal They clean water and create habitat. Oysters and Mussels Society of Victoria), that I understood what we had lost and can filter two to five litres of water per hour, improving water the amazing journey that has now begun to restore this once quality by removing algae and nutrients from the water column. prevalent habitat. The reefs that get created when oysters and mussels grow on top of and next to each other provide homes for a myriad of crabs, What happened to the shellfish reefs in snails, worms and fish, in turn increasing biodiversity. port phillip Bay? How are shellfish reefs re-established? The simple answer, they ended up in our stomachs. Mussels and oysters were an important part of the indigenous diet, Slowly. Based on field surveys and historical accounts of and middens made up of their shells can still be observed the presence of shellfish reefs, two locations were chosen—

20 PArk wAtch • June 2017 No 269 Hobsons Bay near St Kilda and Corio Bay near Avalon. At from community and dive groups from four locations these locations The Nature Conservancy joined forces with around the bay have deployed structures—settlement plate Fisheries Victoria, The Thomas Foundation, the Victorian units—to help determine if the isolated clumps of oysters Recreational Fishing Licence Trust Fund, and the Albert that remain are producing larvae that can survive. The Park Yachting and Angling Club to trial a shellfish reef settlement plate units are constructed from simple materials rebuild. The pilot project placed hundreds of oysters raised available in local hardware stores and are deployed to at the facility in Queenscliff on small one by one provide a surface for the oyster and mussel larvae to settle metre plots of limestone to see if they would survive. They onto and grow. did. So the next stage, currently underway, involves placing thousands of oysters on 600 square metres of limestone. The good news is they are working, and the even better news Beyond this it is proposed to increase the restoration area to is that means there are plenty of oyster and mussel larvae 20 hectares at each site, and then eventually to other areas of floating around the bay looking for a place to call home, the bay. Successful restoration of shellfish reefs in the whole enhancing the chances for successful shellfish reef restoration. bay is reliant on knowing where natural populations will grow. Going forward ReefWatch plans to get more groups involved in more locations to better understand the dynamics of oyster how will we know where to build additional and mussel settlement and survival around Port Phillip Bay. shellfish reefs in Port Phillip Bay? Watch this (underwater) space. • PW

With citizen science power! With the help of VNPA’s For more information about reef watch or how to get program ReefWatch, a group of dedicated citizen scientists involved contact kade Mills [email protected] PHoTo: SIMoN BRANIGAN PHoTo: kADE MILLS

Clockwise from top left: Hobsons Bay shellfish reef reconstruction. A single oyster takes hold on one of the units. Settlement plate units on the ocean floor. This building at 195 Elizabeth Street was an oyster saloon from 1912 to 1951. photo: kadE miLLs PHoTo: kADE MILLS

PArk wAtch • June 2017 No 269 21 PHoTo: DAVID FLETCHER

'He that plants trees loves others beside himself'. Celebrating two deCades of growth tHis YeArMArks tHe 20tH ANNiversArY oF proJect HiNdMArsH ANd tHe HiNdMArsH lANdcAre NetWork. HiNdMArsH lANdcAre FAcilitAtor JoNathaN starks looks BAck over tHeir HistorY.

What started out as a conversation on forged valuable partnerships with and aims to plant 12,000 trees a living room floor in 1997, looking federal and state government agencies, and shrubs across four properties. over recently produced roadside with Greening Australia, Wimmera Of these, 6,000 will be planted vegetation maps, grew into a grand Catchment Management Authority, across two properties in Jeparit, vision to link the Little desert and Hindmarsh Shire Council, Wimmera where the Wimmera River drains Big desert. Landcare groups, local businesses, into Lake Hindmarsh. The other landholders and the community. 6,000 plants will be planted on The first planting year may have two properties near Dimboola, in seemed a bit ‘make it up as you go One of our key partnerships since the Buloke woodland country. along’, yet a huge amount of effort beginning has been with the Victorian went into organising it. Over 300 city National Parks Association. More For the first time, Project and country volunteers participated than 100 VNPA members turned Hindmarsh undertook Aboriginal in that first community weekend. up for that first plant-out in August cultural heritage surveys of Since then, Project Hindmarsh has 1998. The annual commitment of planting sites. The two Jeparit grown into one of Australia’s flagship VNPA volunteers who travel up to the sites are next to the river and community Landcare initiatives, Wimmera each year, come rain, hail or are known to contain fireplaces, having planted over half a million trees shine, has been instrumental in the on- middens and scar trees. The and sown nearly 3,000 kilometres of going success of this city-and-country cultural heritage surveys identified direct seeding. community planting weekend. a number of significant sites, and so the planting areas have Project Hindmarsh has always been This year, Project Hindmarsh will again been modified to be sensitive to about partnerships. The project has be based at Little Desert Nature Lodge these areas.

22 PArk wAtch • June 2017 No 269 photo: daVid fLEtchEr PHoTo: DAVID FLETCHER

Growing community.

Senator Robert Hill planting the last tree, completing 2,000 kilometres of the Little Desert to Big Desert Biolink in 2001.

Transforming the landscape. PHoTo: DAVID FLETCHER PHoTo CoURTESY oF HINDMARSH LANDCARE NETWoRk

The Dimboola properties, owned by the same landholder, contain significant stands of endangered Buloke woodland. The plantings here will restore the understorey of one degraded woodland patch, and Above: Planters working along the Rintoules Road site in 2011. revegetate a former house site in Below: Same roadside area after five years in 2016. another Buloke patch. Both sites are rich in farming history. Registrations for Project Hindmarsh 2017 are now open. The registration page can be accessed via the Hindmarsh Landcare Network facebook page or through www.hindmarshlandcare.org.au If you would like to volunteer for the 20th annual planting weekend, experience the ‘wild west’, explore cultural history and plant a few trees, we would love to have

you along. • PW PHoToS CoURTESY oF HINDMARSH LANDCARE NETWoRk

PArk wAtch • June 2017 No 269 23 Forests, forever

SARAH DAY SHAReS HeR VeRY SPeCIAL eXPeRIenCe COMMunInG WITH THe FOReST OVeR THe eASTeR WeeKenD. PHoTo: EUAN MooRE

Rolling down the dirt track into As usual, the schedule is packed with That night Environment East Gippsland’s Goongerah camp ground after a old-growth walks, conservation talks and Jill Redwood gives us the highlights from spectacular drive down the Bonang every conceivable way of communing several decades of campaigning for the Highway, we finally meet the river with the feathered and furry locals—from forests’ protection using: “every peaceful we’ve so far only glimpsed from the spotlighting to bird watching and catching tactic under the sun”. Then our own Euan road—sometimes hiding deep down critters on motion sensing-cameras. I check Moore shares how VNPA has helped lift steep rocky banks, sometimes flashing out tomorrow’s choice of walks and ponder the number of Victoria’s national parks between layers of nodding tree how one decides between warm temperate from 13 to 58. ferns, sometimes disappearing into rainforest, cool temperate rainforest, giant rainforest gullies. We jump out of the shining gums, montane splendour and The next two days are a blur of forest car, rush down to the Broadribb River mossy wetlands that hold a pollen profile bliss by day and cascades of ecological and dip our hands into its clear icy stretching beyond the last ice age. information by night (as well as some cold waters. hearty dinners and delectable home- What I’m most looking forward to is made treats). We’ve arrived at Forests Forever Easter getting right into the thick of Martin’s Ecology Camp, and will camp by the Creek where the tall trees are so ensconced “I loved the walk to the Darejo tree, it river for the next three nights, drifting in jungle grape vine it appears as though was very beautiful with so many tall tree to sleep with its gentle flow. they are woven into a single shag pile rug. ferns,” says Kristin of her visit to the 600 to 800-year-old Eucalyptus denticulata This is at least my fifth time at I ask Kristin what she’s come for, and it’s not with a massive fluted buttress, named Environment East Gippsland’s annual about picking and choosing, she just hits the after the conservationists who made ecology camp, which sounds like a lot nail right on the head: “because it’s beautiful its discovery and saved it from the until you realise it’s been running since and I like being here with like-minded chainsaws—Dave, Rena and Joe. 1982, with VNPA jointly organising for people who have a deep appreciation of the last five years. This year I’ve come the forest like I do,” she says. Will’s highlight was a little unexpected. with Kristin, who is also a veteran but He says he most appreciated “the walk hasn’t come along for a while, and As it’s Will’s first visit, he’s still not sure through areas where there are very old French Will who is in Goongerah for what he’s in for. “Some of my friends have trees and the realisation that they are the first time ever. Comparing their been talking about Goongerah for a very earmarked for logging. It woke me up thoughts on this year’s camp promises long time and I’ve been wanting to come to the fact that precious areas are in to be an interesting exercise. for ages,” he says. imminent danger of being cut down”.

24 PArk wAtch • June 2017 No 269 “…I like being here with like-minded people who have a deep appreciation of the forest.”

kRISTIN AND WILL, MARTINS CREEk PHoTo CoURTESY oF SARAH DAY photo coUrtEsY of sarah daY

Above: Sarah Day has been visiting and campaigning for these forests for over a decade. Right (and inset): Noticing the details. PHoToS: EUAN MooRE

It wasn’t just the chance to delve into the that the law protecting greater covering every shaded surface. The heart of the forest that left an impression, gliders, a species in severe decline, silver green miniature moonscapes but the opportunity to do this with hasn’t been updated since the forest of lichen wrapping around branches people with a deep understanding of management plan was was written for and ghostly whisps of old man’s beard this environment and endless energy in East Gippsland in 1995, and is based hanging down. The mottled light insisting on its protection. on conserving the gliders as owl food raining through canopy layers like a rather than in their own right. sun storm... “I expected to meet like-minded people here who are working to protect this I learned that rainforests are used to Kristin’s closing comments on the camp environment,” says Will, “but I can’t 'dampen off' planned burns—meaning are as concise as her opening ones: believe the incredible extent of their that the burns lit on the edges of “keep doing it, it’s very much needed,” knowledge”. rainforests are left to be extinguished she says. by the dampness of the rainforest, “David Cheal’s talk on fire was ensuring that each time a burn is While Will has the following advice amazing,” says Kristin. “I had no idea carried out, a bit more of the rainforest for people like himself who have not how differently Indigenous people is burnt dry and lost to schlerophyll been to Forests Forever before: “Go traditionally used fire compared to species. Perversely, the rational for on and experience the forest with current government policy, especially burning near rainforest is often to people who know so much about it, in determining how regularly an area 'protect' it from wildfire. experience it for yourself. A lot of is burned. I thought the department people are so remote from the forest weren’t doing things properly but I It would take a whole edition of that they don’t know the worth of what didn’t realise just how badly they were Park Watch to cover the delightful these people are trying to protect. I doing it”. (ecological marvels) and appalling would recommend to everyone, visit (government ineptitude) forest facts this beautiful place. I didn’t know Even though I’ve visited these forests learned on Forests Forever, so I’ll that there was such a big movement for over a decade and been involved just get back to Martins Creek and in Goongerah already, it’s very with the campaign to protect them for its blanket of jungle grape vine—the encouraging. I think the people here as long, just like my friends I never creek so clear it’s invisible except for are creating a vital momentum and an fail to be astounded by what I learn at the glistening silver of the sun hitting opportunity for more people to join in Forests Forever. This year I discovered its surface, fishbone ferns crowding so we can all take part in protecting this from local ecologist Rena Garbarov its banks. The brilliant green moss incredible place”. • PW

PArk wAtch • June 2017 No 269 25 In 1971, the “unconditional deeds to 4000 acres comprising what is presently known as the Lake Tyers Aboriginal Reserve” Looking after were handed to the Bung Yarnda (Lake Tyers) community of East Gippsland. This was one of the earliest recognitions of land rights in Australia, though the management of that land country remained under a degree of government control. More recently, the 1993 federal government’s Native Title traditioNaL owNEr iNVoLVEmENt iN Act—the great Mabo move—established a process “to provide oUr parks is growiNg, saYs PHIL InGAMeLLS. a national system for the recognition and protection of native title and for its co-existence with the national land management system”. But that process has been slow and not without obstacles. Most notably Justice Olney, when rejecting a claim by the Yorta Yorta people, infamously pronounced that the "tide of history has indeed washed away any real acknowledgment of their traditional laws and any real observance of their traditional customs”. That harsh and highly contentious judgement, surprising at the time because of the extensive evidence of a pretty-much timeless link to the land, was partly righted in 2010 when the Victorian Government reached the Yorta Yorta Traditional Owner Land Management Agreement with the Yorta Yorta Nation Aboriginal Corporation. It established co-management over Barmah National Park, though progress in implementing that has also been slow. Parks Victoria has been far ahead of other government agencies in employing Aboriginal staff, and has been conducting consultations with Traditional Owners in regard to park management plans for some time. But until recently that was happening outside of any formal recognition of Indigenous people’s connection to the land. In 2010 the Victorian Labor government, frustrated by the slow progress of native title claims under federal law, introduced its own Traditional Owner Settlement Act (TOSA) allowing claims to be settled out-of-court. That Act established a framework for the state government to formally recognise Traditional Owners and come to a range of agreements with them, including: • an overarching Recognition and Settlement Agreement PHoTo: PHIL INGAMELLS • Aboriginal Title to national parks and reserves, and to other Red parrot-pea, (Gariwerd). public land • Traditional Owner Land Management Agreements In recent years Victoria’s aboriginal communities have in facilitating joint management of parks and reserves various ways become partners in managing the state’s • Land Use Activity Agreements for future use of public land public land. • Natural Resource Agreements, enabling participation in natural resource management After a couple of centuries of searing injustice, recognition of Indigenous dispossession has been slow and often • Orders authorising some commercial uses of flora, fauna compromised, not least by the high levels of private ownership and forest produce by Traditional Owner groups of land across the nation. Beyond the outright purchase of • Funding Agreements. freehold land, public land remains the only realistic option for recognition of Aboriginal claims. Traditional Owners choosing to enter a TOSA agreement must consent not to pursue claims under the Federal Act. It’s been a long and painful journey to get where we are today; full of unfulfilled promises and dashed hopes, and many people The TOSA and its relationship to pre-existing laws is complex on that journey have not lived long enough to see progress. and can be hard to follow. It has also had mixed success to date, with a series of settlement agreements but fewer There have been some significant milestones. examples of management rights.

26 PArk wAtch • June 2017 No 269 Importantly, Aboriginal Title to a national park, and the document recognising Traditional Owner alienation from actual management of a jointly managed national park, is Victoria’s lands and waters, and identifying a number of ways still subject to the National Parks Act, and public access to to address that situation. parks and reserves remains unchanged. The Victorian Government’s 2010 Traditional Owner Settlement What can, and probably will, change is: Act, developed through a strong process of consultation with Indigenous communities, matches many of the suggestions in more Traditional Owner development of park • the combined environment groups’ joint statement. management plans, in conjunction with Parks Victoria • more Aboriginal cultural emphasis in park management, Some are clearly contentious. But the recognition of the such as increased protection for culturally significant ‘right’ of Traditional Owners to hunt or gather resources, in fauna and flora, in addition to existing protection for accordance with traditional practices, is compatible with the threatened species. unchallenged ‘right’ park visitors have always had to fish in • permission for Traditional Owners to hunt or gather a park’s rivers and streams, for example. The environment traditional foods and other culturally significant species groups’ joint statement makes it clear that the commercial exploitation of a protected area’s resources should be • the right of Traditional Owners to spend time on country prohibited, and that the need for strong measures for the • an increased emphasis on Indigenous stories in protection of threatened species and ecosystems remains. information presented to visitors. Importantly, the adoption of traditional management practices Increased Aboriginal involvement in our parks is likely to must inevitably be aligned with new pressures on native bring greater cultural depth to our parks, both in terms species resulting from the fragmentation of natural areas, pest of meanings attached to them and actual management. plant and animal invasion and, not least by any means, the Grampians National Park and National Park growing effects of climate change. (previously Mount Eccles National Park) have both benefited in that way. If our natural areas are going to survive long into the future, they will need all the help they can get. VNPA strongly Back in 2007 Victoria’s major environment groups, including welcomes the increased involvement of Traditional Owners in VNPA, produced a joint ‘position statement’: a five page the management of Victoria’s parks and reserves. • PW PHoTo: PHIL INGAMELLS The Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act listed grey grass trees at Heathcote-Greytown National Park, unlike other grass trees, are very sensitive to fire and were possibly not deliberately burned in pre-European times. There are many indications that Aboriginal use of fire was measured, and varied greatly in season, patchiness and scale, depending on the species present and the reason for burning. PArk wAtch • June 2017 No 269 27 IN PaRkS

Yarra Bend Park

GEOFF DURHAM eXPLOReS THe nATIOnAL PARK THAT ISn'T AnD neVeR WAS. PHoTo: GEoFF DURHAM

Looking downstream from Fairfield Pipe Bridge.

Many, many years ago, when my Park. The latter includes the park office, written in large letters on the front of interest in national parks was the Victorian Indigenous Nurseries the Yarra Bend Golf Club house, erected emerging, I heard of Yarra Bend Co-operative, a fly casting pool, the in 1936, the park has never had formal National Park. to check it out I visited Yarra Bend 18 hole golf course, a driving national park status. Galatea Bend on the Yarra at Studley range, a mini-golf course and other Like other inner metropolitan parks, Park. I recall a heavy infestation of recreation areas. This was the site of the there has been incremental loss of blackberry and disappointment. Metropolitan Lunatic Asylum, opened parkland here. In the 1930s the Boulevard in 1845, renamed the Hospital for the It's all somewhat confusing. Are there was constructed along the eastern side Insane in 1905 and closed in 1925. two parks or one park along the Yarra of the river. In the 1970s the Eastern from the south On the east side is the Royal Talbot Freeway cut a swathe across the north of to Walmer Street? Why the various Rehabilitation Centre, the imposing park, with cuttings providing impressive references to Yarra Bend National Park? 1860s Italianate building that was the exposures of the underlying bed-rock. In 1837 Governor Richard Bourke and centre-piece of what was the Willsmere We are left with a 260 hectare park. Yarra surveyor Robert Hoddle designated Psychiatric Hospital, closed in 1988 Bend has been called ‘the bushland park the area on the west (Collingwood) and sold off to become Willsmere in the city’ and also ‘a park of complexity’. Apartments, and more recreation side of the river as a reserve for Parks Victoria now manages the park. areas. In 1854 the Melbourne Town public institutions, and the area on There are off lead, on lead and no dog Council proposed the establishment the east (Kew) side of the river as a areas. People problems include rubbish of a park which was gazetted in village reserve. dumping, graffiti, cyclists and rowdy 1876 as Studley Park, named after parties. Pest animals are foxes, cats, dogs, On the west side, from north to settler John Hodgson’s house, which starlings, common mynah, feral bees south, there is now the Melbourne in turn was named after a town in and European wasps. Rabbits, which the Polytechnic, formerly the Fairfield Yorkshire, England. Infectious Diseases Hospital (in which 2000 State of the Parks report says were I was incarcerated for about a week The two parks were combined with widespread, have been eliminated – a in 1968), the Victorian Institute of several reserves in the 1920s to form remarkable management achievement. Forensic Mental Health, the Thomas one park that became known as Yarra Brushtail possums are overgrazing trees. Embling Hospital, and the Yarra Bend Bend National Park. Whilst this is Good work has been done in the past on

28 PArk wAtch • June 2017 No 269 Clockwise from top left: The grey-headed flying fox colony. Bushland with city views. Picnicking near Kane's Bridge. Cyclists along the many trails. The golf club house claiming Yarra Bend’s ‘National Park’ status. Greenery abounds at a lookout off Studley Park Road. PHoToS: GEoFF DURHAM

woody weeds but much more could be grasses sprinkled with bright yellow on both sides of the river. The daily dusk done to control ground-layer weeds. sticky everlasting and with patches of fly-out is a noisy spectacle. other natives. While not pristine (for The history of land use on the Two of the good natural bush areas are example there has been past grazing western, basalt, side is such that there Spur and Galatea Point, where and timber extraction) there are pockets is nothing surviving of the original the Friends of the Yarra concentrated of vegetation much as it was before the vegetation communities, except for their efforts for many years. It is no longer arrival of Europeans—with the addition some grasses, and red gums along the sullied with blackberry. of weeds. river. Restoration efforts have involved Before visiting for picnics or bushwalks various plantings of indigenous species. In the riparian zone, the trees are river of an hour or two, download the map The fenced area signposted with red and manna gums, silver wattle, a few from the Parks Victoria web site. Some ‘Westfield Grassland Restoration—a hazel pomaderris and shrubs such as of the tracks shown on this map are not project to re-establish a basalt plains tree violet. The ground cover is largely well maintained or signposted, and the grassland habitat’, is overgrown with weeds, notably kikuyu, panic veldt map does not show numerous informal weeds. The park is Wurundjeri country grass, tradescantia and blue perriwinkle. tracks. You can also refer to Still Glides the and there is a small Aboriginal garden There are scenic walks along the east Stream—The natural history of the Yarra on the spit at the junction of Merri bank of the river on a track that is from Heidelberg to Yarra Bend by Geoff Creek and the Yarra. narrow and slippery when wet, and is Lacey (2004) which contains a wealth closed between Bellbird Picnic area and On the east side it is a different of information on the history of the the private houses on the river at Yarra scenario. There are the picnic grounds, park, its , flora and birds, and the Retreat because of a landslide and flood a golf course and the Studley Park contribution of community groups. damage. The Fairfield Park Boathouse Boathouse at Kanes Swing Bridge with and Café on the west bank near Pipe At Yarra Bend Park it is possible to have its café, kiosk and boat hire. But it is Bridge is outside the park. a genuine bush experience only four here, on Silurian bedrock, in places kilometres from the Melbourne Town overlain with Tertiary deposits, that Bellbird Picnic area (the bellbirds Hall. In March this year I encountered a there is bushland of yellow gum, yellow have long departed) is the site of the beautifully marked tiger snake. The coming box, lightwood, golden wattle, tree remarkable grey-headed flying fox spring with its flowering wattles will be a violet, hop bush, exotic and native colony which has extended up-stream good time to visit. • PW

PArk wAtch • June 2017 No 269 29 Grow West volunteers to plant 7,000 trees on historic site

to prevent erosion affecting local waterways and to help locAl greeN tHuMBs cAN the site become a refuge for roll up tHeir sleeves At tHe native animals. With a bit of 12tH groW West coMMuNitY work from some dedicated plANtiNg dAY tHis JulY. volunteers, this park has the potential to be a significant The annual planting day is one of the community asset and improve Grow West’s biggest events and is an the health of the local important opportunity to rejuvenate PHoTo CoURTESY oF GRoW WEST environment. • PW and restore local landscapes. over the reserves. Telford Park is a 16 hectare this year’s community past 13 years, Grow West has worked planting day will be at telford park, with thousands of volunteers and park that is named after its last private land owner, William Telford, who 182 Hallets Way, darley, hundreds of landholders, who have 9.30am–4pm on Sunday 16 July. helped plant over a million trees in the died in 1928. It was a landfill site during the mid-20th century and is For more information and to register, Upper Werribee Catchment. go to www.growwest.com.au currently degraded and underused. registrations close 10 July. This year, Moorabool Shire Council Some revegetation has occurred, but will be hosting the event at one of their more native vegetation is required vNpA is pleased to support this event.

Red-Back Wildflower and Spider. art Weekend featuring creepy crawlies ever WoNdered WHAt tHAt creAture is tHAt You cHANce upoN duriNg A BusH WAlk? PHoTo: ADAM PARSoNS

The Wildflower and Art Weekend mealworms, king mealworms, giant sales, an environmentally themed on the Surf Coast this September can burrowing cockroaches, red-back art show and guided wildflower help you with identification. Held spiders, bird-eating tarantulas and walks and bus tours. There will also annually by the Anglesea, Aireys scorpions, a baby crocodile and a be children’s activities. So make Inlet Society for the Protection of snake or two. Less scary offerings your way to the Memorial Hall on Flora and Fauna, the highlight of this include the magnificent indoor McMillan Street in Anglesea between year’s event will be a display of insects display of the flowers of the Surf 10am–4pm on Saturday 23 and and invertebrates. On show will be Coast region, indigenous plant Sunday 24 September. • PW

30 PArk wAtch • June 2017 No 269 Loss of remnant vegetation, coming to a roadside near you PHoTo: SIMoN YEo, FLIkR CC

A NeW NetWork HAs BeeN estABlisHed to trY curB eXcessive roAdside cleArANces iN victoriA, eXplAiNs hELEN LEwErs. Ecotours and walking in the High Country, The Public Land advocacy Network including the squirrel glider, brush-tailed East Gippsland for the environment (PLaN) is phascogale, tree goanna, swift parrot and comprised of community groups, grey-crowned babbler. Roadsides are and beyond peak environmental organisations, critical to the survival of many species Are you curious about the natural world? campaigners and researchers working of animals that use tree hollows, and Imagine immersing yourself in nature together to protect the environment they support higher densities of arboreal while we share our love and knowledge threatened by roadworks and other mammals and reptiles than other habitats. of the environment with you. impacts on public land. Vegetated roadsides also provide essential habitat links across the landscape. The total area of public road reserves in Victoria is substantial: it amounts to Many rare or threatened plant species about the size of Wilsons Promontory are now found only on roadsides. For National Park. In the more cleared example, 45 per cent of the remaining bioregions, road reserves represent a western grasslands occur on roadsides, as significant percentage of all remnant do 25 per cent of the plant species listed native vegetation. Laws introduced in under the Fauna and Flora Guarantee Act. Let us arrange the accommodation, the 1870s to protect Crown reserves the driving, the walks and talks. Even your meals appear like magic. Enjoy the from timber-harvesting and firewood The observation of what appears to be escalating destruction of this important companionship of a small group of collection without a permit have resulted like-minded nature lovers and return in road reserves representing some of element in the landscape is the motivation home refreshed, informed and invigorated. the best remaining examples of intact for PLAN to form and take action. If vegetation, and our closest analogues you or your organisation shares these to old-growth vegetation in fragmented concerns in your local area or more Gippsland High Country Tours generally, you are invited to join the landscapes, with relatively high densities Phone (03) 5157 5556 of large old trees. network, attend meetings and share resources to try and halt the decline www.gippslandhighcountrytours.com.au Roadsides are consequently very of these treasured remnants. Contact PW important for some threatened fauna [email protected] • Advanced Ecotourism Certification. Est. 1987

PArk wAtch • June 2017 No 269 31 Tributes

John defender Clarke of the bay dies hiking in the hills

MucH loved sAtirist JoHN clArke leFt A lAstiNg legAcY oF cAriNg For NAture, Writes kEith pLatt. PHoTo: YANNI tributes for satirist John Clarke “This was a bad idea. It was a huge, through education, awareness, partnership flowed from far and wide as news 50 miles by 15 miles sponge that projects and scientific knowledge”. spread of his death on 9 april filtered runoff before it entered Western while hiking in the Grampians Port. It was a work of genius by nature.” “Perhaps his most valuable legacy has National Park. been his direction and production of an Clarke’s death sees the loss of a outstanding resource, Western Port the The location of his passing indicated strong and sincere advocate for the DVD. This DVD is hugely popular and his love of nature, which for many years environmental health of Western succinctly describes the treasures and had included a deep concern for the Port as well as one of the most astute challenges of Western Port and what people future of Western Port. commentators on the often hypocritical can do to help. The DVD includes fabulous actions of those who play a part in the interviews with local champions and Born in New Zealand, Clarke, 68, was wellbeing of Australia. scientists and several historic documentaries a founding member of Western Port about Western Port and its wildlife. Seagrass Partnership, an independent The twinkle of his eye, drawn out trust formed in 2001 to lobby for the pause or completely ignoring the “Our board meetings will never be protection and restoration of Western question posed by his long time on the same without that trademark wit, Port and its catchment. air collaborator Brian Dawe often clarity and out of the box thinking and said more about a politician than any inspiration. Regarded by many as the funniest number of words. Clarke seemed able satirist in Australia, Clark three years “Most of all we will miss the company of to convince the viewer that they were ago told journalist Mike Hast that he this thoroughly decent man.” PW hearing direct from the politician • became interested in Western Port’s without any use of disguise or accent. environment after “sitting on the beach First published by the Mornington peninsula News group. years ago and noticed lots of black The seagrass partnership’s secretary particles in the usually clear water”. Doug Newton said he had been Clarke, who owned a holiday house “staggered and devastated” to hear of Clarke’s death. when the howard government was at Phillip Island, said his “greening” trying to sell off the commonwealth followed subsequent conversations with “He will leave a big hole in our land at point Nepean, vNpA and the scientists and ecologists. organisation – he’s done so much for us,” National trust prepared a community expression of interest asking that the He saw Western Port as “a special place said Mr Newton. Later, in a prepared statement, Mr Newton said Clarke and land be given to victoria free of charge. …under great pressure from human kate Baillieu recruited well-known Professor John Swan had helped “forge development”. entertainers, academics, historians, and launch” the seagrass partnership, business folk, philanthropists and Clarke said sediment resulting from “an organisation which champions others as supporters of the expression draining Koo Wee Rup swamp was community desire for independent of interest; John clarke was one of the “one of the principal problems” facing advocacy and fearless protection of the first to sign on. the bay. wonderful ecosystem of Western Port

32 PArk wAtch • June 2017 No 269 alan Yen

We Were greAtlY sAddeNed to leArN oF tHe deAtH oF AlAN YeN, AN eNtoMologist WitH A rAre ANd vAluABle uNderstANdiNg oF victoriA’s iNverteBrAtes. alan worked at the National Museum When VNPA was making of Victoria (now Museums Victoria) submissions to the Victorian from 1981-2001 as a curator in the Bushfires Royal Commission, we Invertebrate Survey department. mentioned to Alan that we could find For over 20 years he participated no papers dealing with the impacts in numerous research expeditions, of fire on invertebrates in Victoria. coordinated several exhibitions and He soon galvanised a group to work co-edited and published books on on a paper which summarised Melbourne’s Wildlife, Worms to Wasps, available knowledge, and advocated and Spiders and Scorpions Commonly the need for more research. When Found in Victoria. the Royal Commission made its After retiring from the Museum, Alan final recommendations, it strongly held a number of academic positions, emphasised the need for a significant notably as an Associate Professor at increase in research into the impacts Latrobe University and research leader of fire on Victoria’s rich biodiversity. in Invertebrate Sciences for Agriculture We are sure Alan’s legacy will live on Victoria and the Plant Biosecurity Cooperative Research Centre. in the many people he helped and inspired. • PW Alan had a generous capacity to pass on his knowledge. Questions were Phil Ingamells, with thanks to always welcomed, and inquirers well- the royal society of victoria and rewarded for their curiosity. Agriculture victoria

Murray Bird

A FoND FArEwELL to LoNG-tIME VNPA MEMBEr, eXcursioN pArticipANt ANd voluNteer MurrAY Bird, Aged 92.

For a number of years Murray was Friends knew Murray as a ‘walking part of the Park Watch mail-out encyclopedia’ as he seemed to team at the VNPa office, where his remember every detail of every friendliness, gentle personality and subject that interested him. He was an wide range of interests drew him accomplished piano player and also a into many conversations. keen gardener, bushwalker, nature lover and environmentalist. He was loved Murray was born into a pioneering and respected by all, a true gentleman sheep and wheat farming family who always spoke kindly of others. in South Australia. He excelled in school before working on the family On a personal note, I’ll remember farm, and in 1942 he joined the Murray for our conversations about the Army and was posted to the weather. Murray kept detailed rainfall HMAS Moonara, Australian records at his Mt Waverley home, and Landing Ship Detachment. In 1961 we used to compare rainfall there with he became stores officer at the newly my records in Ascot Vale—a much established Monash University, drier area! • PW and later worked in Monash’s Michael howes, former Biomedical Library. Park Watch editor.

PArk wAtch • June 2017 No 269 33 Book ReVIeWS Repaying My debt a Conservationist’s tale

geoFF MosleY houses even harder to buy. eNviroBook, 2017, The focus was on cities where pAperBAck, 304 pAges. everyone now congregated rrp $30. and the services they had. In Free postAge FroM this world Geoff’s powerful [email protected] voice became an echo in an emptying chamber, and when he railed against economic growth was seen as a modern Don Quixote—out of touch. With the benefit of hindsight, it’s easy Geoff, as a trained geographer with Geoff was always a man of principle to see that Geoff Mosley was a lucky a PhD in the discipline, was their and action, and never a politician. His man, a man for his time, living in times principal research officer, becoming its views began to grate and individuals that were right for him. assistant director in 1967 and director emerged determined to push him out in 1973. of the ACF. He lost his job as director These were the halcyon days following in 1986, then was pushed out of the WWII, when jobs were easy to get, In this role he had a voice in all the Council completely in 2015. employment was permanent, houses great controversies of the time: the could be bought at reasonable prices drowning of Lake Pedder and the Geoff was a man of infinite energy. In and education was free. People could cessation of sand mining on Fraser New Zealand he worked three jobs look further than their immediate needs Island are two that spring immediately simultaneously. As a conservationist to issues of principle, and following to mind. Geoff was the forceful voice he prepared reports and case studies the destruction of WWII and the of conservation in every one of these, prodigiously. His memory is equally decimation of cities and countryside, representing himself to federal and astounding. Despite losing all his a desire to conserve the countryside state ministers, premiers and prime paper records during a domestic grew and flourished throughout ministers always pressing his points, dispute, the information in this book communities. Politicians, living in those never yielding an inch, yet remaining is amazingly detailed. Dates, people, more stable times, were able to design on good speaking terms with all. He issues, and their sequence. It’s all policies that would carry on beyond found Malcolm Fraser and Rupert there. And it would be folly in this their own administration to the next, Hamer the politicians of the day with review not to record Geoff’s love of and the next after that. Community the greatest foresight. He rather felt wilderness and the very many walks organisations began to sprout, and in Bob Hawke didn’t quite make the he did over the years, quite often with Victoria the Victorian National Parks grade, despite the latter’s achievements his own children. They formed the Association, the Conservation Council in the Tasmanian Dam controversy source of his inspiration to keep going of Victoria and The Wilderness Society when the High Court backed the in the face of intense opposition. come to mind. All these worked to Commonwealth’s power to stop the establish national and state parks and building of the Gordon below Franklin This is a good but intense read, full to resist activities such as mining and Dam; and his further achievement of detail with many insights. He is logging which frequently threatened in establishing a conservation zone disarmingly frank about his personal the most diverse and beautiful regions over the whole of Antarctica in which life, but what comes through over and and their multitude of inhabitants: mining and commercial exploration over is the intensity of his passion owls, phascogales, possums and the was prohibited and the krill fishery both in walking and conservation, like, many of which existed in small severely restrained. where he more than achieved his vulnerable populations. goal of ‘repaying his debt’. Australia As times wound on through the 90s is immensely lucky to have had These groups ached for a voice that and into the new century, the good life someone of Geoff’s stature tirelessly would represent them all and at the in Australia began to slip away. Those working for the conservation of its highest levels of government. Such was who had been young became old and wild lands. • PW the birth of the Australian Conservation fearful of losing their assets. The young Foundation (ACF) in 1964. found employment harder to find and review by dick Johnson

34 PArk wAtch • June 2017 No 269 The australian Bird Guide peter MeNkHorst, The bird descriptions have the main dANNY rogers, roHAN clArke, field guide features right, clear text, bold JeFF dAvies, peter MArsAck, subsections, and italicised key features. kiM FrANkliN There’s also a really handy ribbon page- saver built in, which might help cut-back csiro puBlisHiNg, 2017, on many dog-eared page corners. pAperBAck, 576 pAges, rrp $49.95 True twitchers already know these things Seriously? another field guide to birds Guide boasts over 4,700 self-described intrinsically, but for the rest of the birding in australia? and it is a book? Not even “lavish and scientifically accurate” public, the guide has a handy ‘likelihood’ an eBook? illustrations. At the risk of wearing my rating, giving a guide to the relative rarity birding politics on my sleeve, while of difficulty in sighting each species in its Just like the ever-increasing sales of LPs the consistently-scaled illustrations are habitat. Most bird families get a paragraph in the face of digital music, CSIRO have technically impressive, with clear lines description at the start of their section, boldly published The Australian Bird Guide, highlighting key diagnostic features in and vagrants are included as part of their featuring over nine year’s work collating this guide, there’s no possum bleeding respective families, which is nice. around 16 million sighting records, in the talons of a Powerful Owl. Only existing literature, volunteers and experts’ There’s no ‘Other Names’ section in the time will tell if they can squeeze into information into this highly-detailed and text, and English/common names are engaging field guide. my heart the way Frank Knight’s have. based on BirdLife’s list, which means all the Pee-Wee or Mudlark fans will have their The two main Australian birding If you’ve ever had the joy of spending more noses out of joint, as the only name given apps are both fantastic resources, than 25 seconds with two or more birdos, for Grallina cyanoleuca is Magpie-lark! then you’ve experienced the high-stakes particularly with the use of GPS game of ‘Field Guide Politics’, and if you recording, geographic filtering and Back to names, both scientific and survived the ensuing bloodshed, you’ll the addition of bird calls (no longer common names are combined in the understand how important it is to get trawling through cassette tapes!) But index, which saves messing about in a the illustrations right. The Australian Bird batteries don’t go flat on field guides. hurry—but family groups aren’t included e.g. falcons, robins etc. So if you want to find a Robin, you have to know the name of a family member already, or go via the separate illustrated ‘Family Guide’ at the front of the book.

Do we need yet another field guide to birds in Australia? If you’re anything like me, you’ve already pre-ordered a copy for your library. If not, I suspect you’ll find this a fantastic new field guide for beginners and experts alike. • PW

review by rowan Ewing

PArk wAtch • June 2017 No 269 35 Snow Shoe Fever

taariQ hassaN strApped oN tHe sNoW sHoes eleveN tiMe lAst WiNter, As A vNpA BusHWAlkiNg ANd Activities group (BWAg) leAder, WitH FrieNds ANd solo. He sHAres soMe HigHligHts FroM His trip reports to eNcourAge otHers to eNJoY tHe 2017 WHite seAsoN. PHoToS: TAARIQ HASSAN BWAG snow trekkers setting up camp on Mount Stirling. 36 PArk wAtch • June 2017 No 269 Falls Creek to Mount Stirling Edmondson Hut July July August September

THE BWAG TRIP TO ALSO IN JULY I MADE IN EARLY AUGUST A EARLY SEPTEMBER THE Mount Stirling late July my first ever trip to Mount couple of VNPA members same group of intrepid winter seemed like it was going Torbreck with a friend. This and I made for the summit mountaineers enjoyed an to be a disaster at the start, is a wild and seldom visited of Mount Bogong in good excellent trip from Falls Creek with torrential rain washing place in white season. The weather. This was my first to Edmondson Hut on the out our campsite on the last two kilometres to the winter ascent of the ‘Big Northern . Delatite River at Carters rocky summit plateau area Fella’ and it was a true Once again it had snowed Road on the Friday night. were very steep; I had to highlight of my many the night before, giving us However the next morning kick step and use the blade outdoors experiences unbroken snow cover. the reports at Mirimbah on my self-arrest ski pole for last year. were that 30 centimetres ascending and descending It was rather windy and cold of fresh snow had fallen safely. We had to watch The Sunday morning that and we couldn’t stop for long overnight. Indeed, it was still out for orange arrows very weekend was clear as can at all en route. When we snowing as we drove up the intently to avoid getting be, and despite the intense reached Edmondson Hut we Mount Stirling Road. lost in the fog. wind chill at the top, the were more than ready to rest hike up and back down out of the chill. The hut was This was a pattern for It was snowing and very cold from the ice-encrusted buried in snow but someone the snow season in the at the top, but occasionally summit cairn was an had cut steps in the ice down Australian Alps in 2016— the clouds would part extraordinary experience, to the front door at ground snow melting, heavy rain for a moment to afford a with superb bird’s-eye views level. We set up the snow and then fresh snow falls marvelous view of the ranges of the and tents and found some water occurring at exactly the that surround the Lake the Main Range in NSW in the stream. Some outdoor right time just before Eildon area. My friend and cloaked in snow. education students from our expeditions. I had a thermos of hot tea Latrobe University had built a near the top which was most real igloo and snow furniture We made our way in snow welcome and enjoyable! for eating and cooking shoes up to the Bluff Spur outside. The snow was that Hut near the summit and kind of spring snow that was set up a snow camp. The hut The last word ... perfect for building things. itself was busy with other We had a pleasant evening snow lovers, and it was SUMMER, AKA GREEN SEASON, IS GREAT cooking and drying things out toasty warm inside and very for bushwalking with the long days and warmer in the hut and slept very well. nice to thaw out. A few of nights, but the flies and the heat are often a nuisance. us went up to the summit This is not the case in the back country in the snow. The next morning was clearer on that Saturday. It was near It is a true white winter wonderland out there for the and we had some hours of whiteout conditions and the adventurous. I hope to see you all out there in our sunny and firm snow shoe wind was gale-force and icy. beautiful national parks for white season 2017. trekking from the slopes of It was so cold that the water Mount Nelse back to Watchbed in my drinking bladder Creek. These sunny days in the froze. The next day we areas above the tree line in the packed up our snow camp Australian Alps make all the and headed down. The snow blizzards, whiteouts, driving was fresh and powdery— winds and freezing rain worth just perfect! Views of the enduring for such golden Bluff covered in snow moments outdoors in the revealed glimpses of the snowy wilderness. • PW stunning snowy escarpment. would you like to join taariq in the high country this white season? Look for his name in the Winter Bushwalking and Activities Program.

BWAG leader Taariq in his element.

PArk wAtch • June 2017 No 269 37 WILd FaMILIeS

Looking after nature with the family

Looking after nature with the creating your own • looking up your local indigenous family is a great way to encourage wildlife garden nursery a sense of love and care for nature • choosing plants from the nursery in children from an early age. with support from • planting and looking after the garden doing so together as a family is • installing fun features such as logs, great for: Creating a wildlife garden is a great way rocks and little pools of water watching for visiting wildlife • encouraging an ethic of care to look after nature with the family. • • extending the relationship with A wildlife-friendly garden provides To make a perfect garden for butterflies, nature from ‘using nature for a home and food for native animals, plant indigenous or locally native daisies, which could be big, such as possums, fun’ to a reciprocal relationship such as the dainty blue hairy cut-leaf daisy or small, like butterflies. Even a pot where we can give back or colourful yellow sticky everlasting daisy. of native flowers can provide a meal strengthening family • for insects. relationships through doing Joining the wild families something meaningful together Why not get the family together to mailing list make a wildlife garden everyone can Each quarterly Wild Families To get our quarterly activity sheets care for? The whole family could be activity sheet includes lots of straight into you inbox, as well as to involved in: fantastic ideas. You can find hear first about upcoming events, join our activity sheets at • researching wildlife gardens the Wild Families mailing list by emailing www.vnpa.org.au/wild-families • choosing your garden’s location Caitlin Griffith [email protected] • PW

38 PArk wAtch • June 2017 No 269 “My daughter took her ‘how I will care for nature’ badges to kindy the next day to show off.”

Wild Creators: sharing love for nature. Wild Families launch! vNpA’s coMMuNitY educAtioN ANd eNgAgeMeNt MANAger caitLiN griffith is pleAsed to ANNouNce tHe lAuNcH oF Wild FAMilies.

very creative echidnas and the lesser- known unicorns ‘caught on camera’. Collecting items to view under the microscope proved to be a hit. Wild scientists: under the microscope. At the Wild Creators tent, families spent time considering all the things within forests and creating “My kids made a them from craft materials. The end result was a wonderful collectively motion-sensing made forest. camera out of Lego Explorers took themselves along when they got home.” Wild Families' Caitlin Griffith. Yarra Bend Park’s bushland trail to spot an owl and try the Wild on a sunny Sunday in april we Families alphabet walk or bird witnessed a wonderful scene of a watching walk. • adventures run roughly every three cacophony of children acting out months that will focus on the themes of wild native animals and an eight- where to now for enjoying, learning about and looking after year-old taking to a microphone wild families nature. Examples might include a workshop to proclaim “Wild Families in making nest boxes, or birdwatching or are launched”! Wild Families is a program to navigation outings. These will be held at support families (with children up to locations largely close to Melbourne as well Over 100 people came down to 12 years old) to take joint journeys of as other spots across Victoria. Yarra Bend Park to help formally discovery based on three themes of: launch the program, which VNPA • Activity sheets produced every three has been running as a trial for the • enjoying nature, months focus on our three themes, and past year. • learning about nature, and include interactive activities to discover • looking after nature nature that can be done anywhere, At the Wild Scientists tent families interesting places to visit with the family, a met VNPA scientists Kade and Tilly Following the program being sneak peak in to the family life of Victorian and tried using a GPS and motion- launched, the program will native animals, and fun ways to look after sensing camera. There were some now involve: nature together. • PW

PArk wAtch • June 2017 No 269 39 Donate today to protect our forests With more than 1.3 million cubic metres of wood logged last year, Victoria became the largest logger of Australian native forest by volume. DEN w ENO R OhN : J OTO Ph

The Victorian National Parks Association has been committed to protecting forests and woodlands across our entire state for 65 years and our passion for forests is stronger than ever. In celebration of our 65th anniversary, one of our generous long-term supporters has agreed to match all donations up to $65,000. That means any donation you make will be matched dollar-for-dollar by this kind-hearted donor who, like you, really understands the value of what we do. “I hope, in some small way, my support of this campaign will encourage others to give a little more than usual or perhaps even inspire those who have only thought about donating to change that thought into action today.” Together we can—and will—continue to ensure Victorians have forests forever. vnpa.org.au/support/forests

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