DEPARTMENT OF PRIMARY INDUSTRIES Upper Hopkins Landcare Newsletter February 2007 Edited by Louisa Roberts DPI Hamilton 5573 0725 This bi-monthly newsletter is mailed to around 500 landholders in the following Landcare Groups: Contacts Upper Hopkins, Ararat, Fiery Creek, Buangor, Beaufort and District, Watgania, Willaura-Hopkins, Combined Willaura Groups, Lake Bolac. To be added to the mailing list please call the Ararat Office on 53550520. The newsletter is also available by email which saves paper and postage (and it looks Hill management, salinity, whole farm better in colour on the screen). The file is usually around 800KB. Email addresses are kept planning, native vegetation & revegetation, confidential in the distribution of the newsletter. (interim until Louise is replaced) DPI Hamilton 5573 0900 In This Edition Landmate Roster: 5355 0526 Bird and Wildlife Notes..…….……………...………….….…………………………...…..p2 Waterways, wetlands, erosion, waterway When the Heavens opened………………………………………………………………....p3 CMA Notes ……………………………………………..…………………………………......p4 permits, re-vegetation, CMA incentives: Farmers flock to stock containment field day ……………………………….……….p5 Peter Forster Glenelg-Hopkins CMA Upper Hopkins Land Management Group Update ……………………………....…...p6 5355 0530 or 0418 802 875 Getting Started with EMS…………………………………………………………...……….p7 Upper Hopkins Landcare Group Facilitator: Salinity testing ………………………………………………………………….......……..p 8-9 Una Allender: 5350 4244 Una’s Around the Traps Column …………………………………………...…....……...p10 Pest Plants and Animals: February Photo board….….……...……….…….………………………….……..……….p11 Brian Howlett DPI Ararat Innovative Research Program Field Day…………………………………..….….…...…p12 Getting your water tested..………………………….....……………………………..…...p12 5355 0529 1080 Poison bait sales appointments phone Moving On…... 1300 10 1080 Ararat Rural City Environmental issues: By Louise Thomas DPI Ararat Daryl Scherger 5355 0231 CMA local community representatives: This is just a quick note to let you know that I Biodiversity - Don Rowe 5354 7553 have taken on a new role at DPI Ararat and so Land Health - Debbie Shea 5352 1357 will no longer be the project officer for the and John Anderson 5354 1238. Ararat Hills Project. Working on the Ararat Community Engagement - Rod Marshall 5354 Hills Project has definitely been the highlight 6227 of my career to date and I’ve thoroughly en- Waterways - Michelle Casanova joyed working with everyone. I’ve especially 5350 2111 enjoyed editing the newsletter, creating the Cultural Heritage Officers Framlingham: Herbie Harradine DPI poster series and working with farmers on revegetation and remnant 5567 1236 vegetation protection projects. The Ararat Hills Project Officer position has Ballarat: Peter Lovett 0409 391 475 been advertised and we’ll let you know as soon as we can who the replace- Goolum Goolum (Horsham): Alan Burns 5381 ment is. In the meantime please direct salinity and hill management in- 2365 quiries to DPI Hamilton 5573 0900. Grampians: Brendan Edwards, And so to my new role…many of you will be aware that I have had a strong 0409 391479 interest for some time in raising awareness about Aboriginal cultural heri- Conservation agreements, grants, technical tage on private land. The Department has created a role to enable us to advice: Sue Mudford, expand the awareness raising initiatives we have previously run in the Trust for Nature tel/fax 5599 5223 south west, across the state. We will be working with Aboriginal communi- Greening Australia ties and government agencies to help provide landholders with practical James Scholfield 5571 2806 Research on Steep Hills Grazing and information about cultural heritage and native title issues. This work aims Pasture Establishment: to help build good relationships between DPI, landholders and Aboriginal Zhongnan Nie DPI Hamilton communities. 5573 0791 I’d be more than happy to talk to anyone about my new role and can be DPI Animal Health: Ben Fahy contacted at Ararat DPI on 5355 0526 or at [email protected]. DPI Ballarat 0407 821 104 I hope to be able to attend the next Upper Hopkins Land Management Rural financial counsellor Debbie Milne Group meeting to let people know more about my role. 55730906 Page 2 BIRD AND WILDLIFE NOTES by Peter Forster Many landholders over a wide area have reported seeing Wedge Tailed Eagles this summer. At the Morass near Mt William up to 8 eagles were spotted at the one time, Irene Sturt also spotted about 8 birds west of Willaura. Duncan Giles and Anna Hooper at Wickliffe reported two very tame birds perched on fence posts and Maurie Allgood had a close encounter when an eagle carrying a rabbit crashed into the side of his car on Colonial Road. Both rabbit and eagle escaped injury! Eagles are also common at Raglan with 18 birds at one time spotted by Sandy Troop over the Mt Cole range last year. Most of the eagles I spotted were mature and very dark in colour. Presumably they move into this area when pickings are easy due to reduced groundcover exposing prey. Stock bogged in dams and creeks also provide opportunities. One morning I witnessed two eagles stalking a young wallaby in our front yard. The wallaby had the presence to keep close to and under bushes and trees and escaped their clutches. The same wallabies trimmed all our fruit trees and drank the bird bath water until they were provided with a separate facility. A goshawk was trapped in our woolshed and allowed me a good photo opportunity. They regularly enter the shearing and other sheds chasing small birds. Road kill sightings include a Barn Owl near the Maroona School and a Black Kite near Wickliffe. In the last newsletter I predicted a large influx of Black Kites with dry conditions but this has not occurred. Bill Homburg reports that a pair of Square Tailed Kites nested again in the Mount Cole Range. He has also spotted an immature A family of brolgas sighted by the Jacksons on the Hopkins River at Little Falcon and one Rossbridge. Photo: Rose Jackson Elegant Parrot at Langi Logan. John and Julie McDougall had three baby Tawny Frogmouths in their garden. John Anderson reports that 80 to 100 Brolgas have been summer residents in the Willaura west/Stavely area. They drink fresh water from a sheep water trough. Tony and Rose Jackson sighted one successfully raised brolga chick on the Hopkins River at Rossbridge. Given the extremely dry season this is a very significant sighting. The Jackson’s and several neighbours have fenced large areas and lengths of the Hopkins River to exclude stock. This may have provided enough habitat and feed to rear a chick. Brolgas have also been sighted at the corner of Richies and Yalla-Y-Poora Roads and also Lucardies Road near Raglan. Sandra from Buangor reported a dead Bronze Cuckoo, the second such sighting this season. Clem Sturmfels (DPI) had a close encounter with a large Gould’s Monitor (also called Sand Goanna) west of Moyston and got a great photo when it ran up a tree. He also spotted an injured one on the Moyston Pomonal Road. Robert McAlpine took it into care. Sand Goanna west of Moyston. Photo:Clem Sturmfels Page 3 WHEN THE HEAVENS OPENED Malcolm McCaskill and Reto Zollinger DPI Hamilton The Ararat Hills received significant rain in December and January. Between Christmas and late January, 123 mm of rain fell at a recording site in the Upper Hopkins. While most of the rainfall was gentle and soaked into the soil, there was a brief period when 13.4 mm fell in a 15 minute period in the evening of 19 January. Rainfall of this intensity has the potential to move dung, soil and rocks. To understand how the management of steep hill areas affects the quantity and quality of runoff, DPI staff have been monitoring several small catchments in the Upper Hopkins with support from Glenelg- Hopkins CMA. During the period of high intensity rainfall on the 19th of January, a small catchment consisting of thin rocky soils experienced sufficient intensity of surface flow to move small rocks. These were deposited adjacent to the measuring equipment (see photo at bottom left). Over the 15 minute period, nearly 3 mm of runoff was recorded, or 20% of rainfall. However, on other small catchments with thicker Some dung accumulated in farm dams, soils and deferred grazing management, runoff was sparing the river but increasing the risk of from nil to 1% of rainfall. These smaller quantities of excess nutrients in the dams. Photo: Reto runoff have much less energy to move dung, soil or Zollinger. rocks. On nearby hills, it was apparent that the high rainfall intensities had moved significant quantities of dung from bare hilltop sheep camp areas down to lower down the slope (photo bottom right). This has the benefit of “fertilising” areas that would not otherwise get much benefit from the nutrients contained in dung. However, some of the “tongues” of dung extended well down the slope and into waterways, increasing the risks of contaminating dams and streams with excessive phosphorus and nitrogen. Land class fencing and careful grazing management reduces the intensity of hilltop sheep camps, reducing the risks of erosion and dung movement from these areas. Grants are available to assist with the costs of land class fencing. Contact DPI Hamilton on 5573 0900 if you are interested. Runoff intensities were sufficient to Dung moved down slope in tongues, some of which merged move rocks. Photo: Reto Zollinger into waterways. Photo: Reto Zollinger Page 4 GLENELG HOPKINS CMA NOTES By Peter Foster Stock Containment Areas. Following the interim Exceptional Circumstances declaration for south-west Victoria, Glenelg Hopkins CMA announced two measures to assist landholders and the community in the Hopkins catchment. Technical advice on design and location and some financial assistance ($1500/business unit) is available for landholders wanting to contain stock in small areas to conserve vegetative cover on paddocks.