We have one more planting project to complete this season. Just like our habitat corridor project, we were severely delayed in planting due to the hold up with the bamboo stakes coming from China last year. But as the plants have already been grown for us, and we now have the stakes, we are going to go ahead.
The creek line has been slashed and ripped and is ready to plant. Our expert planters will be doing this, and Landcare members can come out to guard. I’m very sorry that this isn’t a weekend activity, but we are running out of time!
The planting/guarding will be done Tuesday 15th March 2022, starting at 9am. The property is on Rilens Road, please email me for the address.
Can you believe it, the Muckleford Landcare bike ride is back! And we’re early (can’t wait until November). Following two years of cancellations, we are going ahead with the ride in April.
SUNDAY 3RD APRIL 2022, 11am, meet at the Muckleford train station. We will ride to Maldon for lunch, and return home via the Castlemaine-Maldon bike trail. I will make a booking at the Kangaroo Hotel for lunch, so please RSVP me with numbers. Ride with your family, bring a friend, or come by yourself and meet some Landcare people.
Please call Beth Mellick on 0431219980 or email me.
For over 20 years Muckleford Catchment Landcare Group have been designing plantings with climate change patterns in mind, and encouraging local landowners to consider the advantages of planting a wide range of species and provenances from many bio regions of Eastern Australia.
Within the community there have been government-funded plantings, including riparian restoration and habitat corridors, as well as some tens of thousands of rehabilitation plantings by members of the Muckleford Landcare group.
Elli Wellings and David Mallard purchased their 100-acre property in Walmer a few years ago, which was once used to graze sheep. They immediately did two things – reached out to the local community, and joined their local Landcare group.
As a first step, Elli and Dave made an effort to seek out expert advice about landscape function and plant selection in order to better understand the land they had in front of them, and what they could do to improve it.
It was not viable to have stock, and the couple’s long term vision was for the land to be restored. “We could see how the stock has impacted on the existing vegetation” said David. Ellie’s father is a bush regenerator in NSW so she understands how worthwhile it is to bring back native animals to a degraded landscape.
Over the past 12 months Dave and Elli have transformed their property, with the help of landscape restoration practitioner and Muckleford Catchment Landcare Group Vice President, David Griffiths. Together, they put in 6,500 plants on 10 acres as part of a farm forestry enterprise. Then came revegetation of an old paddock with a further 2,500 native plants to create a wildlife corridor between two dams. This corridor contains 20 species from wide-spaced trees to middle/understory plants, with a dynamic species provenance selection.
David and Ellie have spent nearly $50,000 to restore their new property and plant their forest. They are a glowing example of the type of tree-changers that add value to our Landcare movement.
Thank you to everyone who turned up yesterday to help out with the habitat corridor on the Driscoll property. We had a great crew of young people, new members, new landholders in the area joining us for the first time, some visitors from Maldon, and some Muckleford Landcare members whose faces we hadn’t seen for a while due to Covid.
Thanks to the Driscoll family for coming out in force to join the Landcare group in guarding the plants, and with the dinner. It was lovely to work with such engaged landholders.
Our trusty contractors worked all day Saturday and half the day Sunday to put in 3,000 plants. Contractors, Dave and Nioka then stayed on to help with the guarding of the plants on Sunday afternoon. Now it’s up to the Driscolls to make sure those plants get a drink while we’re waiting on the rain!
This project was funded by DELWP Community Volunteer Action Grants for on-ground biodiversity.
The contractors are out there today planting our habitat corridor. Join us tomorrow (Sunday 6th February) starting at 3pm to guard the plants. All the guards have been made so tomorrow we just have to get them onto the plants. All drinks and food will be supplied including a gourmet vegetarian feast for dinner. Please bring gloves and ‘sock savers’.
We will be on the Muckleford-School Road, down towards the Maldon-Castlemaine Road end. Please ring Beth on 0431219980 if you have any questions.
Plants for the habitat corridorRipped lines in the corridor being planted out
MUCKLEFORD LANDCARE HABITAT CORRIDOR PROJECT as funded by the Victorian State Government, Community Volunteer Action Grants 2021
The Landcare community day will be Sunday 6th February, starting at 3pm. A vegetarian BBQ will be provided for dinner, as I’m hoping we can work until dusk. We would love to see as many of our Landcare members as possible come out. We will have free booklets and guides available at our information table, and food and drinks will be provided. Meet the landowners and take part in our project recording. Entry to the property is along the Muckleford School Road, opposite the Muckleford Bushland Reserve. Please RSVP for catering purposes.
President is Neville Cooper, Secretary is Beth Mellick, Vice-President is David Griffiths, Treasurer is Eleanor Wright and the ordinary committee members are Albert Wright, Richard Mann, Chris McKenzie, Michael Billington, and Brona Murray.
Please note that we have two community planting/guardings coming up over the summer holidays, but we are still waiting on the bamboo stakes to arrive (they are stuck at the wharves apparently). We look forward to see members at these plantings, or at our other events planned for 2022.
You might have heard on the news that Bendigo Golf Club alerted local residents of their plans to ‘eradicate’ the corellas who live in the trees on the golf course, shooting has already begun.
Corellas are native to Australia and are charismatic, social birds who mate for life and rely on tree hollows for their safe nesting sites. Little do they know that the trees they have found as homes in their ever-diminishing habitat are on a commercial golf course — and that this has placed them directly in the firing line.
Please contact the golf course operations manager Liam Carney and politely but urgently request the business to stop the shooting immediately and seek a kinder and non-lethal outcome for wildlife who share the golf course grounds. CALL: 03 5448 4206EMAIL:gom@bendigogolfclub.com.au
mucklefordlandcare.org 