Biorich plantations – mimicking nature to integrate conservation & production
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    • Rationale behind the 21C drop slab hut
    • Biorich design principles and silviculture paper - Lismore AFG 2014
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    • Land restoration film - Rediscovering the Country
    • Field Day 2011
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Two student uni visits as usual in the first quarter of 2025

30/3/2025

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Steve Murphy presented at our two university visits that fell in the first part of 2025. Federation University has come for 15 years straight as lecturer Singarayer  Florentine noted (and he's been with them all that time!). Florry remarked that it gives his mine and land rehabilitation students a totally different perspective than the 'economic' driver behind most forestry plantations.

Both field days had about 20-30 students. Steve  played his animist game again, where he shanghais students into playing a range of animals declaring what sort of habitat they like. Most of the students are enthusiastic, getting into their role by deploying funny voices.

Lachie presented at his drop slab hut. He has developed a range of props now that demonstrate the mortise and tenon process used.

The site is very dry but holding up well. The Lal Lal Falls have dried up as you can see below.

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Delegation from Mongolian Industry Forest Group comes for a BBQ

22/11/2024

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 The Mongolian Industry Forestry group that visited the biorich plantation enjoyed a ‘democracy’ sausage sizzle, which my wife Gayl and I hosted. They almost didn't get beyond the clearing, tucking into their sausages and warm beer with relish.

The Magnificent Seven on the delegation weren’t actually Mongolian – I wanted them to teach me a couple of words, but they admitted to only speaking Mandarin. They’d been to
Melbourne University and to see the penguins at Phillip Island and out to the Dandenongs, but as far as we could make out from their interpreter, they’d visited few actual forestry plantations here. 

Despite the 'Industry' in their title, the Mongolian Industry Forestry group were not involved in any logging or commercial harvesting. Their forests are mainly conifer and their group has a large government-paid  staff throughout the country, which is dedicated solely to conservation and fire protection. It seems that it was our ecological restoration focus, which had attracted their attention in the first instance.

They were puzzled that we were only a volunteer group, lacking either government funding input or management control. The President of the group  (he’s the one holding the books I gave him), was an earnest fellow and exclaimed that their government had oversight over every activity.


I gave them copies of 'Recreating the Country' and Digby Race's book on Pacific Rim agroforestry, 'Raising trees and livelihoods.' They were principally interested in how we prevented bushfire (again they were staggered it was mainly volunteer run); and showed more interest in the case studies on agroforestry for smallholders in Asia than the design principles of a biorich plantation.


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Foresters check out 'ecological restoration' at ImLal

11/11/2024

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Field tour as part of Forestry Australia's Ballarat symposium, which visited ImLal to look at ecological restoration options. Thirty-two practising foresters turned up (without hard hats!) to hear Gary, Roger and Lachie spruiking the wares of the biorich plantation. How we would handle the fire problem was a hot topic.
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Heard but not seen – plenty of spring breeding activity for 2024

10/10/2024

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PictureFan tailed cuckoo. PHOTO: Gary Featherston
Windy but we still saw (mainly heard) 38 bird species as spring breeding activity picked up.

Ornithologist lecturer from Federation University, Grant Palmer, led five of us, with three new participants, two of them, Sue and Glen, being new Lal Lal residents who wanted to learn what was in their patch. Jodie from Mollongghip also joined us for the first time.

Despite the wind, a rufous whistler gave a long and strong display. Gary had, once again, cleared a path through the gorse on the west bank.

Fantails out in force in the north block, which is really starting to open out to become more like a natural forest. Surprisingly, the grey everlasting bushes there seemed to have escaped the hammering of their cousins in ImLal South by roos. 

A fan tailed cuckoo topped a bare stag branch in the north. No noisy miners were sighted. The surviving sequoias are at last undergoing a growth spurt.
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Grant has provided a fuller report, which you can read in the Monitoring menu – visit Bird surveys at ImLal

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Debriefing session at the end of the transect.
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Field Day activities leavened by a sausage sizzle

16/9/2024

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Amazing what a group can achieve and the camaraderie generated.

​A dozen of us worked for for a couple of hours on a cloudy morning, followed by a latish lunch in the drop slab hut clearing. As dessert, we listened to Steve Murphy talk about his biorich design principles and new book. 

 Field Day activities included:

  • Banksia seed orchard planting – we had about 100 tubestock from local provenances to plant and guard under the guidance of Roger MacRaild. Plant crew included Jodie Goldring, Gayl Morrow and Steve & Lina Murphy. Planting in the clay next to the dam has not proven a success.
 
  • Plant ID signage  repaired and new ones added –  Roger with Steve's help found where the tree violets were. We found a koala up what was supposedly a yellow gum
 
  • Checking nest boxes for spring action – Roger used a camera to peer into boxes. No-one home, but evidence of occupation 
 
  • Oiling of drop slab hut – Susan Meyer set to with tung oil to refresh the exterior
 
  • Thinning dense tree clumps of silver wattle  invading casuarina and  swamp gum overwhelming shrub growth – led by Lachie Park, with Barry Dimond and Gib
 
  • Slashing of gorse and spraying on either side of the track around the west side of the dam in order to keep the bird survey transect open – Gary Featherston took this on
 
  • Barbecue lunch, with talk by ecologist Steve Murphy about his biorich design principles – Moorabool Shire councillor, Moira Berry arrived just before lunch as did the 'Gorsinator' Gavin Shell, who handed out business cards spruiking his business extracting gorse.
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Timber Trip 2024  to focus on  'small is beautiful' and a locals approach over the weekend of Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th October

9/9/2024

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Promising to be one of the best ever, Ballarat Region Treegrowers Timber Trip 2024 heads down a  regenerative pathway from First Nations demonstrations of ‘forest gardening’ & cultural sawmilling to small scale timber framing and fine woodworking on the Saturday; then on the Sunday, visits to a speciality sawmiller and a regrowth forest where the adoption of silvicultural practices aims to restore its biodiversity, as well as future utility.

Curated by fine woodworker, Lachie Park, check out the full itinerary and register via Humanitix:-https://events.humanitix.com/ballarat-region-treegrowers-timber-trip-2024 

As this TT’s organiser, Lachie is the host for the event and you will need to book separately with him for the dinner on the Saturday night at the Railway Hotel in Castlemaine. 
 
We are partnering with the Moorabool Landcare Network – a nice fit with our ‘small is beautiful’ and localism approach this year. Tickets are an affordable $15 flat fee for taking part in either some or all of the weekend’s activities. As is usual, participants will need to bring their own vehicles or pool with friends to travel in convoy from site to site. You will have to provide your own meals & drinks, and seek accommodation in Castlemaine or surrounds if you make it to the dinner or want to travel up to Bendigo for Sunday’s events.
 
Any queries or to book dinner at the Railway Hotel on Saturday night, email Lachie Park: [email protected]
Or you can contact me, Gib Wettenhall: [email protected]

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ABC Rural Features Reporter, Rhiannon Stevens, visits ImLal in search of a good news story

23/8/2024

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Rhiannon Stevens, a features reporter with ABC Rural, came out and shared some time with Steve Murphy and me at ImLal a couple of weeks ago. She's interested in positive stories about how we can reverse habitat decline.

I arranged the interview as publicity for the new Second Edition of Recreating the Country.  When  her resulting well-presented digital article was put up online on August 23rd, Steve’s Recreating the Country website immediately started pinging with book orders; and that's  even though the article only obliquely refers to the book.  It seems that enough people are tech savvy and finding their way to him, so he’s not complaining!

​The lead image for her story is a large spreading gum, alone in a blazing yellow paddock of canola. Rhiannon told us she found the way into the story through highlighting the need to revegetate our landscapes in order to save the ubiquitous lone paddock trees from vanishing. She  points out everyone has seen them when driving through the countryside and they're something with which most people can empathise.

Read the article by Rhiannon Stevens on the ABC Rural website headed:


Conservationist helps farmers protect 'paddock trees' and restore degraded land

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-23/revegetating-land-by-protecting-paddock-trees/104135760?utm_campaign=abc_news_web&utm_content=mail&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_source=abc_news_web


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Resident birds start to dominate over migrants in in the autumn bird survey 2024

30/4/2024

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Fine but windy – still we saw 31 bird species as the resident birds started to dominate over the departing migrant species.

Ornithologist lecturer from Federation University, Grant Palmer, led seven of us, with  the numbers bolstered by a keen family of four – Gary Featherston's son, wife and two young daughters.

Best views were of fantails and LBBs like thornbills and scrub wrens. A butcherbird topped a bare stag branch in the middle section usually dominated by noisy miners. None were sighted, nor were the eastern rosellas, galahs and only a few crimsons.
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Gorse has overwhelmed the west bank of the dam, so Gary and I had to clear a pathway through in the days prior.

Grant has provided a fuller report, which you can read in the Monitoring menu – visit Bird surveys at ImLal

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16 students from Federation Uni ecological restoration cohort visit in 2024

27/3/2024

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This was one of the most enthusiastic student groups we've ever had. Lots of questions and even a volunteer for our next bird survey. One of the students asked if she could revisit – Roger is going to take that on. Another student suggested we explore boring holes into trees to make artificial hollows, which solves insulation problems.


Steve's animist game was taken up with gusto. It engages the students and the performers make a real attempt  to channel their animal whether a pardelote or an antechinus. One 'lizard' chose a slow, Texan drawl.
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46 students visit from Melbourne Uni Forest Systems in 2024

26/2/2024

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    Gib Wettenhall is interested in how  we carry out large scale landscape restoration that involves the people who live in those landscapes. That, he  believes, would build truly resilient landscapes.

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