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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At the start of spring, we had a planting and labelling day at the ImLal biorich plantation. The day was a success, even if it was only a beginning for our proposed banksia seed orchard, which had been laid out by forester and Ballarat Region Treegrower President, Gary Featherston. The GM of SUVO Minerals, Johann Van Der Merwe, attended and played a hands-on role. He is particularly keen on the banksia seed orchard as his daughter works in the field of banksia research. We planted a plot batch of 40 locally endangered silver banksia tube stock, supplied by the local Moorabool Landcare Network plant nursery. 
 
Dan Frost’s attendance (with wife Amy and kids) from Seeding Victoria was encouraging, as he lives nearby and has said he will monitor the site and help Roger MacRaild, the facilitator from the Moorabool Landcare Network, ensure that we fill out the rest of the 100 spaces in the seed orchard next spring. It will be interesting to see how the banksias handle the clay base on the orchard site right next to the central dam and consisting largely of the original quarry's mullock. Dan says he’s seen banksias flourishing around Creswick on old gold rush era mullock heaps. Roger GPSed the location of the four provenances planted, each planted in groups of 10 in the four rows.
 
Another activity on the day was staking out labels naming a selection of the 50 or more trees and shrubs within the biorich plantation. Roger’s plant signage that he organised is handsome and a cut above most of the pedestrian fare usually applied for plant ID. Another ‘asset’ adding value to the biorich plantation for visits by students and others interested, such as local Landcare members. 
 
The plantation is filling out the structure of the layers impressively in a number of areas, although roos are causing some damage and we will need to consider filling in spaces next spring. The wattles were providing a glorious burst of yellow.
 
Four of us enjoyed a barbecue by our drop slab hut in the biorich plantation clearing afterwards and discussed how we might go about strengthening our links to the Landcare network in the future.

On our first Thinning Day, half a dozen people turned up with chainsaws for different sorts of thinning in three areas of ImLal South. It's six years since we established this site and we had always planned that this spring is when we ought to begin reducing competition between plants.

The first area was a no-brainer. A team of three cut down a swathe of 'volunteer' manna gums  that had invaded one edge of the site and were growing up under a power line. One of the team followed up with a 50:50 mix of gylphosate and water, painting stumps, prevent coppicing. This was done in all three areas.

In the second area, another team halved the number of blue gums in the forestry block from 1,000st/ha to 500st/ha (see above). Those with the best form were selected to grow on.

In the third area to the west, we plan to minimise pruning and thinning. The plan here is to leave thickets of trees, but carve out open patches every 20-30m and remove invading trees where they are overwhelming shrubs. At one quiet spot much-loved by birdlife, we reduced the large number of swamp gums growing through everlasting shrubs, although leaving a screen of swampies for wind protection (see below).

You can view a gallery of pix on the Home page.

We're looking for planters to put in 2,000 tubestock trees, shrubs, grasses and  herbs on the west side of the central dam (pictured). This will link the north and south ImLal sites, providing a biodiverse core of 15ha in total.

The date for the Planting & Field Day is Sunday 4 October, meeting at the Lal Lal Hall for a briefing at 9.30am. Equipment provided and we're offering a free lunch. (Who said there was no such thing!).

The planting plan has been prepared by Steve Murphy, who'll preside over the planting day. He has consulted with BRT President Phil Kinghorn over the farm forestry clumps – we're going to put in a grove of oak trees, a bank of callitris and more river she-oak. 

Biodiverse plants will include some locally endangered species, such as Banksia marginata and Hakea decurrens.

To register, contact Ballarat Region Treegrowers President, Phil Kinghorn on: [email protected]

Ballarat Region Treegrower members with pruning experience will teach and supervise at the field day, which will start at 11am on Friday 17 October.  We’ll stick to forestry trees and practice on invading trees along the 5ha biorich plantation’s edges. Pruning is not just about form pruning for timber values – although if you want to get a sawlog some time in the future, you’ll need to prune. Pruning is also a way of reducing dense canopy trees that are outcompeting shrubs in an environmental planting.  And pruning makes it possible to walk and see through what could otherwise become impenetrable scrub. There’s some who argue you can overprune   – so come along, learn another skill and be part of the discussion.

Please RSVP to Gib Wettenhall on Contact us so we have an idea how many are coming along. We're meeting at the ImLal display board, 100m past the Ironmine Rd intersection on Lal Lal Falls Rd. BYO lunch and secateurs. $10 for non-AFG members; free to AFG members.