New Discovery in The Cathedral Ranges

This is the gorgeous little White Footed Dunnart (Sminthopsis leucopus) that's recently been found in the Cathedral Ranges (since the fires) and the first-ever record of this species in that district.* Though it's known to occur in the catchments of the Big, Acheron & Yea Rivers, these animals are small, rarely seen and easily confused with more common species (eg. Agile Antechinus, House Mouse), so every record is valuable. [Image copyright Museum of Victoria: http://museumvictoria.com.au/bioinformatics/mammals/images/comleuclive.htm]
*ID most likely Sminthopsis lecopus, though may be S. murina.

Grocon Recycling for Recovery Meeting...at Marmalades in Yea

The team squirrelling away on Grocon applications. Grocon have kindly donated more than $1million to the Landcare fire recovery efforts across the State - the UGLN bids will total $499,000 for weeds, trees, nesting boxes, fence removal & installation, pest animals, volunteer coordination and community support and education. Phew.

ANZ in blizzard conditions.....brrrrr

25th June 2010

ANZ staff put up with bitterly cold conditions whilst pulling out burnt fence lines in regrowth at Kinglake. We know they'll ensure their fingers thaw out before they start work.







'Fat thumbs' may not be welcome in the accounts department, but they are easily tolerated when tree planting and there's no chance of causing a financial meltdown!

Hawthorn Rotary + Sausages & Wine = 300 seedlings planted!

10th of July
Tree planting at Lisa, Ron, Archie and Ella's with 11 members of Hawthorn Rotary enjoying Lisa's yummy sausages and wine at the end of the day. It was so cold that David had to borrow Lucia's pink beanie to keep his ears warm. 300 seedlings were planted to screen water tank and to block the noise of the road. Bridget cooking lunch in the only place that was out of the wind.








Archie and Ella helping plant trees around their new house.

10 NAB Fencers without Boundaries

Upper Goulburn Landcare's fence re-building work is going from strength to strength.

Today we removed 700m of old fence and finished up by 2pm. The weather held off until about 3pm and I caught up with Alan Stafford at Kinglake West about another fencing job.

You might recognize a few of the NAB blokes in the photo from Trevor Young's at Heathcote Junction last month!

My dog Gemma had a good day too, plenty of pats and sausages. A couple of the crownies left in the Landcare trailer from Saturday went down well tonight as well.

Cheers, Chris.

ANZ Teamwork at Kinglake

Monday 12 July was a good day in Kinglake West for planting. This ANZ team worked with Chris Coburn to put in 220 plants at Fenech's. Bernadine took a day off work to be with the team and was very grateful for their assistance.
Sites around the house weren't ready to plant, so Bernadine will do those herself another day.

Thanks ANZ.

Janet.

Successful ANZ & Landcare & Treeproject partnership continues.

July 2nd 2010
Heather and Steve Joblin were assisted in repairing their large revegetation project which was burnt by the fires in Strath Creek. 300 trees were added to the steep hill sides.
Volunteer workers included 8 ANZ bankers from Southbank in the city , Timothy from Treeproject plus Justus and Janet Hagen from Landcare. The chatter over a BBQ lunch centered around events at the World Cup Soccer .
This multi-cultural group had representatives from France, New Zealand, India, Holland, England and Paraguay as well as a few Aussies. Several pairs of shiny new gum boots were christened on the day .
Thanks for your help guys.

Even the bus driver joined in!

Something completely Different.
Wood Splitting & Stacking
Post and Rail Fence Making
Potting Up & other nursery work
Tree planting along the boundary

32 NAB volunteers travelled to the Toolangi Garden Restoration Centre to help Jack and Narrie with their innovative community project. Fallen burnt trees were being milled to make framing timber and fencing for rebuilding. Waste logs were being split and dried for fire wood. Donated plants were being repotted into larger pots for distribution next season.

Highlights for the day were :
- Jack & Narrie's fresh scones for morning tea.
- Man V Machine wood splitting
- Fun in the potting shed.
- Patting the fat goat.
- Sharing Narrie & Jack's stories and philosophies .
- Lunch at the Toolangi Tavern.
- Beautiful sunny weather .

This guy accidentally broke a chisel on the volunteer day .
He returned the next day with a beautiful new replacement chisel for Jack.
Things like that make me feel happy.





And there's always fun in the potting shed, with the IT crown!

Janet.

Washed Out

Unfortunately, all the tree planting events on Friday 25th June were canceled. Janet looks very sad as she unpacks the trailer before going inside to spend the day by the fire.

It rain all day with 63mm falling in many parts of the ranges. Teams from GE and ANZ were dissappointed. The ANZ team were still keen to get out of the office into the open air for a bit of exercise (offices must be terrible places). They came to Kinglake and pulled down some burnt fences in the rain with Chris & Bridget.

That shows real landcare toughness and endurance. Good on you, guys.

Tree Planting in Antarctica

Well that is what it felt like!

A team of 11 ANZ volunteers from the Docklands Human Resources department braved gale-force winds and temperatures below 5 degrees to plant 300 trees in Kinglake on Tuesday 29th July .

I think we did see the occasional snow flake fall around lunch time. Our fingers froze and our faces went numb . Everyone was extremely hungry as we huddled in Gloria and Phillip Wood's rickety old shed for a warming BBQ lunch then turned the BBQ on full to thaw our fingers.

A quick half hour of planting after lunch and then the crew headed off the ridge top with car heaters on full. Thanks girls and guy; also thanks to Gloria and Phillip for their hospitality and to Andrew from Treeproject for his efforts at the end of the day.