Lorax Project 2012

The Upper Goulburn Landcare Networks revegetation 'Lorax Project' has finished for another year after a very successful year of tree planting throughout the fire affected areas of Murrindindi Shire.

JBWere volunteers at Buxton

This year 452 volunteers from NAB, ANZ, JBWere, Camberwell Secondary College, Strath Creek Landcare Group, Kevin Heinz Garden Centre, Conservation Volunteers Australia, Kinglake Landcare Group and the Salvation Army helped plant a total of 12110 indigenous plants.

ANZ volunteers at Kinglake

We also had great support again from Fifteen Trees who were able to provide much needed funds to purchase many plants for our project.

NAB volunteers planting trees funded by 15Trees

The Kevin Heinz Garden Centre with funding assistance from Rotary again grew many thousands of plants for us and even came up for a day to plant some at the Kinglake Lions Park.


Kevin Heinz Garden Centre volunteers at Kinglake Lions Park

We developed a great project with the Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority which allowed us to fence and revegetate many kilometres of riparian areas along the King Parrot Creek and Spring Creek in Flowerdale.

NAB volunteers planting along the Spring Ck at Flowerdale

We revegetated 32 hectares of farmland and waterways on properties at Strath Creek, Flowerdale, Kinglake, Glenburn, Buxton and Murrindindi.


ANZ volunteers at Glenburn

The Lorax Project will continue in 2013 and thousands of seedlings are being grown as we speak in preparation for next years planting season.

NAB volunteers at Buxton

We will also be helping the Strath Creek Landcare Group with the tree planting component of their biodiversity project.

Volunteers at Strath Creek

Anyone interested in volunteering with our project in 2013 or landowners interested in getting tree planting carried out on their properties contact Chris Cobern on 5736 0104.

Buxton wetland fauna survey

The UGLN fire recovery fauna project has now extended into the Buxton area.
We recently installed our remote sensor cameras at the property of Buxton residents Anthony and Tracy who have a wonderful wetland area on their farm.
The wetland was fenced off a couple of years ago with the assistance of funding provided by the DPI.
The area has regenerated well since the fires and is providing great habitat already to many birds.

Lewin's Rail

Anthony had recently found a road-kill Long-nosed Bandicoot on the adjacent roadside and I found what appeared to be Long-nosed Bandicoot diggings around the wetland. Unfortunately we weren't able to get any photo's of bandicoots. We were lucky enough however to capture photographs of the threatened Lewin's Rail (Lewinia pectoralis) and also a pair of the more common Buff-banded Rail (Gallirallus philippensis).

Pair of Buff-banded Rails

As well as many native Bush Rats (Rattus fuscipes) and a wombat. We also installed six nest boxes built by the Kinglake Scouts and Rotary on the surrounding Swamp Gums. The boxes are designed for Sugar Gliders and Brush-tailed Phascogales.


The native Bush Rat

Chris Cobern.
Landcare Coordinator
Upper Goulburn Landcare Network

REVEGETATION WORK CONTINUES

Plantings to establish new native vegetation continue on both Crown Land reserves and private properties throughout the Murrindindi Shire.

Last week a volunteer group from the ANZ Bank’s corporate headquarters in Docklands planted out 480 sedges, grasses and shrubs on the Break O Day Reserve in Glenburn.

The ANZ group came prepared for the wet day with their gumboots and suitable clothing.

We later shared a BBQ lunch at the new Alf Miller Park in Glenburn.

ANZ volunteers at Alf Miller Park Glenburn

We have another nine days of planting already booked for the remainder of the year at locations throughout the Murrindindi Shire.

NAB volunteers at Buxton

We were fortunate in receiving a Federal Government ‘Caring for our Country’ grant to purchase the plants, materials and tools for the project.

Since 2010 we have planted over 33,000 plants, many grown locally at Flowerdale from seed collected locally together with some more propagated for us at the Kevin Heinze Garden Centre in Doncaster and the Euroa Arboretum.

JBWere volunteers at Murrindindi

To enquire about getting assistance with revegetation for your fire affected property or to volunteer phone Chris Cobern on 5736 0104 or by Email: ugrecovery@gbcma.vic.gov.au

Conservation Volunteers lend a Hand

An international team from Conversation Volunteers Australia helped out with our Fencers Without Boundaries program for 5 weeks in the Buxton/Narbethong area during May-June 2010.
The group was well lead by team leader Andrew Matthers and constructed many kilometres of fencing.

Powerful Performance by Origin Energy Team

26/10/2010

South Cathedral Farm

Award Winning and Pet Friendly Luxury Bed and Breakfast Cottages

The rebuilding process has really moved along at Megan & Marty's place since we last visited with volunteers. The holiday cottages are up to painting stage and a bore drilling rig was working to provide a water supply to the new gardens .

Today's project was to clear vegetation from a burnt fence line . Preparing the site for the Uniting Church fencing crew to put up a new fence in the next few weeks.

Nineteen Origin Energy volunteers arrived by coach from Melbourne believing they were doing a 'weeding' job. This was very extreme weeding and the hardest , most exhausting volunteer day I have done !

Conditions were beautiful as Megan & Janet disappeared into the scrub with their chainsaws revving . The Origin Energy team followed with loppers and hand saws, clearing a four metre wide path through the regrowth and dead burnt tea trees. The front team cut and pulled while the rear team dragged and stacked the cleared vegetation into bonfire heaps. The three girls who volunteered for the catering crew cooked a wonderful BBQ back at the house aided by the bus driver. We worked for 5 hours and cleared 200 metres. This does not sound like a lot but it was a massive effort by everyone. Thank you very much guys. I think there would have been lots a sore muscles in the office on Wednesday.

Notable firsts : The first snake for the season was spotted (by a girl who expressed a fear of worms before we started working so you can imagine how she felt about snakes !) and the first Gucci handbag to be worn on a volunteer day appeared. It is modelled by its proud wearer in the pics .

Bridgets Last Landcare Sausage

Friday the 3rd September was a momentous day for Upper Goulburn Bushfire Recovery Project . Bidget cooked her last landcare sausage !

While Bridget was cooking this sausage 38 ANZ Risk Management Team Volunteers were planting on a very risky site at Gail Tolls property in Buxton ( note large vat of pumpkin soup in foreground )

An extemely large hungry dog was watching her and very hungry team thanked her .

SW Sydney Environment Group Day 3

19/8/2010
Day 3

SW Sydney Environment Group

South Catheral Lane

Taggerty

The Team was well prepared for the chilly Victorian weather today They worked hard to plant 300 trees to replace burnt pine trees and create a windbreak and shade for stock.

Lunchtime was spent texting friends.
 

When the planting was completed the group headed off to Lake Mountain for some fun in the snow.

Thanks for your help and I hope to see some of you again next year. Jake and Frank made their second visit; last year they helped pull down burnt fences and control blackberry growth at Buxton.

South Cathederal Lane

Had a very constructive day tree planting with 40 NAB volunteers today.
Visited 3 properties , planted , staked & guarded 900 trees and shrubs.
Misty weather conditions with occassional showers. Impressive views of Cathedral Range.
Wet and slippery under foot.
Huge bus / coach did manage to get reasonably close to the planting sites without mishap.
Great team of workers , quickly got into the groove of planting and stormed across the landscape planting every three metres.
We really pushed them for the last hour to get the job finished which they did half an hour ahead of schedual - they deserved their trip to the Buxton Pub and long weekend .
Thanks Guys
Note from happy landholder attached:

Thank you SOOOO much for all the trees, but especially for organising all the NAB staff to come and put them all in!
Apart from the fact it would have taken us days to do it on our own, finding the time (especially now the cottages are starting to be rebuilt next week) would have been something of a challenge.
Please pass on our sincere gratitude to all the good folk from the NAB.
Thanks again J
Cheers
Megan Buntine and Marty Slade
South Cathedral Farm
Award Winning and Pet Friendly Luxury Bed and Breakfast Cottages
53 South Cathedral Lane, Buxton, 3711