Farm Chemical Users Course - Flowerdale

Over the 12 and 13 October landowners from Flowerdale, Kinglake and the surrounding district  attended a free Farm Chemical Users Course organised by Upper Goulburn Landcare Network (UGLN) with the assistance of the Flowerdale Community House and funded by VBAF.

Participants at the recent farm chemical users course

The recent course was held at the wonderful new facility at the Flowerdale Youth Space and as usual run by Goulburn Ovens TAFE lecturer and Kinglake resident Kevin Chandler.

Kevin demonstrating herbicide application techniques

Since 2010 UGLN have been running free Weed Identification and Control Workshops, 1080 baiting and Farm Chemical Users Courses throughout the fire affected areas of Murrindindi Shire.

The courses have also been held in Kinglake, Yea, Strath Creek and Marysville.
They have all been well attended with well over 300 people having benefited from the opportunity provided by UGLN and funded by the previous Federal Governments Çaring For Our Country' program.

Participants at last years course in the Kinglake Scout Hall

If anyone is interested in attending a Farm Chemical Users Course UGLN will be running another one on the 30/11 and 1/12 in Yea.

Phone 5736 0105 for more info.

California Conservation Corps

Volunteers from the California Conservation Corps (CCC) are currently in Australia on an 8 week exchange project with Conservation Volunteers Australia.

The have been working in South Australia and Victoria carrying out erosion and salinity control, seed collection, construction and maintenance of walking tracks, endangered flora and fauna surveys and monitoring.

During their time in Victoria the CCC spent a couple of days removing Blackberry, Broom and Tutsan from the Number Two Creek Reserve in Kinglake and helped with site preparation for a Kinglake Landcare/UGLN national tree day planting proposed for the nearby Koala Browse site.

Volunteers from the CCC at the Koala Browse site.

Narbethong Holly control project

The Friends of Marysville Walks and UGLN have been carrying out a very successfull project to control Holly in bushland and along waterways in the Narbethong area.

Working with and under the direction of Marilyn Connor from Friends of Marysville Walks, UGLN have controlled many hectares of holly on private and public land along Fisher Creek, Dom Dom Creek and Hermitage Creek by using our Recycling for Recovery funds to employ specialist weed control contractors.

Marilyn Connor with CVA volunteers at The Hermitage.

We have also supervised many volunteer days cutting out and poisoning holly at the‘The Hermitage’. Which is a heritage-listed building in Narbethong set amongst the tall Mountain Ash forest at the summit of the Black's Spur.

Our most recent day was with 10 volunteers from Conservation Volunteers Australia on the 15th June. Funding for this day was generously donated by the Kinglake Landcare Group from their Kinglake Stream Restoration Project.



CVA volunteers removing holly from bushland at Narbethong

Conservation Volunteers Woody Weed Blitz

CVA at Narbethong

Volunteers from Conservation Volunteers Australia have been assisting UGLN with our weed control program.

CVA at Number Two Creek

Using the cut & paint method and handweeding the volunteers have been removing many hectares of woody weeds from private and public land affected by the 2009 fires.
The volunteers have removed holly from The Hermitage at Narbethong and Stony Creek in Kinglake West, English and Cape Broom from roadsides in Pheasant Creek and Kinglake, Tutsan and Blackberry from The Number Two Creek in Kinglake and Flax-leaf Broom in Strath Creek.

Conservation Volunteers is a not for profit organization whose mission is “connecting people with our environment.”
For more information, or if you would like to join the teams as a volunteer, contact Conservation Volunteers on 1800 032 501 or go to there website: http://www.conservationvolunteers.com.au/

Round-leaf Pomaderris

A team from Conservation Volunteers Australia has doing some great work with us tree planting and removing Cape Broom and English Broom from properties in the Kinglake/Flowerdale area.

One of the days was spent planting at the Stony Creek reserve in Kinglake West. The reserve has had holly and blackberry control works over the last two years. Now with the weeds under control we are able to carry out revegetation.
Plants included fifty of the very rare Pomaderris vaccinifolia or Round-leaf Pomaderris. These very special plants were grown for us by Healesville Environment Watch from seed collected in the Toolangi area.

We also planted more of the Pomaderris on private land along the Number One Creek in Kinglake, Island Creek in Glenburn, at the Murrindindi Scenic Reserve (with assistance from DSE) and on private land along the Murrindindi River in Murrindindi.

Free Pest Plant and Animal Control Courses

On Sunday 18 & 25 September 22 people from the Kinglake and Glenburn area attended the nineth free UGLN pest management course.
The course was held at the Kinglake Scout Hall and run by NMIT lecturer and Kinglake resident Kevin Chandler.
A delicious morning tea and lunch was provided by Flowerdale's own catering business 'Molly's Kitchen'.

Since April 2010 we have been running free Weed Identification and Control Workshops, 1080 baiting and Farm Chemical Users Courses throughout the fire affected areas of Murrindindi Shire.
The courses have also been held in Flowerdale, Yea, Strath Creek and Marysville.
They have all been well attended with almost 200 people having benefited from the opportunity provided by UGLN and funded by the Federal Governments Çaring For Our Country' program.

Conservation Volunteers Australia

Volunteers from Conservation Volunteers Australia (CVA) have recently been helping with the UGLN's fire recovery by planting trees at Flowerdale and Kinglake West and removing holly and privet from amongst bushland on the Stony Creek.

The team was very multicultural with members from Norway, America and China.

Using volunteers from around Australia and across the world CVA participate in a diversity of important projects to protect and enhance our environment.
To find out more go to: http://www.conservationvolunteers.com.au/

Weed Control Courses

Over the weekend of 19th & 20th February 23 people from the Flowerdale area attended the sixth free UGLN weed management course. The course was held at the Flowerdale Recreation Reserve pavillion and run by NMIT lecturer and Kinglake resident Kevin Chandler. A delicious morning tea and lunch was provided by Flowerdale's own catering business 'Molly's Kitchen'.

Since April 2009 we have been running free Weed Identification and Control Workshops and Farm Chemical Users Courses throughout the fire affected areas of Murrindindi Shire. The courses have also been held in Strath Creek, Marysville and Kinglake; and the next one is planned for the 2nd & 3rd April at Yea. They have all been well attended averaging around 20 per course with 34 attending the first one in Kinglake.

'Accenture Australia'

28th February 2011

Holly removal from the gardens of the historical "Hermitage" Guest House on the Black Spur at Narbethong.

Thirteen employees from Accenture joined Phil and Janet from Landcare for a peaceful day of 'cutting and painting' wild holly with loppers and herbicide.

The original gardens at 'The Hermitage' were laid out by Baron Von Mueller in 1893. There are now many magnificent exotic trees mixed with the native mountain ash and tree ferns . I am not sure if he introduced the hollys but he did bring the first blackberries to Australia ! Thousands of wild holly plants are now invading the surrounding bushland.

Many of the trees were too large for loppers and handsaws , Chris has organised a contractor to do the major chainsaw work , then more teams of volunteers can be recruited to cut out the smaller plants . This would be an overwhelming project for the owner and his wife to complete without assistance.

Thanks Accenture volunteers.

Five of the volunteers were heading off for a long Australia Day weekend after helping us , bushwalking to Lake Tarli Karn and down the Macalister River , what beautiful weather they had for this adventure .

Fencers without Boundaries

These photos were taken at Extons Rd Kinglake. We rebuilt fences for Joe Exton and his neighbour Lou Calageri with the Uniting Church and 30 NAB vol’s.
The volunteers also removed English broom, holy and blackberry from 2 acres and the roadside.
The weather was cold and even some snow fell in the morning but fined up for a nice afternoon.
Lou and Bridget Calageri put on a great bbq lunch which the bus driver as usual helped cook for us.

It is not all about Tree Planting

Woody Weed removal has been another important activity volunteers have undertaken .

After the bushfire is an excellent time to get on top of invasive exotic weed species.

Volunteers have been 'cutting and painting' broom , blackberries, holly and gorse from patches of remnant bush.

Loppers are used to cut the plants at ground level then the cut stems are quickly dabbed with neat round-up. This kills the plant and has the added benefit of using very little chemical .

It is time consuming and physically demanding work ( a little bit boring really ) but these young volunteers from SW Sydney Environment Group managed to clear a large patch at Kinglake West , Stony Creek Reserve. Thanks guys.