Wombat Forestcare has received funding through The Wilderness Society’s WildCountry Small Grants Program to undertake an assessment of the conservation values of the Wombat Forest and Mount Macedon Landscape Zone.
A draft report has been prepared by Murray Ralph and we are seeking comment and any additional information about species, vegetation and ecological processes which may not have been included.
The report can be downloaded from our website www.wombatforestcare.org.au
Just before Easter, we wrote to Mr Dale Thornton, Director of Infrastructure and Operations for the Shire, to express our concern about some of the flood-related problems that have arisen in our working areas. Dale was on leave, but he asked the Acting Director,
Brendan Pearce, to meet us; so on Friday May 13th , four of us took Brendan on a tour
around Woodend.
The most important item was the damage to the bridges across the Creek between the
tennis court area and Jeffreys St, on both sides of the Creek. The Jeffreys St bridge appeared to be in a very dubious state and some of the smaller wooden slat bridges on the
north side had been washed away, while the only remaining one was definitely unsafe!
The Walking/Cycling Track has suffered considerable damage in many places between
Jeffreys St and Romsey Rd, including in the newest section of granitic sand track between
Pyke St and Bowen St.
Brendan listened carefully and observed for himself the problems that exist. He also
took a good look at some of the areas Woodend Landcare volunteers have been caring
for in other parts of the town. Our Thursday Work Crew is finding it difficult to continue
mowing Quarry, Sullivans, and Bawden Rds with domestic ride-on mowers.
At Brendan’s suggestion, we wrote a formal submission to the Council about the mowing
problem, and also wrote to the director for Environment and Planning to formalise our
working arrangements on public road reserves.
We appreciated the time taken by a senior council officer to listen to our concerns. Now
we await a formal response from the Shire – which will come, we suppose, after the
dreaded Budget has been sorted into priorities!
Well, we can’t complain about too much rain this season, can we! Our little creek has contributed its share of the water pouring down the Campaspe towards the Murray, and causing flooding on the way. Fortunately we didn’t have any major problems locally, but we are all acutely aware of the difficulties many people are facing in other parts of Australia.
Rainfall recorded in Woodend was 202 mm from the 10th to the 14th of January which is thought to be a record for January. This is on top of the 5 months of record rainfall (from August to December); so the ground everywhere is saturated. There have also been many days of strong winds.
The consequences of this weather have been that large numbers of trees have fallen, causing problems for the Council and blocking paths, Five Mile Creek’s shared track between Shirley Park Weir and Romsey Rd has been washed away, leaving deep guttering (picture below). And also the sand track on the south side of the Creek between Wood and Pyke Sts has been damaged.
The worry is that Council’s budget will be overstretched. There are plenty of potholes to fix in addition to the tree removal and paths to repair. We can do our bit by clearing up
around our plantings—that’s why we are having 2 working bees in February!
Track along 5 Mile Creek damaged by floods
Woodend Landcare 