Newsletter No:48 November 1997
Dear Friends
Thirty-three millimetres of rain assisted with the Weedbusters Day. How? It made the Paterson’s Curse lose its grip on the earth and succumb to the pull of willing hands and provided a clear fresh day for working. There weren’t many of us but we had a large trailer load of PC by 1pm. A walk to the top of Mt Ochtertyre gave us a great view over the plains towards the Murray River and filled many socks with seeds. The Mount was named by explorer Major Thomas Mitchell in 1836 after he “ascended a low hill to view the lands north of the river” {Major Mitchell book}. His patron was Sir George Murray of Ochtertyre in Scotland so he named the Mount after his home town and the Murray River after his patron. One can only wonder what the vegetation consisted of in the 1880’s. Today the mount supports scattered Red Gums, Box trees and a few Cypress Pines. The understorey is grassy which is presently approximately 70% introduced species and rest native.
After lunch with the friendly flies we returned to the park for the afternoon. Visitors from Holland who were interested in Turquoise Parrots joined us for our afternoon walk.
Goodbye Natasha.
Natasha has been our National Regent Honeyeater co-ordinator for three years. She has also given us much pleasure through her knowledge and love of bats. It is to bats that we have lost her! I’m sure every member will join with me in wishing Natasha well in her new job.
Note: “Bats with Natasha” will be on again at the January 10/11th campout. To assist with numbers members are asked to register their intention to attend as soon as possible. The group will be limited to 30 persons.
Park Celebration Weekend:
This was a resounding success. 300 people attended over the weekend far exceeding our expectations. The time and effort put into the organisation by Ranger John ensured that everything ran smoothly, right down to the last sausage matching the last crust of bread! I lie not. Ask Tony Long and Terry Walsh who manned the BBQ. Thank you to the Friends members and Parks staff who helped with the various events.
To “Sticky Jam” the jazz band that provided the music a big thank you. The atmosphere in the tourist park was just great.
We acquired new members through our display and sold a lot of T shirts.
Next year with the centenary of parks in Victoria we hope to repeat the event.
Shop Window:
Adrian Gray, owner of an empty shop in the Conness St., Chiltern has allowed me to put the Chiltern Park display in the window. It will assist us to advertise the park and our T shirts. If you can contribute to the display it would be a big help. Ideas / photos/ drawings / items of interest please send them along.
From the meeting:
1. A grant of $100 was received from Indigo Shire for the tree planting on Rutherglen Rd.
2. The National Park signs are in place. We just need updated brochures to convince people!
3. Sales of T shirts are booming. Have you got yours yet? Albury/Wodonga Environment Centre committee has purchased shirts to sell in the shop. We appreciate their assistance.
4. Accounts were passed for payment.
NEXT MEETING SATURDAY DECEMBER 6TH AT FROGS HOLLOW
Meet at 9.00am. Bring lunch, secateurs, pruning saw, gloves.
We will be tidying up the exotics around Frogs Hollow by the “cut and paste method”.
Afternoon activity will be a walk. Hope to see you there full of energy.
N.B. Chief Ranger Tony Long was to have presented a slide talk for this meeting. This has been deferred until the new year.
For your diary:
1. Annual General meeting of the Friends of the Warbys will be held on November 19th at “Martini’s”, The Bulls Head Hotel, Wangaratta. Meet at 6.30 for 7pm tea. Come along and enjoy a friendly evening.
2. On 28th November, at 7pm, at The Centre, Chisholm Street, Wangaratta the Ovens and Murray BOC will have as their guest speaker Ken Simpson, author of “Field Guide to the Birds of Australia”. Ken is also the president of the Bird Observers Club of Australia. He will speak about the role of the BOCA and birds in general. The following day an excursion will be held. Further information ph: 0260 332 498.
No New National Parks for Victoria
The Age, Saturday November 1st. Some extracts from the article:
“ The State Government has ruled out establishing any more major national parks -apart from marine parks- in Victoria”
“Mr Stone said the Government believed that with 4 million hectares of land protected by national parks and reserves, more big parks were not required”
“Mr Stone said there were not enough grasslands and box-ironbark woodlands in the reserve system, which aims to protect at least 15% of the state’s vegetation types, but the Government was looking to organisations such as The Trust For Nature and The Australian Bush Heritage Fund to protect such areas”.
Please write to the editors of newspapers and your local politicians voicing your dismay at such statements.
Chiltern Park T-shirts – Great Christmas Gifts
We now have Polo shirts available at a cost of $25.00 plus $3.00 postage. If ordering a Polo please amend your order form.